1629 finds 9 year old Mayken aboard the Batavia with her nursemaid Imke. As the voyage progresses Imke becomes ill and Mayken is left to her own devices, including dressing as a boy and visiting the lower decks of the ship. Sure that the sea monster Bullebak is responsible for Imke's illness, she seeks him out.
!989 finds the recently orphaned 9 year old Gil living with his grandfather on a small island off the west coast of Australia where the Batavia was shipwrecked hundreds of years ago. Life on a small island is hard for a small boy who likes to dress in his grandmother's clothes. and Gil longs to escape.
These parallel stories are written so beautifully and descriptively that you find yourself totally wrapped in the stories. Beautiful, mystical and sometimes violent this is a story that leaves you wanting more.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.c

I enjoy Kidd’s writing style. Her descriptions are cleverly phrased and keep the narrative interesting. Ultimately, the story takes some bleak turns (though not surprising given the historic events), and it became harder to finish. I wanted the ending to be more hopeful, but some stories just don’t turn out that way. That’s perfectly fine; just wanted something more to come out of the suffering. Still, a well-crafted novel. Thanks to NetGalley and Atria for the eARC.

A boy and a girl centuries apart, just trying to survive the very bad lot they were dealt. A historical shipwreck and the archaeologists uncovering the truth. The worst of humanity and the best of humanity. This book covers it all with a deft hand and a heart for character development. Not for the feint of heart or those that don’t like child cruelty (does anyone?) in their books, but a masterful tale none the less.

This novel is one of tragedy set in two different timelines on the Houtman Abrolhos off the western coast of Australia. This is my first read by Jess Kidd. This book is beautifully written, incredibly creepy, and ultimately, heart-breaking.Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC. Pub Date: Oct 4 2022
#NetGalley

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Night Ship releases October 4.

Based on true-events, The Night Ship is a dual timeline story about the journey of a ship (Batavia), that set sail from the Netherlands to what is now modern-day Indonesia in the year 1628. Along the way, there is a shipwreck that lands all of the remaining crew on an island off of Western Australia. 300 years later, in 1989, we learn the story of a boy named Gil who is currently residing on that same haunted island with his grandfather, fisherman, and scientists.

I had high hopes for this, but ultimately it didn’t quite deliver for me.
I thought the first third to first half of the book was really interesting, but then it just dragged on and lost it’s spark. It drifted between being haunting and horrific to just stagnant.
While there were quite a few parallels written in the first couple of chapters, it felt like they were just there to initially hook you, but they didn’t lead anywhere or get further developed.
[Both characters prepped by a guardian figure on what to say about their mother’s deaths - one a bloody flux, another a mishap - both unfortunate circumstances. The upper colours of the Batavia ship were green and yellow, the colours of the hut in ‘89 were sooty purple, dirty green, dull yellow. Both Inke and Joss had missing fingers - specifically the second and third fingers. Both kids were nine years old. Both had possession of the prophecy stone. Both were told not to bleed on the deck.]

Instead of the two timelines seamlessly or satisfactorily merging — it left feeling more so like two separate stories. As it progressed, the two timelines strayed further and further apart.
In the end, I didn’t feel like the island was too haunted in any way. I also didn’t like how Gil’s character traits shifted so significantly.

The timeline I grew to enjoy reading more was Mayken’s. Her double duties Below and Above the ship were adventurous and bridged a necessary gap between social classes.
In my opinion, Gil was written way too old and mature for a nine year old, which made it hard for me to form a connection to the timeline in 1989. While he was often described as “weird”, I got the underlying sense that he was on the spectrum and had a compulsive disorder. It was tough to read about the bullying he was faced with for cross-dressing.
I was highly turned off when a character decided to drop kick a tortoise. Why is such violent animal abuse necessary?

*If you are sensitive to the f-slur, it is written six times*

What I’m left wanting to know is how Imke lost her fingers…


“Gil doesn’t want company but wouldn’t mind knowing that living, breathing people are nearby.”

“But then the dead can’t harm you, it’s the living you should fear.”

“The world can think you’re all wrong if there’s one person who thinks you’re just right.”

A dark and moving historical fiction about the Batavia shipwreck. There are two timelines loosely weaved together to create a balanced story around an historical event. Kidd captured my attention with beautiful writing and well-developed characters.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC. Pub Date: Oct 4 2022
#NetGalley

Let’s start by saying, I thought I was getting a horror/thriller in the form of historical fiction and that’s not what this was -which is my fault for misunderstanding the marketing.

