Review: Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Release Date: May 1, 2010
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Pages: 326
Reading level: Young Adult

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...

-- from Goodreads.com

Spoilers Coming

This book was not for me. That's the first thing I'll say about it. I didn't finish it. I tried. I got 2/3 of the way through and just could not continue on because I'd just had enough.

What I learned about Nailer:

1. Nailer is such a badass little guy that he is MUCH more interested in saving his extremely abusive, drug-addict, murderer of a father than he ever will be completely sold on saving a girl who's greatest act against him was to carelessly forget that not everyone is educated like she is. Okay.
2. Nailer would also rather be around a girl who would sell him out & leave him for dead than be around a girl who has money & forgets sometimes that not everyone else does. Sure.
3. Nailer is a jerk who spends most of his time wishing he had either killed the girl or sold her to her enemies because either one would have made him a boat-load of money. Yep.
4. Which leads me to feel that Nailer is not worth reading about because I can't identify with him or his position in anyway. It's simply offensive to me.

That, combined with the sluggish pace at which the story meandered toward a vague semblance of a plot, leaving in its wake a plethora of either irrelevant (non-character-developing, non-expository, non-interesting) or excruciatingly repetitive dialogue, was just more than I cared to continue reading. And yeah, don't drill for oil in or near the US because it will eventually cause the fall of Western civilization. Got it.

This is my personal preference. I know that others will look at this differently & possibly enjoy it. Mores the better! I think each book should have an audience. I'm just not that audience for this book.

My Rating: