The Night Ship: A Novel
By: Jess Kidd / Narrated By: Fleur De Wit, Adam Fitzgerald
Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
Wonderful characters chucked into the Jess Kidd Magical Grinding Mill…
I admit it, quite freely:
When I find an author whose Every. Single. Effort is beYONd well-written? Oh good golly gosh, how I do fawn. And here with The Night Ship, an audiobook that I couldn’t get into m’ Wish List fast enough, my expectations of groveling were sore-high.
You see, what I’ve discovered to my greatest joy is: Jess Kidd can do no wrong, and each book of hers stands out, completely unlike any of her other works. Other authors akin to Kidd: Jess Walter, and Jamie Ford (Who fell off his pedestal for his last rushed novel… tsk tsk…). There is a LOT to be said about individuals who quite simply appear to be Born Writers, beautiful story crafters. They make it appear effortless, and after m’ sister and I hit a page listing Kidd’s books, we discovered that not only can she create magNIFicent stories? Dude! she can do it, like, on a yearly basis. I mean, jeez!
1629, Mayken is newly motherless and is chucked onto the Batavia, an awesome ship at the time, to travel to live with her father.
1989, and Gil (Short for Gilgamesh) is newly motherless as well, and he’s chucked over to live with his ornery grandfather.
There are many parallels between the girl, the boy, and each struggles to survive, finding peace and joy where they can, finding terrors as well. Mayken’s dear nurse has been, Mayken is sure of it, bitten by a monstrous eel known and feared from folklore. Gil is so very lonely, and he’s haunted by his mother’s death, but more truly: He’s been damaged by the way he and she had to live. Mayken might not be an outcast, but Gil most certainly is. Still, they’ve each got friends, they each have a nemesis, and by the end?
Not to spoil it, but this can be a wickedly harsh book (Hey, it’s Jess Kidd, you were expecting tra la la?), with cold realities and out-of-control circumstances. But even through it all, Mayken and Gil are challenged to grow, are given opportunities to withstand horrors (Seriously, Jess Kidd!). They’re each given moments to speak truths, to live truths. Cruelty of Fate, yes. Cruelty of other people, oh my yessss!!!
I’ve never ever heard of narrators Fleur De Wit, Adam Fitzgerald, but they delivered exceeeedingly worthy performances. De Wit in particular had a lot of juggling to do as far as accents went and different classes. She managed the Dutch passengers, as well as others hailing from different lands, and she managed young women of somewhat noble lineage even as she carried off somewhat uncouth sailors. De Wit was magnificent, esPECially when we get to Mayken’s choices during a fraught end. Now Adam Fitzgerald? Kidd also provides him with a plethora of characters, but his narration truly shines through being so incredibly emotionally evocative. The people surrounding Gil morph and change, learn and grow, tho’ some of them are beyond creeps. As Gil discovers who he might be and where his place in the world might be, well, growth sometimes comes through devastating loss.
And jeez: Both narrators for both our young heroine/hero had me wiping away a tear or two at Kidd’s stunning ending.
I have a nonfiction book, Batavia by Peter FitzSimons, and Kidd’s beautiful beautiful story, based on historical facts, has awoken a wee bit of a hunger to get to that. ALWAYS a grand thing when one audiobook inspires diving into another.
So there’s that…
But mostly, there’s just beYONd stellar prose, sometimes lovely imagery, sometimes horrific imagery, fraught circumstances, deeply flawed characters, and the trademark Kidd: “I will put you through the wringer, but you’ll love it the whole time” thing.
Fawn fawn fawn
Jess Kidd deserves every kudos imaginable, and me? I deserve every Jess Kidd audiobook that’ll ever come my way… HUZZAH!!!
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