Title: Ship Breaker
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi [Website] [Twitter]  [Facebook Fan Page]
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Format: Paperback
Source: Provided by Publisher
Parental Advisory: references to sex, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, criminal activity

“As one, he and Pima crawled across the wreckage to the broken body.  The girl’s corpse was buried under furniture.  None of it had even been secured, as if the rich swanks thought a storm wouldn’t dare rearrange their furniture.  As if they were gods, and didn’t just predict the weather with their instruments and satellites, but also told it what to do.”

Summary (from the publisher):
In America’s Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being dis-assembled for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota — and hopefully have enough to eat.  But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life:  Strip the ship for all it’s worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life.

Opinion:
Ship Breaker is definitely one of those dystopian novels that scares the pants off you.  You know, the kind of story that’s built around a world the reader could actually see becoming a reality.  Yea, this book is that type of dystopian.

Set in a post apocalyptic Gulf Coast region — New Orleans and surrounding areas have been virtually wiped out by “city killers”.  Described as larger than life hurricanes, these storms decimated whole urban areas and swept them under the sea.  As a result of the devastation beach dwelling colonies arose to perform the task of salvaging what was left.  Most specifically anything and everything that can be removed from old ship wrecks. This is where readers meet Nailer and his crew of scavengers for hire.  In Bright Sands Beach they are one of the resident “light crews” crawling down into a shipwreck’s smallest and tightest places to retrieve valuables for swanky bigwig’s.

I admit, for awhile I found it difficult to follow who really was who.  The introduction of so many characters in a very short period of time had them all sort of bleeding into each other for awhile.  This difficulty arose from the fact that most everyone was described the same way.  They all had the same job and had many of the same characteristics.  Sure, there were some notable differences between each but there wasn’t a lot to distinguish different characters until some of the larger plot started to play out.  I was finally able to wrap my head around it some when they started going their separate ways.  I was able to gain much more focus then.

The bulk of the plot revolved around Nailer, Pima and Lucky Girl’s quest to find their way back to the latter’s family safely.  Family being one of the issues delved into as well.  It was fast-paced, interesting and filled with a fair amount of intrigue.  Don’t worry, though there were some sparks of romance was in the air it wasn’t a large part of the story.  There were subtle hints here and there that feelings were increasing between Nailer and one of the lovely ladies in his company but it wasn’t the prevailing point of the story.  This worked in its favor as this story really wasn’t about love, it was about people.

The strength of Ship Breaker is in the world that Bacigalupi has built.  We can feel the grime and and taste the salt in the water air. I kept envisioning a world that looked like one of those disaster movies where the Statue of Liberty’s head is sticking out of 400 feet of water.  Bright Sands Beach was interesting, one the one hand it was as dark and seedy as the scariest back alley, yet it still had pockets of purity.  Then when on the sea and in the Orleans areas I got a very distinct old world vibe.  It was, without a doubt, the best part of the book.

Ultimately I will say that this wasn’t my most favorite dystopian, however, it’s a pretty dang good one.  An interesting departure from those that tend to focus a bit more on the more futuristic qualities.  It was real (dare I say current), there is no mistaking that.  It was compelling, no mistaking that either.  Know that if you read Ship Breaker you’re in for a very distinct and quality read.