Before our recent spring break road trip to Oklahoma, I
perused the teen/YA shelves at the library for something that would appeal to
the whole family. My sons are 14
and 17 now and no longer content to listen to whatever audio books Mom chooses
– and often they prefer to listen to their iPods now – so I was hoping to find
an audio that would engage them, as well as my husband and I, during our long
hours of driving. I chose Ship
Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, a teen/YA
dystopian novel that sounded action-packed; like most kids their age, they both
read and enjoyed The Hunger Games, so I thought that a dystopian
novel might work. Well, I still
couldn’t get my youngest son to listen with us (he’s just at that age when he
needs to make his own choices), but the other three of us enjoyed Ship
Breaker very much.
It’s set in a post-apocalyptic time along the US’s Gulf
Coast, where one huge storm after another has changed the landscape and the
economy. Although there are a
wealthy few in charge, most people in the Gulf Coast region have to scrape
together a living by working on a crew, helping to scavenge metal and copper
wiring from the huge oil tankers that have run aground there. Nailer, a teen boy, lives from one day
to the next with his violent, drug-addicted father, working light crew with his
group of rough peers, hoping he doesn’t grow so much that he can no longer
crawl through the ships’ ductwork.
After one particularly bad storm, a wealthy clipper ship
wrecks a short distance from their beach, and Nailer and a crewmate, Pima, find
it before anyone else notices it.
The ship is filled with more wealth than they have ever seen or heard of
– including silver platters and gold jewelry – but as they are scavenging
whatever they can carry, they discover a girl about their own age who is barely
alive. Now they have a problem: do
they turn the girl over to the adults and allow the girl herself to be sold for
her parts or try to hide her so they can collect a ransom when her family comes
looking for her?
It’s a dark, gritty story populated by coarse but likeable
characters faced with often unthinkable ethical dilemmas. My husband, son, and I really enjoyed
the audio which captures the tone of the desperate time and place. The story was fast-paced and exciting
and kept our interest over the long hours in the car!
352 pages, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Brilliance Audio
1 comment:
Sue I want to read this one sooooo bad! Great review!
Camryn had another YA post today, I would love it is you could stop by and cheer her on. :)
Post a Comment