Nailer is among the smart and lucky – shortly after discovering a reservoir of oil (nearly drowning in it), a severe hurricane known as a “City Killer” runs through the Gulf, bringing with it a sleek, shipwrecked Clipper. In the cruel world of the ship breakers, the only religion is that of chance – you can be as smart as ever, but you’re either lucky, or you’re dead. There’s crew, there’s “family” (though, in Nailer’s case, his amphetamine hopped up, violent, abusive father is someone he’d rather avoid), and there are the Fates. Everyone has a quota to meet, and everyone follows the same cutthroat rules. Life on Bright Sands Beach is brutal and unforgiving, even for young teens like Nailer. Every day, Nailer scrambles through the wreckage as a member of the “light crew,” searching for salvage – copper wire, scrap metal, or the luckiest strike of them all, forgotten reservoirs of oil. In the shallows of the Gulf Coast, marooned freight ships are strewn along the beach, wrecked on the remains of a drowned city. Bacigalupi live up to the hype? How would he handle a young adult novel? One glance at the premise, and I was instantly hooked, if feeling a bit anxious… This meant that Ship Breaker was all the more important in my mind. Bacigalupi obviously has serious writerly chops, I wasn’t completely blown away by his work. While I truly liked The Windup Girl, to me, it felt like a unnecessarily protracted short story, and while Mr. His Pump Six and Other Stories and his debut novel The Windup Girl have been praised to the high heavens, earning tons of nominations and accolades for some very prestigious awards. Why did I read this book: Paolo Bacigalupi is the new “it boy” of the speculative fiction realm. How did I get this book: Review Copy from the Publisher

Stand alone or series: Can be read as a stand alone novel, but there is room for more (my fingers are crossed!) In this powerful novel, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a thrilling, fast-paced adventure set in a vivid and raw, uncertain future. 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. 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. Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Genre: Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian, Young Adult, Speculative Fiction

Ship breaker book series