Drawing heavily from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Patrick Ness has given a famous antagonist a voice through this retelling that transports readers into a foreboding underwater realm where whales hunt seafaring humans.

These whales have formed their own civilization with hierarchies that mirror the human social structures above the surface. The most fearsome hunter whale, Captain Alexandra, obsessively pursues the devilish, deadly human of lore known as Toby Wick. As Alexandra and her apprentice, Bathsheba, search for Wick, they come across an abandoned human ship with a sole survivor whom they take captive. As Bathsheba and the captive human discover their similarities, they learn how their fears have set their species against one another.

Touching on themes of faith, prophecy and destiny, And the Ocean Was Our Sky is an otherworldly myth—beautifully illustrated by Rovina Cai—that feels eerily real.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Like Melville's Moby Dick, on which it is based, Ness's profound tale is one of obsession and prophecy, with a twist—it's told from the whale's perspective. The narrative introduces readers to a flipped world in which a technologically advanced Cetacean society dominates the oceans. "Call me Bathsheba," the whale narrator intones, recounting her pod's ill-fated hunt for the mythical human killer of whales, Toby Wick ("Our devil. Our monster. Our myth"). Led by Captain Alexandra—the most storied of the captains, a harpoon buried in her head—Third Apprentice Bathsheba and the Alexandra's other apprentices happen upon the wreck of a human ship. They find a single man alive, his hand protruding from the hull and clutching a disk (a message? a map?). Realizing they are on the trail of Toby Wick, the whales take the human hostage, then take to the hunt. In expansive illustrations by Cai (Tintinnula), rendered in inky washes and linework that mimics the ocean's currents, the whales fly through the water, rendered above, not below, the air-filled "abyss" that humans inhabit. The whale epic, particularly Bathsheba's discussions with the human hostage, mounts an exploration of inherited prejudices, violence justified, and the far-reaching consequences of war. Ages 13–up. Author's agent: Michelle Kass, Michelle Kass Assoc. (Sept.)

Gr 7 Up—As a young whale, Bathsheba was all too eager to join Captain Alexandra's crew hunting men for vengeance and the raw materials used in everyday whale life. But after years spent working her way up to Third Apprentice on the fiercest crew in the sea and sailing down toward the air-filled Abyss to hunt men, Bathsheba has begun to question the raw hatred that drives hunters in their constant war. Bathsheba's weary narrative is heavy with foreshadowing and circumspection as she relates the events that set her crew on a fateful hunt for the man Toby Wick—the devil known to whale and man for his terrible deeds and his fierce white ship. Ness channels Melville's original language well and uses the structure of Moby-Dick as a framework for this fast-paced and streamlined retelling filled with philosophical meditations and cautions against the violence of war and the power of prophecy—especially self-fulfilling ones. Cai's accompanying illustrations interspersed throughout bring the depths of the ocean to life with jarring, full-color artwork that calls back to the haunting setting and anguished tone of the narrative. VERDICT An excellent, stirring counterpoint to the original text, rife with questions about the inexorable nature of belief and violence.—Emma Carbone, Brooklyn Public Library