The story bounces between two timelines with 9 year old protagonists. Mayken is in 1628-29 on the real life and doomed Batavia ship sailing to the Dutch East Indies. Gil in 1989 is moving to live with his estranged grandfather on the same island where the Batavia shipwreck survivors had lived all those years before. Gil is a troubled child who’s troubles only increase as he learns more about the deaths of the shipwreck victims and the ghost girl they call “Little May.” Except we never see or hear Little May and she doesn’t seem to be actually haunting anything.

Meanwhile as Mayken is struggling to survive on the crowded ship and after the shipwreck, she’s haunted by a shadow-eel of mythical legend that might actually just be her inner demons and trauma. I’m not quite sure. This same shadow seems to haunt Gil who also has demons and trauma.

To me this book read more like a classic, taught in high school English type story. Everything felt heavy handed and each little thing had an underlying meaning. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s also not the thriller/horror I thought it was going to be. I felt the first half was slow and the second half got better in pace, but never linked the two storylines the way I wanted them to be. This was not a bad book. It just wasn’t the book for me.

** I received the e-ARC of this book for free from Atria Books via Net Galley in exchange for a honest review. **

I am always a fan of Jess Kidd books, I find them completely engrossing and each is better than the last. I really enjoyed Mayken and her POV for this story, but all the characters and settings were very good.

Admittedly, I selected the title without realizing it was based on the true events surrounding the unfortunate maiden voyage of the Dutch India ship, Batavia, which wrecked off the coast of Australia in 1629 whilst en route to the Spice Islands (modern day Indonesia). The author’s notes ignited further research to satisfy my curiosity about the mutinous plot and charismatic participants to learn the gritty (and gruesome) details that the book only mentions in context of our very young character’s viewpoint.

The story’s two narrators are young - Following her mother’s “death,” Mayken, a privileged, curious, extrovert with an active imagination, boards the Batavia in late 1628 in the Netherlands with her nursemaid, Imke, to join her merchant/trader father in Java. She spends most of her time chasing imaginary monsters, befriending sailors, and avoiding mischief while sometimes eavesdropping above and below deck. The book manages dual plotlines with alternating chapters of Mayken’s adventures and Gil in 1989 when he’s sent to an island fishing village to live with his fisherman Grandfather after his mother’s untimely death. Gil is an introverted, creative, and introspective boy who is uniquely talented and easily misunderstood.

Ironically, Gil arrives at the same location where 360 years earlier, Mayken and the shipwrecked survivors were dealing with horrific challenges in the form of a psychopathic “captain/dictator,” starvation, dehydration, and a mutinous crew. While Mayken is largely oblivious to the ship’s politics and emerging doom; Gil is immediately aware of the island community’s ill-treatment toward his grandfather; and with the exception of a few kind adults also instantly inherits the vitriol and distance reserved for his grandfather.

The author creates ”magical” touchpoints to connect and draw parallels amongst the two characters: they share the same “good luck” charm that supposedly will allow them to view the past and future; they are both “rescued” by caring adults, bullied and/or misled by their peers (other youth), experience the loss of a mother and and witness the death of other beloved beings who brought them joy and comfort; and betrayal by the “leaders” in their communities/worlds. Personally this wasn’t enough for me, I found the connections/parallels a bit weak but not bad – I went along with it for the sake of the story.

Perhaps it’s because the protagonists are young, the book (while well-written) had a Young Adult vibe to it – there’s nothing wrong with this, I incorrectly thought that it would contain more adult slants and themes – as I found myself interested in the secondary and ancillary characters, their thoughts, feelings, motivations, (and imagined backstories) more than Mayken’s childish (and repetitive) adventures and Gil’s plight. I also found the book to be front heavy and felt more time could have been spent on the back-end events. Overall, I enjoyed the tale and felt for Mayken and Gil.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an opportunity to review.

