Nailer works light crew. Everyday, he and his crew scavenge the monsterous old tankers wrecked long ago for copper wiring, scrap metal, anything valuable. Anticipating a storm, he goes back into the bowels of the ship for the second time that day. If they don't make quota, there will be hell to pay from the crew boss. He's farther in than he's ever been before, and he can't see any evidence that anyone else has been this far either. Suddenly, the floor gives way and he's swimming in oil. Frantically he finds the surface, and scrambles to the edge of what seems to be a small room. He can't believe his luck, he's found a "Lucky Strike" ... but he's going to die in here before he can do anything about it. No one knows where he is, or how to find him. Despair is starting to set in, and suddenly there is someone from his crew! But poverty is too ingrained, and she leaves him - planning to come back for the oil and her own Lucky Strike later. With nothing left to lose, Nailer decides he's going to find a way out.
Everyone on the beach wants a piece of his luck, he's on top of the world. They're even calling him Lucky Boy ... until later that night when the storm hits. It's a city killer, and everyone's desperate to get clear of the beach. Somehow he even rescues his father, who is too strung out sliding on crystal to even wake up. The next morning, the beach is trashed. People are dead and missing, including crew boss Bapi. With an unexpected day off, Pima and Nailer go exploring. They find a clipper ship, one of the new tech hydrofoils, crushed from the storm. It's like another Lucky Strike! They are going to be rich! Inside is more food than they know what to do with, silver place settings, china, real swank stuff. One of the rooms looks like a bedroom, with the unlucky occupant crushed beneath the contents. At first, Nailer thinks it's another body. When they go to cut off her fingers to take her rings, she cries out. She's alive! Struggling with his conscience, and his experience the day before, he insists they save her. They pull her free, and plan to cash in when her people come to rescue her. So they call her Lucky Girl, because just like Nailer, she's lucky to be alive.
It seems like a good plan, until Nailer's dad shows up with his thugs in tow. Nailer knows that his dad won't leave Lucky Girl alive unless he can be convinced that the risk is worth the reward. They decide to make a break for it when the wrong kind of people show up to take Lucky Girl. Nailer, Tool (one of the half-men), and Lucky Girl head for Orleans. She thinks she can find a ship with loyal crew to take her back to her father, and Nailer will finally be free of the ship breaking crew. Anything is better than waiting to die on this god-forsaken beach, and so they run.
Can Nailer really escape his fate, and his father? Can Lucky Girl see more than her narrow swank view of the world, and actually make good on her promises?
This is another futuristic dystopia. The writing is very graphic, and pictures spring into your mind with his descriptive phrases. This may be a complaint for people who prefer more action to description, but this is far from a slow moving book (although there were times that it dragged). Bacigalupi's first foray into YA lit seems to have impressed the right people, as this won the Prinz award for 2011. Highly recommended for action sci-fi fans.
"Nailer shrugged again. 'Doesn't really matter. Either you're small enough for light crew, or you're big enough for heavy crew, and either way, if you're too stupid or lazy or untrustworthy, then you're neither, because no one will vouch for you. No. I don't know how old I am. But I made it onto light crew, and I made quota every day. That's what matters where I come from. Not your stupid age,'" (Bacigalupi pg. 251, 2010).*Library Link*
If you liked this, check out:
The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi (rumored to be sequel to Ship Breaker)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Bacigalupi, Paolo. (2010). Ship Breaker. New York: Little, Brown.
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