Fascinating historical topic but too much magical realism spoilt this novel for me.
I chose to read The Night Ship on the basis that it was historical fiction and featured a dual-narrative and when I got an inkling that the story was inspired by the true event of the wrecked Batavia I was even keener. Unfortunately nowhere in the premise did it mention magical realism and having never read Jess Kidd’s work before I wasn’t aware to expect it.
Three hundred years separate the narratives of two newly orphaned nine year olds with the fated 1628 maiden voyage of a Dutch East India Company ship bound for, and named after, Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies. Onboard the ship is mischievous Mayken, travelling with her prophetic nursemaid Imke, to join the wealthy merchant father she has never met. Despite being well to do and sheltered from the below deck affairs, it is there precocious Mayken longs to explore. When she is helped in her quest she learns all about bullebak, an eel-like monster that soon becomes an obsession when Imke falls ill. But there are far darker things than bullebak going on aboard the ship and the machinations of under merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz are about to make the journey far more perilous.. In 1989 following the death of his mother, Gil has been sent to live with his taciturn fisherman grandfather, Joss Hurley, something of a pariah amongst the community on the Western Australian Beacon Island, a place dubbed Batavia’s graveyard. Life on the island holds limited appeal for the unconventional young man and although learning about the shipwrecked Batavia gives him an interest, it doesn’t make life on the island easier for a bullied outsider with the dark forces of bunyip present.
The Batavia doesn’t actually run aground on the reef until seventy percent of the way through the story and I felt the story of the mutiny and reign of terror that followed was crammed into the final thirty percent and felt very rushed and at times sketchy. Beyond the blatantly obvious aspect that both protagonists are orphans with treasured hagstones facing mythical monsters I found myself struggling to find the parallels between the lives of the Mayken and Gil. Normally in a dual narrative novel I find that at some point the two stories coalesce with a satisfying connection, but I never had this sense with The Night Ship and can’t say I found it a rewarding read. Of the two narratives, I found Gil’s the more compelling, probably because I found the magical realism component less intrusive that in Mayken’s tale but in all honesty I found this novel a bit of a slog. Jess Kidd writes brilliantly and I often found myself smiling at her wit and how well-observed both stories were, but unfortunately between bullebak and bunyip I wouldn’t recommend this novel to anyone not up for plenty of magic and myth. I am keen however to read more about the Batavia and would am grateful that this novel has enlightened me about the events.
Three hundred years separate the narratives of two newly orphaned nine year olds with the fated 1628 maiden voyage of a Dutch East India Company ship bound for, and named after, Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies. Onboard the ship is mischievous Mayken, travelling with her prophetic nursemaid Imke, to join the wealthy merchant father she has never met. Despite being well to do and sheltered from the below deck affairs, it is there precocious Mayken longs to explore. When she is helped in her quest she learns all about bullebak, an eel-like monster that soon becomes an obsession when Imke falls ill. But there are far darker things than bullebak going on aboard the ship and the machinations of under merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz are about to make the journey far more perilous.. In 1989 following the death of his mother, Gil has been sent to live with his taciturn fisherman grandfather, Joss Hurley, something of a pariah amongst the community on the Western Australian Beacon Island, a place dubbed Batavia’s graveyard. Life on the island holds limited appeal for the unconventional young man and although learning about the shipwrecked Batavia gives him an interest, it doesn’t make life on the island easier for a bullied outsider with the dark forces of bunyip present.
The Batavia doesn’t actually run aground on the reef until seventy percent of the way through the story and I felt the story of the mutiny and reign of terror that followed was crammed into the final thirty percent and felt very rushed and at times sketchy. Beyond the blatantly obvious aspect that both protagonists are orphans with treasured hagstones facing mythical monsters I found myself struggling to find the parallels between the lives of the Mayken and Gil. Normally in a dual narrative novel I find that at some point the two stories coalesce with a satisfying connection, but I never had this sense with The Night Ship and can’t say I found it a rewarding read. Of the two narratives, I found Gil’s the more compelling, probably because I found the magical realism component less intrusive that in Mayken’s tale but in all honesty I found this novel a bit of a slog. Jess Kidd writes brilliantly and I often found myself smiling at her wit and how well-observed both stories were, but unfortunately between bullebak and bunyip I wouldn’t recommend this novel to anyone not up for plenty of magic and myth. I am keen however to read more about the Batavia and would am grateful that this novel has enlightened me about the events.