Ship Breaker

Another of those books where I wonder if it got slapped with a YA label simply because of the age of the main characters. There's violence on par with The Hunger Games, possibly even exceeding THG, as, unlike with Katniss, these characters aren't horrified by their potential for violent acts, violence is part of who they are, part of their daily lives. Regardless of whether I think it's miscategorized or not, it's still an excellent, quick, read. There's nothing all that deep to it, but it still doesn't feel like fluff. It definitely snags you up into the story immediately, and races along without pause... it could've been a one-day-read, had I not had to do that whole Sleep Thing, so it got stretched into two days instead.

The realism of the post-environmental-apocalypse world in which they dwell was quite nice. There's no need for explanation or backstory, really... if you watch the news, you know how things got to be the way they are. (Global warming, anyone?) The cultures and societies that have built themselves up afterwards make sense as well. While little of the story actually involves ship-breaking, since the action quickly moves from there, what little you do see is both interesting and, in a way, horrific, as ship-breaking yards exist in reality, scattered around the globe.

I particularly enjoyed the specific location/setting along the Gulf coast, as it's one I'm familiar with in real life, having grown up there, but that's just an added personal bonus. Who doesn't enjoy when stories set in areas that are known to them?

You can read more about the book here...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10798814-ship-breaker