This book took a while to get going, perhaps half the book but then you realise you are invested in the characters and want to find out what happens to them.
We are told two stories - that of Mayken on the Batavia in the 17th century and that of Gil, who is sent to an island to live with his fisherman grandfather in 1989.
The lives of both these children are tragic - both having lost their mum and not really feeling they are able to talk about it and how they both end up on the island and the experiences they have there.
The characters are complex and well developed - both Mayken and Gil but also the subsidiary characters like the kitchen boy on the Batavia and Holdfast, and Silvia and Dutch on the island. And I love the little tortoise!
This isn't a light read but it is a page turner and would be well-suited to a dark autumn night when the wind is blowing outside.
We are told two stories - that of Mayken on the Batavia in the 17th century and that of Gil, who is sent to an island to live with his fisherman grandfather in 1989.
The lives of both these children are tragic - both having lost their mum and not really feeling they are able to talk about it and how they both end up on the island and the experiences they have there.
The characters are complex and well developed - both Mayken and Gil but also the subsidiary characters like the kitchen boy on the Batavia and Holdfast, and Silvia and Dutch on the island. And I love the little tortoise!
This isn't a light read but it is a page turner and would be well-suited to a dark autumn night when the wind is blowing outside.