No. 15: A book I own but never read
The Four Winds / Kristin Hannah

Let’s be honest here: the number 15 slot is the wildcard category of this year’s reading challenge. With a tbr that is no longer a pile, but a cabinet full of books, I was spoiled for choice, but The Four Winds was the one that jumped out at me. Well, not so much that, as that I remembered I had it, because the author just published a new book (The Women) that I’m eager to read and I figured it’s only fair that I should read the oldest one first, so, I picked up The Four Winds and dove in.

This book takes place between 1921-1936, in rural Texas. History teaches us, that the time and place combination is not exactly the best one, and immediately, Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath came to mind, a book I loved so, so, much. I think this is why I was hesitant to get started on The Four Winds: what story could compete with that?
It turns out, this one comes very, very, close.
Born into a well-to-do family, Elsa grows up in town. As a child she caught a serious fever, and after that, she’s been held back by her family under the claim of a weak health. Elsa realizes though, that her family mostly think she’s not pretty enough: she’s tall and skinny, and at twenty-five considered a spinster. With that label, her life has been mapped out for her, but it’s not a map that Elsa likes. She wants to live. So, one Saturday night she leaves the house and goes out to do just that.
It lands her in more trouble than she could have thought of, and she’s kicked out by her family. With no other options or means of survival, she agrees to marry Rafe Martinelli, and settles into life on his parents’ farm. The transition from town girl to farm girl is easier than expected. Becoming part of an Italian-American immigrant family just as well. Converting to Catholicism also is no problem for Elsa. Getting her husband to love her though, is a lot more complicated.
Life on the farm is a tough but good life which Elsa enjoys. While Rafe dreams of the glitter of Hollywood, Elsa dreams of sending their daughter Loreda to college, and her in-laws dream of passing on the farm to their grandson once he’s old enough. The farm prospers and they manage to buy extra plots of land and expand. Until the drought sets in, and life becomes a struggle. There is a big decision to make: stay, or leave for greener pastures.
Elsa, along with her in-laws, is team stay. Rafe, and their teenage daughter, team leave. Rafe has never liked farm life, and wants to leave so badly that he eventually does so without telling anyone, hopping onto a train west.
The rest of the family is stunned by his action, but buckle down and try their best, battling dust storms that are getting more and more severe, foreclosure on pieces of land, and the loss of ever more animals. Every day, people in their area are forced to give up, pack whatever they can, and make their way west. Elsa and her in-laws are too realistic to believe the talk of jobs that are supposedly available in California, nor do they believe in the tales of the “land of milk-and-honey”. But there comes a point, where they realize that there no longer is a decision to make and there only is one option left: for the children’s sake they cannot stay. Elsa and the children have to leave.
Her in-laws remain on the land, hoping that their stubborn refusal to succumb will pay off in the end so that the family will have something to return to. Elsa hates leaving the place she came to call home, the people who treated her with love more than her own parents ever did, but forces herself to be brave for her children’s sake. She knows they are lucky enough to have a truck and money to provide it with gas. Years of drought taught them to be as careful as possible with money and means, but they soon learn that life as an immigrant in the west requires a whole new level of survival skills. Although she was realistic about the opportunities in California, Elsa is still shocked at the disdain and unfairness with which they are treated, and the hardship they are facing. But standing up for yourself is difficult when you feel like you have no voice or your voice is systematically ignored.

This was a page-turner of a book that I couldn’t stop reading. The struggle of survival, and facing the massive decision of leaving what you know, the place you call home, for the unknown, is well-written: the ever-present doubt about the decision made, and what to do next.
People have been driven to be on the move throughout the ages, and it is happening today, and will happen tomorrow. That makes the story relevant, and easy to relate to, even though it takes place some ninety-odd years ago in a far-away location.
The Grapes of Wrath made such a big impression on me, that, for me, it remains the number one story on the subject. But, The Four Winds is a solid very close second. The female perspective gave it a different view; a mother’s love for her children providing the strength needed to survive and make decisions.
When the going gets tough, is when we get to know ourselves, and others, best. Elsa grew up believing she wasn’t strong or loveable, but she turns out to be stronger than most, and deeply loved by those who know her. She dares to defend her ground and stand up for the people she loves, providing an example for her children. I encouraged Elsa, cheered her on, and cried for her.

