Jess Kidd sure knows how to write a captivating and engaging story.

The chapters in the novel alternate between the stories of two young children - Mayken in 1629 en route to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies and newly orphaned Gil in 1989 on a strange and isolated island off the coast of western Australia. (Mayken's story is based on real and horrific events which occurred after the shipwreck of the ship Batavia.) Whilst their backgrounds differ widely, the lives of the two seem intertwined across the centuries. Both are fighting to survive in an adult environment where violence is always present.

Mayken battles against the role prescribed for her by her sex and social status; Gil struggles with his 'otherness' - adults and other children see him as weird. Whilst Mayken is something of a social chameleon, Gil is a loner whose best friend is a tortoise. How they fit into the world is the basis of much of the story and how adults can both aid and hinder their progress.

The prose is simple but effective and the chapters are short adding pace and tension to both stories. This novel is captivating, much like Kidd's previous work even though each novel is quite different. Definitely an author to follow.

An unusual story
I am still not sure what score to give this book, it started off very well, Mayken and her Nursemaid Imke travelling from from Amsterdam after her Mother has died, they are going to live with her Father. This is contrasted with Gil another orphan being sent to a small island to live with his Grandfather Joss. The connection between the two stories is that the island Gil is sent to live on is the same one that Batavia, the ship carrying Mayken is where the ship sank.
Life aboard the ship is hard for everyone due to the length of the voyage and the distinction between the upper deck and the below deck world, Mayken is told a story about a monster who lives on the ship and sets out to get rid of it as she suspects it has bitten Imke, she is encouraged in her pursuit by various members of the crew.
In 1989 scientists are on the island trying to discover more about the wreck, Gil befriends one of them.
A tragic tale, filled with love, hate. cruelty and adventure.

As a fairly prolific reviewer, I read books that disappoint, books I could take or leave, those that are enjoyable and well written, and just occasionally a book comes along that grips me by the roots of my hair and doesn’t let go until we’ll after the last word. This book is one of those - the writing is extraordinarily brilliant, the story told with compassion and clarity, and characters who jump off the page, right into the reader’s mind. The narrative moves between a young girl on the ship Batavia heading to present day Indonesia from the Netherlands in the early 16th century (a true story), and a young boy Gil in the 1980s, living on the island on which the Batavia foundered. Of course, there is tragedy, violence and terrifying prejudice, along with a fictional monster, just to keep things interesting! No criticism at all of this book - it’s my book of the year so far.

'It's the way of a long journey, that alters what people think and see.. [..] '
Πάντα ῥεῖ Everything flows.
Aelmere ( 'it's meaning roughly comes close to eel lake,), also known as Zuiderzee was an inland sea that was created around the year 1200 as a result of a series of floods. The sea caused many storm surges and floods, causing great damage and many casualties. To stop the natural disasters, a plan was devised in the 17th century to separate the North Sea and the Zuiderzee. This eventually resulted in the construction of the Afsluitdijk (1927-1932). With this, the Zuiderzee ceased to exist and the name of the inner dike water was changed to IJsselmeer.
Zuiderzee was a very important traffic circle for the VOC merchant fleet and the West India Company (WIC). Without the possibility of shipping on the Zuiderzee, the Dutch Golden Age would probably not have happened.
The Afsluitdijk - both dam and motorway through the sea - is there to protect the Netherlands against flooding, and turned the salt inlet from the sea into a freshwater lake (Ijsselmeer).

When this book came up, I thought I recognized the silhouette on its cover, ( - I have been on the Batavia many, many times - ). Initially I thought I would be reading a straightforward retelling of the shipwrecked Batavia. Yet, with the Batavia story as a starting point, this masterly and haunting tale is so much more. There is a whole Below world to discover when you immerse yourself in this fantastic and magical story laced with folklore and superstition: rituals, myths and magic words - offering people guidance to the hard (and often short) life of the past, and where a good outcome was seldom guaranteed on dangerous oceanic voyages.
Major themes include metamorphosis and transformation, and magical thinking.

I am Dutch, (and also a linguist) so, I am familiar with the original meaning of Bullebak, a creature who pulls children into the water and drowning them; the word today has a different meaning and is very commonly used, the same goes for the other Dutch words used that have changed their meaning over time, I guess the etymological use of the Dutch words used in the book is lost on most of the English readers, just as I had to look up some of the Aussie words, even though I am fluent in English and have lived in England. Everything changes and nothing stays the same….

