Paolo Bacigalupi’s award-winning novel, Ship Breaker (Little, Brown and Company, 2010, ISBN: 9780316081689), is set in a dystopian world that will be familiar territory for most readers of today’s young adult literature. From The Hunger Games to the Dustlands series, gritty, post-apocalyptic landscapes inhabited by tough-as-nails teenagers have become commonplace. Bacigalupi does not deviate dramatically from this formula, yet his novel is unique in its focus on archetypal plot elements and an all-too familiar setting – a perpetually flooded New Orleans.
Ship Breaker: A Brief Summary
Bacigalupi introduces us to Nailer, a teenage boy forced into an almost-slavery – to survive, he strips the wire and other precious materials from ships wrecked along the "tropic" Gulf Coast. The author’s portrayal of Nailer is a brave one; his flaws are even more apparent than his strengths, which are considerable. Bacigalupi’s hero is brave, selectively loyal, and occasionally bloodthirsty, and like many of the protagonists of bildungsromane, he yearns for bigger and better things.
Nailer dreams of sailing on one of the enormous clipper ships that scrape the horizon with their cloud-high sails. When he and his friend, Pima, discover one such floating paradise wrecked on the beach and inhabited by a sole survivor (a “swank” they christen Lucky Girl) Nailer sees an opportunity to escape his grim situation. But the villain of the story – Nailer’s own father – wants to use Lucky Girl as ransom, and soon she and Nailer are on the run through the drowned landscape that was once coastal Louisiana.
Ship Breaker Review
While many of today’s dystopian stories unfold in unfamiliar wastelands, Bacigalupi’s realistic setting hits home. Teens who savoured the bleak atmosphere of The Hunger Games and are looking for a change of scenery will appreciate Ship Breaker, although it is a slower story. It is also a simpler one: while evil, world-dominating powers (here corporations) exist in the novel’s universe, their intrigues are very much in the background. Depending on taste, teens may or may not find Ship Breaker’s quieter, more human focus engaging.
Nailer’s true antagonist is (literally) closer to home: his father, a terrifying cutthroat whose violent tendencies are exacerbated by amphetamine-like drugs. It’s a refreshing choice for a genre that often focuses on the importance of family ties and an “us against the system” mentality. It’s this element of the novel that proves the most intriguing, as Nailer is driven to question the exalted status given to blood ties at the expense of a shared notion of humanity's common bond.
Ship Breaker’s beautifully rendered setting and refreshing characterization make it a haunting read and one of the standout works in the dystopian genre. More literary but less gripping than The Hunger Games, it will appeal to teens looking for a sophisticated adventure that explores little-asked but worthwhile questions for which there are no easy answers.
Heather Fawcett - Heather Fawcett is a Vancouver-based writer and editor. She holds an M.A. in English Literature and specializes in teen fiction, having ...
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