I’ve recommended this book to several people in the short time since finishing it, and now have a waiting list for my copy. I can’t say it enough so I’ll say it here as well: if you want to read a great book that’s about family, love, sacrifice and destiny, you should read this book.

No. 3: A book that is set in the 70s
1979 / Val McDermid

Another challenge category for which I resolved to my earlier method of browsing shelves and randomly pulling out books to check their time setting. Then this title jumped out at me and I thought it’d be a solid bet that this would fit. And does it ever.
Starting right at the beginning of the year 1979, we meet main character Allie Burns on the way home to Glasgow after spending New Year’s with her parents. On the train she meets Danny, who is a fellow reporter with the Clarion newspaper. Along the way they stumble into a story, and the collaboration propels them from co-workers to friends, confiding in each other and assisting each other on other stories. They are both outsiders at work, and connect over that. They both hustle to find stories and get them printed. When Danny starts a proper investigation in a money laundering scam, he gets Allie involved for fresh perspective and help with the writing. When Allie starts an investigation into radical politics, she in turn asks for Danny’s help because as a man he can get closer to one of her sources.

What this book does really well is characters and setting of scenes.
The big difference with the book that was set in the 80s, is that that one felt very focused on describing the time period, especially in the first few chapters, almost as if it was describing for describing’s sake. Every item was described, from the orange foam of the headset of a Walkman, to the wood paneling of a car, and at times it felt like it was done with a lens of nostalgia, rather than befitting the characters.
1979 sets the scene from a story perspective and you still get the same sense of time anyway simply through Allie’s point of view: people smoking everywhere, including in the office, the dings of typewriters being used, and the use of carbon paper for instant copies. She needs a roll of film for her camera, has Italian food for the first time at the one Italian restaurant in Glasgow, calls are made from phonebooths, and Allie and Danny know their way to the library where they frequently use the reference section.
That the book is set during the 70s is also noticeable in the cultural references (the music playing in the background, the shock of an ABBA divorce), and the sexism and homophobia that are rife everywhere, not least in the workplace. (Being gay was still punishable by law in Scotland, so no wonder people were deep in the closet.)
The workplace set-up was really well done, and Allie’s struggle of being a newbie and a woman in this journalism world, was believable. The ending came on so sudden though, that it left me staring at the book for a hot second, realization slowly hitting that I was actually done, even though I was only three stops on my metro ride in, and now had nothing left for the rest of the way.
The reveal was through an epilogue in form of newspaper clippings, which was a nice touch, but didn’t feel like a proper, smooth, ending. Maybe that’s because this was the first book of a series, as it felt so open-ended.
The author provided a playlist as an extra which I really liked as it contributed even more to the vibe of the time setting.

Based on the art and text of the cover page, I figured this would be a nail biter of a book. It wasn’t, and things only picked up pace at page 300 or so, and then it still lacked tension so it wasn’t scary or thrilling. I also just don’t think it is a correct way to sum up the story because spoiler alert: at no time is Allie “being hunted” or in danger.
Because I’m a scaredy cat I rarely read scary or gore, so on the one hand it was a relief this book wasn’t too scary but equally a disappointment. Those first 300 pages were more (cozy) mystery at best than anything else, and I had braced myself for something…more. This reading experience for me was like taking a sip of what you think is going to be vodka but turns out to be water. Still okay, but not what I expected.

In conclusion: a solid fit for the category, but not the thriller it promised to be.

No. 19: Title starts with M
Murder on the Moorland (A Kitt Hartley Yorkshire mystery) / Helen Cox

First things first: I love the term “cozy murder mystery”. A problem wrapped in an oxymoron: what’s not to like?
True to categorical form, the act of murder in this book takes place off-page and it’s more about the people involved solving the puzzle, than the murder itself. It’s fun to read these people solve the mystery, and you almost forget that there are dead bodies.
I bought the first book of the series (Murder by the Minster) as a souvenir in York last year, and was so happy to find out there were other books out, that I’ve since purchased books two and three as well.
The first book set up the series well, introducing main character Kitt Hartley, and the people in her life. Kitt is a librarian at York University, and is stoic, straight-laced, and stubborn. Kitt has a cat, drinks Earl Grey tea, and doesn’t get on with her boss.
Evie is her best friend, and lover of all things vintage. There’s library assistant Grace, and Ruby, local slightly-psychic, eccentric. And of course, there’s Malcolm, the detective who arrested Kitt and Evie in the first book (not a spoiler, it’s literally where that book starts). The second book centred on Evie, and this third book has a spotlight on Malcolm. He had moved to York after his ex-wife was murdered by a serial killer, and now he is called back to his hometown in rural Yorkshire because a woman was murdered and it looks like the work of the same serial killer. Problem is, that the man (who also happened to be his partner on the police force) is behind bars, so either they arrested the wrong guy back when, or there is a copycat active. Kitt isn’t letting Malcolm facing his fears and his past on his own and travels along, which comes in handy when it turns out the victim worked at the local archives, and Kitt knows her way around libraries and archives.
When the hunt for the murderer turns into a treasure hunt, Evie is called in and even Ruby travels up from York. Like the other books before, the best things about it are the characters and the settings: it took me back to gorgeous Yorkshire! The story itself was less interesting to me and I kept wanting it to be wrapped up. That was a slightly alarming sentiment for a mystery, but I read this on holiday, on a balcony with a view of the Atlantic Ocean, and was in a holidaying state of mind, so I accepted a lot more than I normally would have. The cocktails that were always within reach thanks to friend P’s mixing skills, also helped.
I left the book at the hotel library because it’s a perfect beach read, and I’m sure someone else will enjoy it just fine.

No 14: A book set in the decade I was born
This is gonna end in tears / Liza Klaussmann

Ah, the ‘80s. The last analogue decade. The decade during which the Cold War ended, and the AIDS epidemic spread. It was also the decade of shoulder pads, big hair, MTV, and The A-Team. It’s also marked as the birth decade of a certain bookworm.
Not sure how I would find a book fit for this category, I was just randomly browsing the shelves at the library when a blurb caught my eye (I guess we hereby established another functionality of blurbs) which mentioned “pitch-perfect 80s detail” (Anna Hope). Challenge item sorted!
This book is not something I would have gravitated towards under normal circumstances, but, that’s what the reading challenge is all about: broadening your horizons. So, I checked out the book and dove in. And wow, does this book deliver on its period setting. From the descriptions of colours, appliances, cars, music, and fashion: it’s very ‘80s.
The story is set in a small Quaker town called Wonderland, situated on the American east coast, and mainly takes place over the summer of ’84. (There are some flashbacks to earlier in the ‘80s, and a few are set in the sixties.) Aside from a glorious ‘80s vibe there is the intensity of a hot and sticky summer as well.
Miller, Ash and Olly are forty-somethings. Back when they were kids they were best friends, but they’ve since lost that bond and are struggling to keep their lives on track.
Miller (it took me a couple of sentences to realize this is used as a girl’s name) and Ash are unhappily married, with Ash practically moved out of their marital home, and into a pied-a-terre in New York, where he has a girlfriend. They’ve lost touch with Olly, who lives in Hollywood. Olly works at a production company and lost his golden touch, so after careful consideration he decides to kill himself. Except he doesn’t get that far because there’s an earthquake and he instead is crushed by falling debris in his home. When he comes to in the hospital there is a new-found clarity and he remembers a family emergency back home. So, he checks himself out of the hospital and flies east, back to the place he once upon a time couldn’t wait to leave behind.
Ash has come home as well, to play happy families with Miller for the sake of their son Nate, who is celebrating his last summer at home before going off to college in California.
With everybody back together in the small town, tensions are rising with every sentence.
It quickly becomes clear that Miller and Olly first were together. The three of them left Wonderland to make it in Hollywood, where they set up a successful record label. Because Miller felt lost, she left Olly and settled for Ash. Love triangles are a recipe for disaster, and there are a lot of unresolved issues between the three. The title tells you all you need to know about the result.