I find it fascinating that the author uses Anguilla Anguilla (isn't that the best 'chanting word' for one of nature's most mysterious creatures!? ) - a poisonous freshwater shapeshifting fish that changes into a saltwaterfish, in preparation for oceanic migration. (in freshwater they determine their own sex) - like Mayken/Obbe in the Below World and Gil who dresses up in his grandmother's clothes.

The dual story lines (1628 and 1989) connect seamlessly: the 1989 storyline picks up where it left off in 1628, albeit in another slightly different form: different people, different time, same prejudices, same problems, like exclusion, clique, formation, gender, et&).

This book took me completely by surprise, and is interlaced with symbolism. It was of course, crazy of me to think this story is about 'they got shipwrecked, (some) didn't die, went home again and lived happily ever after'. It's not, but that is exactly where the power of this masterful story lies: 'people aren't just their bloody deaths.' With beautiful language, switching between worlds, the writer managed to write a haunting story about a disaster everyone is familiar with. The only 'problem' I have with this book is that it is way too short for me, , I was sorry to see the story finish, and could have read for hours on end..

A personal note: The replica of the Bataviaship (here in the Netherlands) is rotting away. There seems to be no money for maintenance, so it's probably decided to sink the ship in the 'Markermeer' (part of the Ijsselmeer- where Mayken's voyage once began).
And with the increasing sea level rise, eventually, large parts (75%) of the Netherlands will be swallowed by 'Bullebak' - disappearing in the sea forever.
I find this a comforting thought: everything around us changes, we are confronted with it, and change with it, whether we like it or not.


A wonderfully written novel about life and death and everything in between.

***** 5 stars. a must readl!!

I would like to thank Netgalley and the author for this arc. It was a joy to read.

I was turned onto Jess Kidd’s gorgeous prose when I read Things in Jars a few years ago. She has an incredible ability to create a vivid sense of place where you can practically smell the salt air. This book follows a part of history I never knew about and it kept me engrossed throughout. The characters, as always, were just as vivid and complicated as the story they lived in. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction that confronts a difficult, lesser known history. If you’re overwhelmed by and tired of the influx in world war 2 novels, I would recommend this gorgeous novel.

The Night Ship flits back and forth between the viewpoints of Mayken and Gil, Mayken, a young girl on a perilous and long voyage from The Netherlands towards Batavia (present-day Indonesia) in the early 1600s. She sets sail to go live with her father after her mother's death accompanied by Imke, her old maid. Gil, a young and unusual boy living in the 1980s, brought to a small island off the coast of Australia, to live with his reclusive grandfather after the death of his mother.

The story, as seen from the childrens' perspectives is based off the true stoey of the ship-wrecked Batavia and follows the confined misadventures of the protagonists aboard ship and island. The novel includes fantastical elements, with Mayken searching for a terrifying mythical monster at play aboard ship, preying on the living. Gil is drawn into the wonder of the shipwreck and its doomed voyage and sets to learn more about the island's history.

The book covers some dark themes such as death, grief and broken family dynamics and gives space for the reader to come to their own conclusions about the events that start to unfold.

Highly recommend, I enjoyed this book immensely and wish it could have been longer, filling in the gaps of what the future holds for Gil, for the survivors of the Batavia.

This book was incredible! I’ve read nothing by this author before but it certainly won’t be the last.

I loved the blend of the supernatural and historical elements. It really gave the book an atmospheric and unique vibe. The story is written beautifully. It gripped me from start to finish, and I was desperate to turn the pages so I could learn what happened next.

I will definitely check out previous and further books by this author. They have a beautiful gift for storytelling. Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author, for a chance to read and review this book.

I somehow missed that this book was partly based on a real ship until I read the epilogue. Now that I know it to be true, I’m even more intrigued.

This dual timeline story covers Mayken aboard the ship Batavia in 1628 and Gil, dispatched to live with his grandfather on Beacon island in 1989. These two children have both lost their mothers and are trying to find order and solace in unfamiliar surroundings.

I found both of their stories interesting and captivating, though Mayken’s was rather more detailed I felt.

At times, this was a difficult read- it was increasingly violent and I found that unsettling, though I suppose that was the point! Some of the myths and legends were challenging and I’d have appreciated a pronunciation guide for the Dutch names and creatures.

I did very much lose myself in this book as the imagery was clear and I was always keen to see what each character was up to. I loved the relationship Mayken forged with Smoetre and Holdfast, alongside her love of Imke. In Gil’s chapters, I liked the introduction of the tortoise!

This is a fascinating and imaginative book about a historical event I was unaware of, and I very much enjoyed it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

What a tragic but fascinating story. Jess Kidd once again has come up with a brilliant book. This time "The Night Ship" which is based upon the sinking of the Batavia ship off the coast in Western Australia. She manages to marry to very different plotlines, one in 1629 with Mayken as the lead character and the other in 1989 with Gil as the main character. The similarities she manages to bring out are amazing: two children who have lost their mothers being sent to stay with other relatives, adjusting to life in new circumstances and much more.

This is an amazingly well written book that uses a dual timeline to take the reader through the lives of two nine year olds on the same island but centuries apart. Both parallel stories are so descriptive that the reader is transported through time and place to gain a deep understanding of the challenges and relationships that each character experiences. I could almost smell it in parts. Although tough reading at times, I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the first of Kidd's books that I have read and what an introduction!
Parallel stories 300 years apart about two children both losing their mothers and finding themselves in difficult environments and situations.
As the book progresses you start to see more and more links between the two characters of Mayken and Gil across time. It was so easy to become absorbed in their worlds and stories that at times I got cross when the chapters switched to the other child! The portrayal of the children, especially, are what make this book so compelling to read.
The fact this is based on a true event didn't influence me to choose this book but by the end I wanted to know more about the tragedy.
At times tender, funny and brutal - this historical gothic tale is a great read!

Jess Kidd's latest offering has her trademark supernatural elements, and features an atmospheric storyline that shifts between 2 children, both 9 years old, living centuries apart and have just lost their mothers. It is 1628, Mayken is travelling with her beloved nursemaid, Imke, with her gift of prophecy, on the Batavia, the eponymous Night Ship, planning to join her father, who she doesn't know. The Batavia is sailing under upper merchant, Francisco Pelsaert, skipper Ariaen Jacobsz, both men hate each other, and the sly under merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz, it is an East India Company ship carrying a cargo richer than the treasuries of many kingdoms. In 1989, the lonely and reluctant Gil arrives on the sparsely populated Australian Beacon Island to live with his fisherman grandfather, Joss Hurley, a man shunned by other islanders, with a long running feud with the powerful Zanetti family.

Mayken is a feral, joyous, curious and mischievous child, diligently practicing her spitting, she easily befriends others, fellow travellers, sailors, soldiers and crew members, but she is confined to the upper world and she wants to see the below world, and in this she is aided by Pelsaert's steward, Jan Pelgrom. She dresses in filthy attire as she takes on the persona of Obbe, the cabin boy, it is here she meets John Pinten, learns of the ancient eel-like monster of Bullebak, a monster she becomes determined to capture as Imke's health deteriorates. As conditions worsen with the sweltering heat, cruelty, abuse, rats, disease, stink, and deaths, a noxious nightmare cloud of festering intrigues, hate, horror and mutiny develops. Gil accompanies Joss on his boat, the Ramona, but he has no desire to be a fisherman. He does not want to talk about what happened with his mother, as he gets acquainted with Silvia Zanetti, married to Frank, with her menacing, and violent stepson, Roper. Gil finds comfort in his tortoise, reads of the sunken wreck Batavia, learns of the ghost girl, Little May, for whom offerings are left on the Raggedy Tree, and the monster that is Bunyip.

There are numerous parallels between the lives of Mayken and Gil, viewed as all too weird, beyond their monsters, there is cruelty, madness, heartbreak and horror in a narrative that underlines that actual monsters are too often to be found amongst the living. Kidd writes a spellbinding novel that beautifully weaves in the connections forged across centuries between Gil and the bone whistle playing Mayken. This is not the first novel that I have read that has been inspired by the Batavia, the most recent written by David Mark. This is not a perfect read, there are occasional issues of pacing and Kidd uses some adjectives like wolfish a little too often, but otherwise this a mesmerising piece of dark historical fiction that many fans of the author will love, along with readers new to the author. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I love Jess Kidds books. Her style and storytelling are beautifully descriptive and emotive without the writting ever feeling forced. Her stories are full of atmosphere and she has a brilliant knack of pulling you into her stories. I enjoyed the book, but it wasnt one of my favourites, not because the book is lacking in anyway but the subject matter is not to my personal taste.
I will highly recommended it to others though, and the characters will stay with me for a very Iong time.

