Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Synopsis:  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 of chance, he discovers and 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....

My 2 cents:  This is a very well written book.  Unfortunately, I don't think I connected with it as much as I would have thought.  I'm not really sure why.  The plot was very good.  The adventure and uncertainty in the story was perfect.  I think it may have been the characters.  And this will sound bad, but I think its because our hero on this dystopian was a boy, not a girl.  I've gotten so used to kick-butt girl main characters, I guess.

Nailer is not a really kick-butt kind of character; he's more of a squirrely, cunning boy.  I did like him.  I actually liked him more than any other character in the story.  None of the characters had great redeeming qualities, except for Nailer.  You had no idea who was going to turn on Nailer next!

Overall, I think its worth reading; like I said it was very well written.  And I had no problem getting through it. And I think I will read the sequel, just to see what happens next!  3 stars!