History is also repeating itself because Ash and Miller’s son, Nate, has a crush on his friend Suki, but he doesn’t know that his best friend Cam is having feelings for her as well.
Then there’s a storyline about a movie company setting up a shoot in Wonderland, Olly’s Hollywood ex, Blue, a world-famous singer who travels to Wonderland as well, and one about Olly’s aunt Tassie. Then there’s stuff happening with Cam and his family, and Suki and her family.
That sounds like a lot, but actually it felt that not much happened in this book. It’s just all the threads slowly coming undone. It wasn’t until the last two chapters that I got really into it, because that’s when decisions and plans were made. The big event in the end came out of left field, which was appropriate for what happened, but it was weird to have the big bang ending be about a side-character and not one of the main characters. There also isn’t time to evaluate the impact of the event in the main characters because the book ends three pages later.

I’m giving this book an okay overall score because of its great setting and descriptions. The story itself is “meh” for me, as this was not up my alley at all.

No. 11: A book with a number in the title
Explosive eighteen / Janet Evanovich

I Love the Stephanie Plum series, so this challenge entry was an easy choice. We’re allowed to have those!
I once stumbled onto this series when I was stuck on a train station: the trains were so majorly delayed that I finished the book I’d brought with me. What was I to do, but step into the bookstore and buy a new one? I picked up Hard Eight because it was the only book within budget that seemed a fun read. Turned out I hit the jackpot with it, and I’ve since dedicated a shelf of my bookcase to this series, collecting them one by one.
The individual titles can all be read as a stand-alone, because every book has a proper introduction of characters. And although the overall development is slow, there is development and change, so it’s even better to read it in order. Which I regularly do, as these books are part of my comfort reads: I’m on my way through the series again, and number eighteen was up next.
The books in the series are all numbered, starting with One for the Money. With the exceptions of parts 27, 28, and 29, which have the number in the subtitle, all others have the number in their title. I recently discovered I’m one behind, with no. 30 (Dirty Thirty) just released, so I’m off to the bookstore as soon as I wrap up this entry.
There are also between-the-numbers books, and two spin-off series: the Lizzie and Diesel books are equally solid fun, but I haven’t read the Recovery Agent yet.

Stephanie Plum is a New Jersey bounty hunter, forced into the job by lack of any other decent skills and appealing options. She works for her cousin Vinnie at Plum Bail Bonds, and the rest of the staff include Connie, who is a very Jersey Italian and related to half of the local mob, and Lula, who was a victim in Stephanie’s first ever case, and has since given up being an “erectile engineer” and is Stephanie’s sidekick, and whenever she feels like it, the office clerk.
Stephanie has two men in her life: Joe, a Jersey detective she’s in an off-and-on again relationship with, and Ranger, a delicious-smelling badass security agent, she’s had a few up-close-and-very-personal encounters with.
All these characters appear in all the books of the series. This also applies to Stephanie’s parents and her grandma Mazur. The books all contain a mystery, and weird criminals that need to be dragged back to jail. There are doors that require getting kicked in, cars that get stolen, flattened, or burnt. Joe’s dog, Bob, makes an appearance. As does Stephanie’s hamster, Rex.
This particular book picks up where no. seventeen left off: Stephanie returns from a trip to Hawaii. As she unpacks her bag, she finds a blank envelope containing a picture in it, and thinking she mistakenly picked it up when she bought magazines at the airport, she throws it in the trash. When there’s a news item about a murder at LA airport, she recognizes the victim as the man that had been sitting next to her. When she’s promptly being chased down by several people who are all after that picture, she realizes that the victim must have slipped that picture into her purse. Two fake FBI agents, two real FBI agents, a woman claiming to be the victim’s fiancée, and a murderer-for-hire, all want the picture.
On top of that, she has her archenemy Joyce Bernhardt squatting in her apartment, she has her car serial-stolen by a wanted criminal, and the search for a grave robber is not going well.
Then there is office drama, with the temporary office (a Winnebago parked in front of the remains of the already burnt-down office) going up in flames, and Lula accidentally drinking a love potion. A tan line on Stephanie’s ring finger causes drama with friends and family alike, everybody assuming there was a wedding, or at least a proposal, in Hawaii, and Stephanie refusing to talk about it. That might sound like a lot, but it’s easy to keep up with, and a fast read.