What a fabulous book! From the descriptions of life on board an 18th century sailing ship to the local legends in present day Australia I got completely lost in The Night Ship.

Batavia, a Dutch ship, left the Netherlands and set sail for the Dutch East Indies and its capital, also named Batavia,(now Jakarta) in 1628. This book is the story of what happened on the voyage, with some real-life characters and some fictional ones whose stories are told.
It is a gripping and searing tale, interspersed with that of Gil, a young boy who is marooned in 1989 on the same small islands as were the ship's survivors . And overriding it all, the sensed presence of Bullekin, a phantom of evil.
The horrors of months at sea, of how people change in every way while cooped up with strangers on a small wooden vessel, of the despair which replaces the initial hope, are deftly recorded with empathy. I was sad to reach the end, in spite of the brutally sad ending, and the characters have stayed with me.
Historical fiction at its best, drawing you in as if you are there, bringing the people and the places and the situations vividly to life.

This is the first book I have managed to finish for a while now. The book consists of two stories, the first a historic event based on fact about a Dutch ship carrying passengers across the world to a place called Batavia. The main character is a young Dutch girl travelling to join her father and all of her experiences. The other story concerns a young boy and his grandfather fisherman earning a living where the Dutch ship ended her journey. An enjoyable read, thank you Jess Kidd..

Jess Kidd is an interesting and imaginative writer and I enjoy all of her novels. This is a bit of a departure from her previous novels where ghosts play a prominent role. This time they skirt the edges very successfully. The story is written from the perspective of two children in two very different times. Jess Kidd captures their thoughts and experiences brilliantly. It is also a story about being different, about loss and cruelty. The story of the Bratavia is little known and very interesting. An excellent novel and one that we will very much enjoy selling.

This was a beautiful novel that has stayed with me since I finished it. Told from the alternate viewpoints of Mayken in 1629 aboard the ship Batavia and Gil in 1989 on an isolated island off the coast of Western Australia the two protagonists are connected by the wreck of the Batavia which happened near the island Gil lives on with his grandfather. Usually with novels with dual protagonists and timelines I prefer one or the other but this time I genuinely couldn’t tell you whose storyline I was more engaged by and which child I cared about more. Kidd manages to capture the different ‘feel’ of each period perfectly keeping them totally separate and distinct but weaving through them the folk tale of the bullebak and bunyip the mysterious eel like harbinger of danger and death.
It would take an essay to describe all of the various scenes and passages that make this book so beautiful but suffice it to say; Kidd’s skill in characterisation is superb with all but the most reprehensible characters having a redeeming feature or two.
Her descriptive powers are incredible with the Batavia and Gils island home coming to life vividly.
I always say that for me the mark of a good piece of historical fiction is that I finish the book and immediately start Googling the historical context. Luckily for me there is a wealth of information and photographs about the Batavia and I highly recommend other readers check them out.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to find Jess Kidd’s other novels!

This is truly an epic historical novel. It uses the real-life story of the maiden voyage of the Batavia, its eventual shipwreck in June 1629, and the subsequent ordeal of the survivors as seen through the eyes of the young Dutch girl Mayken. This is woven together with the present-day story of Gil, a traumatised young Australian boy sent to live with his grandfather on the Abrulhos islands, were the Batavia was lost. It is beautifully and evocatively written. A wonderful book and very highly recommended. Special thank you to Canongate Books and NetGalley for a no obligation advance copy.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book. I think it is the first I have read by Jess Kidd, but I'm now hooked. The story was very well written and researched. The story is written in two timeliness 1629 with Mayken as the principal character and 1989 with Gil as the principal character. Both of these characters are orphaned children, who are sent away to luve with relatives they don't know in unfamiliar places. Mayken a Dutch girl is travelling with her nurse and aboard the Batavia and Gil a young boy sent to a remote island to live with his grandfather. Their stories are linked through the ship and the island, also folklore of the ir communities .
It is an excellent read, which I don't want to spoil by giving away to much, it is both happy and sad, thought provoking and intriguing. You must read it for yourself.