18 January, 2013

Book Review - Ship Breaker


From Goodreads: In America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota--and hopefully live to see another day. 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...

What I Thought: This book came from my list of books recommended by bloggers. I have a bit of a personal challenge this year to reduce this list. Having said that, it's been so long I added this to the list I couldn't quite remember why! 
Bacigalupi is known as a sci-fi/ fantasy writer, but I found this to be more dystopian than either of those. The world has been drastically altered by raising sea levels and environmental changes.
Truth be told, it took me a little while to get into the book, but by about half way the pace picked up and by the end I couldn't put it down. For this reason, I'm not sure it would hold the attention of a teenager unless they were willing to persevere. I am interested in reading more of Bacigalupi's stuff and I know we have The Windup Girl around here somewhere. In the meantime, I don't feel right putting this down for my 13 in '13 challenge.


Challenges: None