Stephanie isn’t a skilled bounty hunter, but she’s tenacious and lucky which gets her far. Often not in the most efficient or flattering way, but it’s the end result that counts.
Meanwhile, her relationship with Joe is solid at its core but neither is ready to commit which causes them to have the occasional break-up. Ranger is always available to help her out with replacement cars of mysterious origin. Grandma Mazur will always try to pry open a casket at the funeral home. Vinnie will always be involved in shady business. Eighteen books in, Stephanie still forgets to charge her stun gun, and hides her actual gun at home, safely tucked away in the cookie jar. Stephanie and Lula are still not able to kick in doors.
None of that matters, because this is a screwball detective and mishaps should happen. These books are a breeze and a total treat, and even though I’ve re-read most of them several times, they still make me laugh out loud.

No. 8: A book with bad reviews
Find her / Tessa Bailey

This book was handed to me with the warning: “you’ll regret reading this because it’s time wasted that you’ll never get back”. Spoiler alert: these words were proven right.
I just also checked Goodreads where there are a lot of one-star ratings (2.5 average score), which makes this book a solid for the category.
Although starting off, it has to be said: this might not qualify as a book.
What this is, is a special edition publication to celebrate the Week van het Engelse boek, or English Book Week. Technically, that still makes this a book, of course. But, at 56 pages I struggle to define its category and I don’t want to go so far as to count the words, so I’m taking the lazy way out and say that this is either a novelette or novella.
(The binding has a total of 90 pages, but almost half of that is space for an introduction, and an excerpt from a soon to be available new title.)

