This book paints a grungy world of survival among people who salvage ships for a living. Their greed and disregard for human life is explored when a terrible storm leaves a rich daughter of a shipping company stranded. One character shows genuine compassion and courage as he attempts to get this girl back to her family. I think this book is best suited for boys between the ages of 11-17. This book is gritty and adventurous. This book was excellent, largely because Nailer's humanness was on full display, and because Bacigalupi's world building is so vivid, carrying with it echoes of the familiar and echoes of our economic and environmental fears. I was held there page after page by his use of language: the crafting of a believable slang that rolled off the tongue, that I found slipping into my daily use as chapter after chapter closed.I have only one negative critique. Bacigalupi's one stumbling came in the final chapters during the height of the tension he creates-- his verb vocabulary narrows. The word "surge" jumped out at me three of four times a page during the bulk of a chapter. Eek. Otherwise, the rest of the book has bright and balanced prose, not florid, but neither bare-bones. I often have to dig and hunt and beg from a very narrow set of friends for recommendations to get prose like that.
What do You think about Ship Breaker (2010)?
I personally thought that this was a great book. It kept my attention throughout the entire book.
—dalton
This is a 4.5 on the nose, but I said I'd always round up.
—Sara
Terrific book! Surprised they haven't made it into a movie
—jyilpet
