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…
One of my classmates let me borrow her copy of this novel, because she knew my Master’s thesis was on the influence of dystopia on the young adult genre and she wanted my opinion. Well, here it goes:
The dystopian aspects of Ship Breaker were incredibly believable. A world where humans have used almost all of the natural resources for energy, like oil and gas, hits shockingly close to home in our current times where—in North Carolina—gas is almost $4.00 a gallon. The establishment of ship breaking and salvaging any metal that could be used for energy consumption is extremely well done, and I really thought it was a new perspective to the energy crisis that could happen to future generations.
In addition to this, the establishment of a religion based on the idea of luck and how important it is to the lives of the ship breakers. These children and adults live and work in a dangerous profession, and there is the possibility of death inside the old ships and oilers that they strip metal from. I think that the “lucky eye” and the “Fates” are a great way to involve a religious aspect in the novel without beating readers over the head with it.
Other than the dystopian aspect, I really was not impressed much with the story of Nailer, Pima, and Lucky Girl (a.k.a Nita). The story read much more like a middle grade novel than a young adult novel, despite the fact that the three main characters were 15, 16, and 16, respectively. The writing wasn’t all that revolutionary for me, but the descriptions of the ships were the high point in the narrative.
Overall, I think that Ship Breaker was just not a story for me. I had trouble picking it back up after starting it, because I just wasn’t invested in the outcome.
I’m giving Ship Breaker 3 Bards because I feel that it was average.
Moving! 