56 pages to tell a story is not a lot, and so we jump right in.
The story is about Holly, who lives with older brother Wyatt. Wyatt and Holly both love the music of Citizen, a world-famous cool rock band. In case you’re wondering how famous and cool: they’re hanging-out-with-Mick-Jagger-and-Keith-Richards-level famous and cool. (This gets mentioned quite a bit, so weird.)
When the band comes to town, the siblings make sure to get tickets to see the show. They end up on the front row, and when the band enters the stage and Holly sees the lead singer, Johnny, for the first time, the sight of him (“a god”) practically sets her girl parts on fire. If you as a reader are caught off-guard by that, you’re not alone: Holly is very surprised about it too. It’s even worse for Johnny, who is on stage and spontaneously forgets his lyrics when he catches sight of Holly in the crowd. It’s lust at first sight for these two and it’s uncomfortable to be a witness to it all.
Johnny makes sure that Holly receives a backstage pass and when they meet there, he is instantly jealous of the other men in the entourage watching her. Thus, he takes her into his dressing room and locks the door so they can make out in private. I can’t remember where Holly’s brother was at this point but I can’t imagine him waiting patiently on the other side of the door. Especially because the two of them end up almost sexing up against said door.
This all happened by page 12 and I was snorting at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. The reasons I continued this instead of quitting there and then, was because of the reading challenge, and the fact that I figured: only 44 pages left to go, I can do this.
But it got worse because Johnny finds out that Holly is a virgin. That puts a stop to the proceedings, and Holly rushes out of the dressing room. Johnny quickly realizes she basically is the Holy Grail of women (gorgeous, willing, and untouched), so he rushes after her to prevent her from disappearing forever.
At this point I took a deep breath, told myself to stay strong, and powered through, ever hopeful of things improving. Improving, things did not.
The two of them decide to get to know each other a bit before getting physical again, and within an hour of meeting, Johnny has told her his deepest secrets, from the pressure of fame, to suffering from writer’s block. Not sure why, because Holly only asks Johnny everything any interviewer already would have asked him. She shows him her favourite place in the area, which is an open field with a tree in it. I guess it meant to indicate Holly’s unpretentiousness and wholesomeness.
An hour is all these two need to know they are destined to be together, and they can’t imagine ever being without the other person again. So, they’re giving sexytimes another go. And there’s a lot of it: a disproportionate number of letters in this story is dedicated to sex or the mentioning of body parts.
When they’re not touching or breathing hard, Johnny reminisces about a ranch in Wyoming where the band once shot a music video, that he wants to move to with Holly, because he knows she’ll like it, and it’ll be a wonderful place to grow old together.
Holly’s down-there must be magic because spending the night with her is not only the best physical experience of Johnny’s life, but it also solves his writer’s block as a bonus. In return for all that, he promises to take her along for the remainder of the tour. (Well, demands it: he “needs to keep her”, yikes.)
When he finds her missing in the morning, he figures something terrible must have happened, because there is no way she would have just walked away from him. Johnny does not have any self-esteem issues (he really doesn’t: he sings his own song during sex to relax Holly). So, he drums up the security team, the band manager, and anybody else who’ll want to listen, to yell at them that his girlfriend is missing and they need to start a search party asap. When one of the security guys admits he thought Holly was just one of the many groupies that had tried (and it’s implied: succeeded) to get into Johnny’s room, Johnny punches the man on the nose, pushes him aside, and rushes off to find the woman with the magic vajayjay. Problem here is threefold: he doesn’t know where she lives, what her phone number is, and he’s only wearing sweatpants. Well, that last one would be a problem for anybody, but not for Johnny, who rushes out of the hotel barefooted and bare chested.
The paparazzi waiting outside the hotel have a field day, but he uses them to his advantage, speaking directly into the cameras about his lost girlfriend that he’s trying to track down and can she please stay put until he finds her, because he will find her.
Of course, Holly sees this, and when she hears he’s roaming the street still barefooted and bare chested, she rushes outside and forgives him. They proclaim their love for one another and he carries her off into the sunset. For reals. Fortunately, this is immediately followed by the words The End.

It was all so over the top and strange, and seemed more fan-fiction than romance novel.
I rolled my eyes at it all until I had a headache. I snorted and laughed out loud.
I’m guessing the size of this story was the main cause of the problems, but to be honest, if the story had been longer, I’m not sure the characters would have been able to carry it much better. Holly is a bland good girl: a virgin orphan who works as a waitress but hopes to become a social worker. Also, she seemed incredibly young. Johnny is…borderline red-flag problematic. The way he talks I’m guessing is meant to sound macho and cool, but is rough and dominant, especially compared to Holly’s innocence. He plans their future without asking Holly’s input, claims her as his girlfriend after one night, and is possessive and aggressive.
Technically the story contains a beginning, middle, and ending. There’s even a conflict / misunderstanding and a big gesture, as there usually are in a romance novel. But compressed to a story this size, it leaves out the character building and growth, along with the emotions. What’s left are two horny cardboard figures that we’re to believe end up living happily ever after.

I hadn’t read anything by this author before, but I’ve seen other titles in bookshops and from some surfing on the waves of the interweb I learned that she is pretty popular and people love her work. Therefore, I’m guessing the full-sized books are better, but after this experience I won’t be keen to try that theory any time soon.

No. 2: A memoir
Strong female character / Fern Brady

As a teenager Fern read about autism and it made her realize that she had a lot in common with the description. When she told her doctor, he laughed it off, told her she “just” had OCD and depression instead, and prescribed her medication.
Twenty years, several misdiagnoses and a lot of unnecessary suffering later, she gets diagnosed with autism after all. I felt angry and frustrated on the author’s behalf.

