Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker, #1)

by Paolo Bacigalupi

[rakesandrogues]

Posted at: http://muggle-born.net/book-review-ship-breaker-by-paolo-bacigalupi/

Review Overview:

* Bacigalupi is a fantastic world-builder; stellar descriptions and imagery
* Felt disconnected from the main character because it was written in 3rd person POV
* Makes you think

Initially, I had problems getting into SHIP BREAKER. Paolo Bacigalupi is, without a doubt, a fantastic world-builder, but the lack of background info about this world made it confusing. It took me a while to understand all the ship terms and figure out exactly what Nailer and friends were doing. However, after a few chapters, I found myself completely immersed in the world Bacigalupi had created. Bacigalupi's descriptions were so vivid; I could definitely imagine all the cities of the past submerged in water. I can picture the landscape of what had become of the United States.

What prevented me from truly enjoying this book was the point of view that the novel was written in. Because it was written in third person, it was difficult to connect specifically with the main character, Nailer. I could certainly sympathize with Nailer, but I wasn't able to empathize with him. I probably thought, "That sucks," whenever Nailer got himself into another conundrum, but I really couldn't put myself in his position.

SHIP BREAKER does make you think, which I loved. It made me question how we were using our natural resources, what we our doing to our environment, and how the world will end up in the future. The world in SHIP BREAKER is definitely not unlikely which makes it much more effective as a dystopian novel.

According to GoodReads, there will be a sequel to SHIP BREAKER. I'm not entirely sold on reading it at the moment, but I may change my mind in the future. Unfortunately, SHIP BREAKER was not as great as I thought it would be, but it was still a decent read. I wouldn't go as far to say that it wasn't worthy of winning a Printz (what do I know about those awards??) but for me, it really does not stand out against all the other dystopian novels out in the market.