Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker, #1)

by Paolo Bacigalupi

[nannah]

I have to start this off by saying the first third or so of this book is AMAZING. The world-building, the characters, the plot, the gritty and realistic atmosphere (does that cover deliver, eh?)--everything is absolutely riveting and fantastic. Heck, every character but one is a person of color, too! And women were in every sort of role one could imagine. I was so dang in love with this book already.

Heavy sigh.

The beginning was so well imagined and tight that I'm sure it's part of the reason why I wasn't as fond of the rest of the book. Things seemed to lose focus once Nita and Nailer left the beach. I'm not sure what exactly was going on. Things started just happening to the characters, and they went along for the ride without carving their own paths. In the latter half of a book, this is so dang annoying. Most things were summarized, and Nita became an object rather than a character: "She's scavenge." Everyone was looking for her, everyone wanted her back. She became the treasure, the woman/prize at the end of the journey. It went from her relying on her own skills to deal with her captors to "save Princess Peach!" Okay, I'm being bitter.

Overall, this book was all right. I can't help but feel a little let down simply because of how promising the opening was.