Paolo Bacigalupi’s young adult dystopian novel Ship Breaker (2010) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the recipient of both the Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book and the Michael L. Printz Award for young adult fiction. The story takes place in a postapocalyptic future in the United States, somewhere west of old New Orleans. The human race is facing economic and environmental devastation due to climate change, and the Chinese economy is now dominant. Most coastal cities, including New Orleans, are underwater as a result of the melting of the polar ice caps. Meanwhile, people on the Gulf Coast are struggling to survive. Divided into economic clans, those in poverty subsist on menial labor, scavenging wire and metal from the rusted and wrecked tankers leftover from the Industrial Age.

This guide references the 2021 edition of Ship Breaker published by Hachette Book Group.

Content Warning: This guide contains references to violence (including child abuse), drug and alcohol addiction, and enslavement.

Plot Summary

The protagonist, Nailer, is a small-framed boy of 15 who works on the “light crew” of a team that scavenges the tankers. He lives alone with his father, Richard Lopez, who has an addiction to drugs and alcohol, on “Bright Sands” beach; his mother died of a fever when he was young. Nailer dreams of sailing on the new clipper ships, but he must support his father by crawling through the service passages of the wrecked ships, stripping pieces of copper wire to meet the daily quota. Nailer’s boss is Pima, a 16-year-old girl who is also his best friend. While hunting through an unexplored part of a ship, he falls through the ducting into a small room filled with oil. His fellow crewmember, Sloth, discovers him there, but leaves him to drown so she can take his place as the “scuttle duct” (43). Nailer escapes by opening a hatch that shoots him and the oil out through a tear in the ship’s hull; however, a rusty shard of metal stabs him in the process. Sadna, Pima’s mother, sews him up and tells him “the Fates” have something in store for him.

Nailer’s father passes out from drugs and alcohol as a hurricane approaches. Sadna rescues Nailer’s father from the storm as Nailer and Pima seek shelter in a cave. After two nights, Nailer and Pima return to the beach, which the storm has scoured clean of all buildings, and begin to scavenge for food. While they fish and crab on a barrier island, Nailer sees a luxury personal clipper ship that has run aground. There is only one survivor: a corporate heiress named Nita, who calls herself “Lucky Girl” after learning that Nailer’s nickname is “Lucky Boy.” Both Pima and Nailer believe their luck has changed because the salvage on the clipper ship is worth more than they’ll make in their entire lives. However, their luck runs out when Richard discovers the teens and their find.

Richard decides to kill Nita for the salvage on her ship, but Pima attacks Richard with a knife. He easily disarms her, but he lets her live because he owes her mother, Sadna, a blood debt for saving him from the storm. He also lets Nita live because her family will pay a reward for her. Nailer’s wound from his ordeal in the tanker ship becomes infected, and he sleeps for three days before the antibiotics that Richard purchases take effect.

After three days, Nita is forced to reveal to Pima and Nailer that her people will not be coming for her. She fled from her home with the clipper ship crew after her uncle initiated a hostile takeover of her father’s corporation. If her uncle Pyce’s people catch her, he will use her as leverage against her father. Nailer plans an escape; after a brutal fight, he kills Blue Eyes, a member of his father’s crew. Sadna and her crew help in the rescue. Afterwards, Nailer decides to help Nita find her father’s people. Joined by a genetically engineered “half-man” named Tool, they escape to Orleans II by jumping a “maglev” train.

In Orleans II, Nita and Nailer take menial jobs and wait for a friendly ship from Nita’s fleet to arrive. The clipper ship Dauntless arrives, but Nailer spots his father on the docks as well. Thinking that Richard is with the Dauntless, Nailer swims out to the ship to check it out. After the Dauntless’s captain kills his lieutenant, who was a spy for Pyce, Nailer returns with the loyal crew to retrieve Nita from where she was hiding. Upon arriving there, however, they learn from Tool that Richard, working for Pyce, has kidnapped her.

The Dauntless, under the leadership of her captain (Candless), takes Nailer aboard to follow the Ray, believing that is where Nita is. While hunting for the Ray, Nailer learns how to read and work in the gear room. Once the Dauntless catches up with the Ray, they learn that Nita is actually on the Pole Star, a warship that is now chasing them. The Dauntless outmaneuvers the Pole Star, running her aground in a storm. While the crew of the Dauntless boards the Pole Star and fights a battle on deck, Nailer searches for Nita below. Nailer comes face to face with his father and they struggle. Nailer kills his father in self-defense and rescues Nita. In a narrow escape from the sinking Pole Star, Nita helps Nailer to swim to safety. At the end of the narrative, Nailer is back at Bright Sands, preparing to sail north with Nita, Pima, and Sadna to join Nita’s father.

Ship Breaker was praised by Publishers Weekly:

Bacigalupi’s cast is ethnically and morally diverse, and the book’s message never overshadows the storytelling, action-packed pacing, or intricate world-building. At its core, the novel is an exploration of Nailer’s discovery of the nature of the world around him and his ability to transcend that world’s expectations (“Ship Breaker.” Publishers Weekly, 19 April 2010).