Autism expresses differently in girls and women than it does in boys and men.
One of the incidents described in the book, is when the author expresses her suspicions about being autistic to the psychiatrist she’s seeing, he wrongfully concludes she’s not autistic because she’s making eye-contact and has always had boyfriends, rationalizing that an autistic person would be incapable of that. Fern knows he’s wrong, just as she knows the others were wrong, but because she’s not able to express herself and shuts down when a conversation goes different from what she’s prepared for, she keeps stuck in the loop of misdiagnoses. The inability to communicate what is happening or how she experiences a situation, left me feeling almost claustrophobic at times. Being forced to sit through the wrong diagnosis, spending time at a psychiatric hospital, or finding yourself in a stressful situation only because you didn’t know how to say no, or otherwise express your feelings about it, is nightmare inducing.

I learned about meltdowns and shut downs (not the same), and masking. I also recognized certain traits and for a second thought, maybe I’m a little bit of that as well. But then learned that we’re in fact “not all a little bit on the spectrum”, and that either you are, or you are not. And this is not just the author’s opinion. She’s done her research and there are footnotes with sources listed.
These footnotes, by the way, are the only thing I had a problem with. And not the notes themselves of course, but the layout: the symbols used to indicate the footnotes are light and tiny. Especially when the symbol follows a quotation mark, it’s easy to miss. Then I’d spot the footnote at the bottom of the page, and I’d wonder what it relates to, and had to scan the page back to find spot. It might sound petty, but as I said: the author has done her research and there are footnotes throughout the book, and missing the indications, kept pulling me out of the story. Thankfully the book is so well written, that I kept with it and picked up easily again.
This book is insightful, and I learned a lot. It’s also funny, and dark, and very real. I laughed, and I cried.

Something different than usual: instead of a cover shot, one of the back of the book. It was the summary on the back cover that pulled me into this book and I wanted to share that as well because it is a far better summation than I can ever provide you with:

No. 1: A book based on a historic event
The Night Ship / Jess Kidd

I went from Dublin to Dublin in my reading, and now from magical to (slightly) magical. It’s all connected and we’ll see where it’ll end up. For this book, it’s Beacon Island.

There are two stories here: Mayken’s, which starts in 1628 when she boards the Batavia ship. And Gil’s, which starts in 1989, when he arrives on Beacon Island, a tiny island (you can cross it in twenty minutes on foot) off the west coast of Australia.
Mayken and Gil both lost their mothers due to unconventional / problematic lifestyles.
Mayken and Gil live three hundred years apart, but their stories are mirrored: both live in/on confined spaces, are free spirits, cross dress, run into stories about monsters living in the water, and neither wants to be where they are.

Although it’s probably best known in Australia and the NL, the story of the Batavia has been told in documentaries and books, so I don’t consider it a spoiler when I say that its 1628 maiden voyage didn’t go entirely according to plan. Loaded with riches, and people, the ship was part of a fleet of East India Company ships travelling to what was then Batavia, and is now Indonesia. The sailors were literally sitting on top of chests full of silver coins, and with a skipper and upper-merchant that didn’t get along, tensions started rising all over the ship.
The Batavia’s story is in the book, but told from Mayken’s perspective, which is that of a nine-year old girl. She notices the unrest, the tension, but doesn’t know what it means. Her focus is more on catching the monster said to be living in the hull of the ship.
Gil is also living with tension and unrest caused by frayed relationships between the different families on the island. He also discovers he is causing tension and unrest, just by being different. Both stories build up to explosions of violence.

This book is a historical with gothic elements and hints of otherworldlyness. The build-up is nicely paced: it starts by calmly setting the scenes, the children exploring their new surroundings and getting settled in. Then, as story grows more urgent, the pace picks up, faster, faster.
The story goes from hopeful new starts, to awful realities. The story of the Batavia is clearly well researched, making Mayken’s story a treat. I liked Gil’s story as much though, and was intrigued about the boy who, appropriately, and not coincidentally, gets nicknamed Gilgamesh.
The story being told from the perspectives of children, gives it a slightly eerie sense, and I liked that most about it.

This book comes with plenty of blurbs: four on the front cover, and five on the back. More yet, on the inside. That can be annoying, but in this case, I have to agree with all of them: this book sweeps you off your feet.