Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Night Ship by Jess Kidd

11 reviews

missmali's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, Death, Child death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Violence

ejanephillips's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Bullying, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Vomit, Alcohol, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Cursing

yvo_about_books's review

2.25

 Finished reading: July 22nd 2023

“The greatest disgrace of humankind is the failure of the strong to protect the weak. We don't need monsters, Gil; we are the monsters.”

I still can't believe this happened to be honest. I mean, I absolutely LOVED my first experience with Jess Kidd's writing when I read Things In Jars, and I've been excited to read more of her books ever since. The blurb of The Night Ship sounded simply fantastic with the (partial) 17th century setting, the fact that it's based on true events and the hint at a supernatural twist. I had high expectations and fully expected to add a new favorite to my list... Imagine my surprise when I ended up struggling considerably with The Night Ship instead. Don't get me wrong, I still love the premise of this story and its 17th century setting. The references to the Netherlands, the Bavaria ship and journey in general added a little something extra to the story for me. The 1989 timeline was likewise interesting, but I do think I preferred the 1629 timeline in the end... Although on the other hand I did prefer Gil's character over Mayken, so it was a bit tricky to decide on a favorite. Part of what went wrong for me had a lot to do with the constant POV switches. The story jumps between 1629 and 1989 so often that I almost ended up with a whiplash, and as a result it was hard to get a proper feel for both the main characters and the story. I just never felt fully inmerged, because I never got to spend proper time with either timeline; instead of adding tension and suspense, it only highly frustrated me (especially in the second half). I also felt that the story was just too bleak, brutal and graphic, and if things had been toned down I would probably have been able to enjoy it better (case in point: was the animal cruelty really necessary?!). The pace itself was also rather slow, which again probably had a lot to do with the constant POV/timeline switches. It resulted in a very halted story, and I struggled to find the motivation to keep reading. I kept putting the story down to do other things instead, and that is never a good sign. I did like the subtle connections between both timelines; sometimes less is more, and it gave the story more impact this way. Still, all in all I'm sad to admit that I struggled considerably with The Night Ship, and I even started considering a DNF in points. I'm still going to give this author another chance though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Death, Grief, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Murder, Rape, Toxic friendship, Violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Drug use, Medical content, and Sexual assault

jeanbpdx's review

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book. Despite the dark themes, there’s a lot of sweetness here and redemption for at least one character. Beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Child abuse, Bullying, and Child death

Moderate: Transphobia, Alcohol, and Homophobia

Minor: Sexual violence and Drug abuse

lauramcc7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Alcohol, Blood, Murder, Rape, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Gore, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, and Violence

billyjepma's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

There’s a lot to like here—striking prose, sharp characterizations, vibes so potent you can feel them sticking on your skin—but it ultimately didn’t work for me as much as I wanted. It’s a very cruel book, for one, with more violence than I expected (that’s on me for going into this without knowing anything about it), which I can usually stomach without a problem. But the cruelty didn’t have the teeth it needed to leave a mark—it’s all blunt and brutal and lacks the intentionality I look for. What’s the violence saying? How does it frame or reframe the themes and characters? I kept looking for a moment to make everything click into place, but I never found it. I’m sure it’s there somewhere, but for whatever reason, it never materialized for me. 

The dual storylines have potential, and the structure of the chapters does an admirable job of bouncing between the two timelines. Some moments had me by the throat and used the back-and-forth pacing to keep me reading longer than planned. Those moments are the exception, though, as I usually gravitated toward the 1989 story, where Kidd’s characterizations are the strongest, and the narrative has the most momentum and stakes. I kept waiting for the two stories to converge, but they didn’t, at least not in a way that satisfied me. They share themes, sure, but when the themes are this broad and, honestly, kind of basic, it left me cold. There’s enough good here that I can’t go lower than a three-star rating, but suffice it to say, this one wasn’t for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Murder, Abandonment, Stalking, Animal death, Violence, Bullying, Classism, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, and Cannibalism

emily_koopmann's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Suicide, Animal cruelty, and Bullying

alexijai98's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

More than anything, The Night Ship is just okay. The concept is interesting, and executed fairly well. Kidd handles the subject matter with grace, and having children as the protagonists brings an interesting perspective to the book. Overall an okay read, but I can’t find myself fervently recommending this to anyone, or rereading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Murder, Violence, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, and Child death

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

nyne's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual assault

themushroomforest's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

          Jess Kidd is undoubtedly a very good writer. She tells a tale with vigour and colour, and I applaud her for that.

However.
I am so glad that I've finished The Night Ship, not because I'm glad to have read it so much as I'm glad it's over.
I suppose I'm not the target audience for this historical novel, but I found it to be dismal, depressing and ultimately irredeemable. 
I remember enjoying tragic stories purely for their tragedy as a teenager, and maybe if it had just been tragic I could have fallen back into that rhythm, but Gil's story in particular was just awful. I felt sad for him, but I didn't actually like him. Everything that happened to Gil was so sad, it needed a lift of some sort, a draw other than just sympathy for a broken kid in a dingy, dismal situation. 
Mayken's story however, I did find enjoyable in a few ways. 
There was a great sense of wonder and adventure at the start of the book, and I liked hearing about the way the ship was loaded and the types of people on board. Seeing it all through a child's eyes gave it a great sense of scope. Even still though, knowing from the start that she and everyone she was with was going to be dead soon took a lot of the magic out of reading Mayken's point of view.

I did enjoy the parallel scenes been Gil and Mayken, and the way the author brought their stories alongside each other. Mayken was a happy child who died tragically, and Gil was a miserable child who lived tragically. 

I have a hard time with kid stories where all the adults are trash, and I really did have a hard time pinpointing redeemable people among the grown-ups in both eras. I don't know why I would read about such dreadful, sad people in a non educational way. There are times It is necessary and makes sense to read sad things about sad people, but I didn't find this to be worthwhile.

Having said that, there clearly was something that drew me along, as I did make it to the end. Kidd's writing is very bright and interesting, I would still be interested to read more of her work.
        

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Death, Violence, Medical content, Murder, Grief, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Classism, Child death, Bullying, Blood, Homophobia, Cursing, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Genocide, Alcohol, Addiction, Gore, and Excrement

Disaster, Shipwreck, Starvation, Nowhere to run,