The Night Ship was just kind of weird and dark. In that regard it is very similar to Kidd’s last book Things in Jars. This story however, is about a real shipwreck, told in alternating perspectives by Mayken, a young girl on the ship Batavia, and Gil, a young boy more than 250 years later who is brought to live with his grandfather on the island where the Batavia wrecked. Despite a less than sunny fate known from the very beginning, most of Mayken’s story is happier than Gil’s. The ship Batavia becomes her playground, and when she is not making half-hearted efforts at being a proper young lady she is wholeheartedly embracing the opportunity to go below decks, befriending members of the crew and the soldiers on board. The stories she’s told of a sea monster lurking on board portends ill tidings that begin to befall the ship and its passengers and only get increasingly ominous after Batavia dashes itself upon the coral amongst desolate islands. One of which is the one that Gil is marooned on after the death of his mother. Unconventional, Gil immediately is an outcast and ill at ease on the island – a situation that also only gets worse as the story goes on. In Gil’s case, the island is nowhere he wanted to be and he has few friends, none his age, to depend on, but at least his fate has potential to be better than Mayken’s. If it wasn’t for how dark and depressing the story is, and how many bad things happen, and how there’s a monster worthy of all good horror novels I might have liked this book more, because it's well done and the pacing is perfect for how things happen as the story goes on. This is a lot of “ifs”, but the premise of a doomed voyage and someone years later where they wrecked is a compelling one. The story is based on the real shipwreck of Batavia, and while some of the characters were real people on board the ship Mayken is as imagined as Gil. If you enjoy real historical events turned into fiction (with monsters!) and are okay with not-so-happy endings, you may enjoy The Night Ship, but as a general rule I think I’ll stick with things a little more upbeat that don’t leave me worrying about eels slithering up and biting my toes while I sleep! A complimentary copy was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was introduced to Jess Kidd's writing recently when I read her book Himself. I was so captivated by the story and the elegant writing that I knew I had to read more by her. When I had the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Night Ship, I immediately dropped what I was reading and dove in. Once again I was taken away on a new adventure in reading that left me sad to see the book end.

In 1629, nine-year-old Mayken, motherless and under the care of her beloved nursemaid Imke, is sailing on the Batavia bound for the Dutch East Indies. Once there Mayken will finally meet the fathers she has never known. Shipboard life is boring for this imaginative young girl and she soon finds ways of exploring forbidden parts of the ship in search of the illusive monster Bullebak. A storm arises when they are off the coast of Western Australia and the Batavia is driven aground on a coral reef. Mayken and some of the passengers and crew survive only to face the perils of life on a hostile island with few provisions and limited hope of rescue.

In 1989, nine-year-old Gil, whose mother has recently died, goes to live with his grandfather on the same island on which Mayken was stranded. The inhabitants are now year-round fishermen and seasonal archeologists who are unearthing the remnants of the shipwrecked Batavia. Lonely and in mourning, Gil finds ways to amuse himself and together with his 900-year-old tortoise, Enkidu, they explore the island and meet the inhabitants.

The story shifts back and forth between Mayken and Gil and their somewhat parallel lives. Both are blessed with creative imaginations and both suffer at the hands of others. How they cope with their situations is both haunting and at times tragic. Basing the novel on the actual shipwreck of the Dutch East India Ship Batavia, Kidd brings to life the characters and the period with Mayken's story and the hardship of subsistence living with Gil's story. This is a beautifully written book with characters, both good and evil, that come alive no matter the time period. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading other books by Jess Kidd.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for an advance copy of this book. The publication date is October 4, 2022.

Jess Kidd's latest novel is one of tragedy set in two different timelines on the Houtman Abrolhos off the western coast of Australia. In the early 1600s, the Batavia sets said to the Dutch colonized Indonesia. On the Batavia, we meet a young Dutch girl, Mayken, sailing with her nursemaid to Indonesia to reunite with her father. While on the ship, Mayken has terrifying adventures and suffers a significant loss. The story of the Batavia is fascinating, with whispers of mutiny and a horrific shipwreck and its aftermath. These tales are told through the narration of Mayken and the fisherman and archaeologists in 1980s Houtman Abrolhos. The second timeline features a young boy, Gil, who also suffers tragic losses and ends up living with his grandfather on the same small islands where the Batavia shipwrecked.
The story has excellent character development, and the steady pacing will keep the reader engaged. I loved how the parallel storylines mirrored one another, how Mayken and Gil both have tragedies, and how they cope. The fisherman on the islands parallels the survivors of the Batavia lost at sea, with some being heinous and believing they are above the law and others trying to do the best they can in an unforgiving environment.
I recommend The Night Ship to those that enjoy haunting tales, nautical history, and coming-of-age stories.
Please note that are triggers in this story that may not be suitable for all readers.

Thank you so much to Atria Books for letting me read this early in exchange for an honest review!

This story blew me away. Such a thrilling read that I couldn’t put down and I had no idea this was based off an event!

Thank you Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy of The Night Ship for an honest review. Another good one by Jess Kidd! Two separate stories set 300 years apart but strangely mirror each other. 1628: a ship goes down outside the barrier reef of a very small island by Australia. Survivors are stranded on the island and it almost becomes a "Lord of the Flies" situation. 1989: Gil is sent to the same island to live with a grandfather he's never met. Ghostly happenings which supposedly lead back to the shipwreck weird out the inhabitants of the island. Gone one; recommend especially if you liked previous Kidd novels.

This was a good book that takes place over two time periods, 1989 and 1629, it is based on a true event that happened in the 1600's. In 1629 the Batavia, a newly built ship is taking cargo and people to Western Australia, a seven month voyage. One of the persons on board is Mayken a young girl who recently lost her mother, her nursemaid Imke is accompanying her on the trip where she will eventually live with her father. In 1989 Gil a young boy is living on an island off the coast of West Australia with his grandfather, his mother had passed away and with no other relatives his grandfather took him in. Mayken talks one of the crew into allowing her to dress as a boy so she can venture below decks to explore the ship and becomes convinced there is a mean spirit on board that harms people. Gil is an introverted boy, his mother used to dress him in his grandmother's dresses and pretend he was in a fashion show, he has a lot of free time on his hands as his grandfather spends most of his days fishing., he also likes to visit the scientists on the island that are looking for anything that may have ended up on the island from the shipwreck Batavia, Gil gives one of the scientists a bobbin he had found. The two timelines have a somewhat mystical connection through a rock with a hole in the middle, when a person looks through the hole it is said they can see the future or the past. I really enjoyed this book and both characters were very well developed. Thank you to #Netgalley and #Atria for the ARC.

Jess Kidd's books are always interesting and unexpected. I enjoyed this story of a historic voyage.

The Night Ship by Jess Kidd is a rough voyage with a dual timeline narrative. The first is a retelling of the true story of the ship, Batavia, on its doomed maiden voyage from the Netherlands to Batavia. The author does a fine job of re-creating daily life on the different levels of the ship and amongst the different classes of people on board. Supernatural elements are also introduced which add a creepiness to the dark corners. Life on board this ship is endlessly bleak. Had a little light been allowed in, it would have provided more balance and made the creepier bits more impactful.

The second timeline features a boy, Gil, who is sent to live with his grandfather on an island off the coast of western Australia in 1989. He is a disturbed child due to past events in his life. Life on the island doesn’t bring much hope for Gil. He is bullied and left on his own to wander the island. This timeline is also mired in bleakness. There are tenuous, yet interesting, connections made between Gil and a young girl from the Batavia, Mayken. Still, these felt like two very separate stories. Fans of this author will likely find this book a solid read. Others may find this book contains too much misery to be entertaining.

This book was not meant for me. I had to take it in bits and pieces. The author has a great imagination and descriptions were very vivid. It was set in two timelines and each timeline had a 9 year old child as the main character. The book flipped in-between the two timelines, but not in a confusing manner. Mayken sailed upon the Batavia in 1629 which wrecked on islands off the coast of Australia. Gil, at 9, went to live on the island after his mother died. The voyage of the Batavia was well described with Mayken able to roam the ship. The Batavia was full of rats and eels, the monster, Bunyip and the sailor, Skullcracker. The writing is so vivid as to make me squeamish and I would not read this book before bed. Many readers seem to love this book about the supernatural but for me it was grim. Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the DARC. I have provided this review honestly and in my own words.

Sad, haunting but poignant historical fiction novel centered on the 1629 shipwreck of the Dutch ship Batavia off the coast of Australia. Mayken is a young sprightly girl whose mother has died, and she is on the ship traveling to the Dutch East Indies to live with her father, Onboard, she craves adventure and dresses as a cabin boy to access areas of the ship forbidden to her. In 1989, Gil is a young boy whose mother has died, and he is sent to live with his grandfather in a fishing community on an island off the coast of Australia where scientists are recovering artifacts from the shipwreck. Like Mayken, Gil defies gender conventions, and other parallels and connections between the children emerge throughout the story. Lovingly written, this story celebrates children's ability to find love and friendship even in dark circumstances.

I have seen a part of the Batavia ship wreck in the Fremantle Maritime museum in Perth Western Australia. The coral reefs and history of shipwrecks around that area are infamous. Naturally when I heard about the subject of Jess Kidds book I was all in and I was not disappointed!
This is a well written Dark Historical Fiction about the real life events of the ship Batavia and what transpired afterward on Beacon island. Kidd alternates the story with 2 children who have lost their mothers, one in 1629 on the Batavias maiden sail , and one child in 1989 who is sent to the island Beacon also known as the Batavia’s Graveyard by Historians. Adventures and dangers pursue as Kidd retells the story of the ship wreck and what the survivors do to one another on the island. This a twisted tale that is dark and interesting for those who love a good thriller and like history. This was my first Kidd book but it definitely will not be my last! I’m looking forward to reading more of her books! Also thank you NetGalley for online access