There’s a ghostly feeling to the book, which assumes a link between the characters, Mayken and Gil over three hundred years. I enjoyed the subtle connections and the few times where they seem aware of the other. This link is never explained yet gives a haunting quality to the book. They are dealing with similar issues of grief and loneliness. Gil struggles to create relationships, but he does have a lovely friendship with a pet tortoise, Enkidu
Both timelines would have worked well on their own, but I liked going between them. There was a different feeling within them. Mayken’s journey on the Batavia is ghostly historical fiction; its dark, with a feeling of threat and danger. Whilst Gil’s story gives an uncomfortable feeling of isolation. He hides himself away, sneaks around and is left to his own devices. I would have happily read more of either timeline
I did find the beginning a little slow, as it established the period and characters, and the timelines felt removed from each other, but the further into the voyage it got, the harder it was to put down. Characters in the modern timeline explain what happened to the Batavia, but this doesn’t spoil the story of how the shipwreck and mutiny happened. The true horrors of what happened to the survivors is not explicit, but the brutality of what transpires still seeps through. The tension build up to the mutiny was done well. Its easy to imagine the claustrophobia on board the ship, the division between the factions and why this resulted in violence. And yet the violence in Gil’s timeline felt more shocking and made his story more uncomfortable to read. He is bullied and mocked, and he doesn’t fit in to life on the island, and this leads to some dangerous events
Thanks to Readers First, Canongate Books and Jess Kidd for this ARC
Both timelines would have worked well on their own, but I liked going between them. There was a different feeling within them. Mayken’s journey on the Batavia is ghostly historical fiction; its dark, with a feeling of threat and danger. Whilst Gil’s story gives an uncomfortable feeling of isolation. He hides himself away, sneaks around and is left to his own devices. I would have happily read more of either timeline
I did find the beginning a little slow, as it established the period and characters, and the timelines felt removed from each other, but the further into the voyage it got, the harder it was to put down. Characters in the modern timeline explain what happened to the Batavia, but this doesn’t spoil the story of how the shipwreck and mutiny happened. The true horrors of what happened to the survivors is not explicit, but the brutality of what transpires still seeps through. The tension build up to the mutiny was done well. Its easy to imagine the claustrophobia on board the ship, the division between the factions and why this resulted in violence. And yet the violence in Gil’s timeline felt more shocking and made his story more uncomfortable to read. He is bullied and mocked, and he doesn’t fit in to life on the island, and this leads to some dangerous events
Thanks to Readers First, Canongate Books and Jess Kidd for this ARC