Book Review: Ship Breaker

Title: Ship Breaker

Author: Paolo Bacigalupi

Genre: YA dystopian

Book Blurb:

In America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota--and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life...

Review:

Auhiluwegwuyegfwlegewuy=Tina's thoughts upon finishing this book.

Ship Breaker is definitely, by far, one of my all time favorite books right up there along with Legend (as if you haven't heard me blab enough about that book) and Harry Potter. It is also one of the few books I would love to see played out on the big screen (along with Legend , of course...speaking of movies, have you watched "The Edge of Tomorrow"? I'm not a huge Cruise fan, but that movie was good. I haven't read the book, but according to my sister, the movie was actually better than the book--how's that for a change? Okay Tina, back on topic....)

I actually first read the book three-ish years ago. And then four days ago I found this super huge discount book store (they basically stock all of the overstocked books from publisher and sell it very cheeeeaaap--new hardcovers for $5 and it's a buy 3 get 1 free deal too! ) Well, this book was on sale for $3 in new condition, so of course I bought it (along with 12 other books.) 

Ohmygod the character!!!! And the worldbuilding!!!! Paolo really excels at worldbuilding. I could imagine myself in the world he has created--such scary, grim and realistic future of America. He never info dumps you and the details are given in an interesting manner. I also loved the "local color" he gives to Nailer (such a cool name!), which can really be seen in his thoughts and talk. 

SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME WHY THIS ISN'T MADE INTO A MOVIE YET AND WHY THIS ISN'T A BESTSELLER.

Okay....back on track...(in case you can't tell, this is a very emotional review two days after finishing the book--I didn't trust myself touching the keyboard for fear of emotional overload.)

I fell in love with the plot and world (though I would never want to live in it) and the characters were well rounded....okay, I'm just going to stop writing now because you probably don't want to hear/read me gush/fangirl for another ten minutes straight. 

Rating:

Book Review: The Drowned Cities

Title: The Drowned Cities

Author: Paolo Bacigalupi

Genre: YA dystopian

Review:

I absolutely adored Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker, a novel that is on my top 20 favorite books of all time (speaking of which, I need to make time to reread that book!) I was expecting a good read from The Drowned Cities, nothing spectacular, but still a worthwhile read. Well, I got much more than I bargained for. I loved The Drowned Cities and it has secured a place on my bookshelf. Although this novel is listed as the sequel to Ship Breaker, this book actually works as a stand alone novel as well.

I feel like The Drowned Cities was written with a naturalistic/naturalism theme in mind. Naturalism is basically a movement in which humans are stripped down to their most basic form and nature is depicted as neither good nor evil.  The world simply is the world. So basically naturalism deals a lot with survival of the fittest, man vs. nature and all that stuff with no sugar coating.  And let me assure you, there was no sugar coating in The Drowned Cities. The author didn't try to beat around the bush with the cruelty featured in this dystopian, futuristic world. The violence and graphic descriptions weren't gratuitous, but they weren't rainbows and ponies either.