Apparently my stony heart is opening up once again to YA books... who knew? I was perusing my local library's audio book section, looking for something new to listen to at work, when I happened upon this title and remembered that it had been on my "to read" list for a while now. I was a little apprehensive given the back cover summary, which heavily emphasized "BUT THEN HIS LIFE CHANGED WHEN HE MEETS A BEAUTIFUL AND HELPLESS GIRL WHO COULD MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER" but nothing else on my to read list was on the shelf so I figured I'd give Ship Breaker a chance. 
 I'm very happy that I did. The book follows Nailer, a mid teenager of unknown age who is living in what basically amounts to indentured servitude scrapping old ships in drowning Louisiana. And yes, his life does change when he happens upon a beautiful heiress who initially cannot comprehend his destitute ways. But the novel is much less about Neeta (or Nita. Since I listened to the book I don't know how her name is spelled) as a damsel in need of rescuing and more about both her personal and economical relationship with Nailer as we explore this fictional setting. The plot of this book is very basic, almost laughably so. Poor boy meets rich girl. Rich girl offers money if returned to rich parents. Rival rich clan threatens to kill rich girl while rival poor people try to kill her for money. This coupled with the prominent damsel trope meant that I should by all accounts hate this book, and yet I really REALLY enjoyed it. 
 I think the reason the simple plot works in this case is due to the imaginative and colorful world building Bacigalupi created. You are slowly introduced to the world, beginning on a very small scale of the ship Nailer and his crew are scrapping. From there we see the shipyard, then the beach itself, then the village. He doesn't overwhelm the reader by showing us the entire scope of this world at once, which I greatly appreciate. I was completely engrossed in the setting and the way the different characters interacted within their physical and socioeconomic setting really was the driving force behind my enjoyment of the book. 
 The characters are not the most complex creations blessed upon the written word but they were developed enough that I had a good idea of how they would behave. Never once in this book did I have a rage inducing moment where I thought the characters were just being complete and utter idiots, which is something that happens to me more often than I would like. 
 There was only really one part of the book that I thought detracted from its overall cohesiveness. Around the halfway mark, Nailer and Neeta are discussing how the cities got to the drowned state that they are currently in and we suddenly go into a mini rant about climate change. Now, I don't mind at all that climate change was the reason for the country to fall into the state that its in when the book happens. It was implied earlier on and I thought that it was more clever than zombies/over imposing government/random flu outbreak killing everyone that normally happens in semi-dystopian novels. What bothered me was Neeta and Nailer started judging inhabitants of the world before drowning (i.e. us living now) about "how on earth could they be that stupid??? Didn't they see that this was happening?? Why did they ignore all the signs and keep drilling for oil???" The whole scene felt too much like a deliberate jab at society, and took me out of the experience of the book. I was suddenly made painfully aware that I was listening to a story and wasn't actually in this world. My mind immediately started thinking of "How would climate change deniers react to this scene? How completely outraged would FOX news be?" It broke immersion for me on a fundamental level and I wish the novel hadn't been that preachy. 
 Minor sidenote, the narrator of the audiobook did an excellent job. Many times I found myself getting extremely tense and worried for the characters, and I forgot that it was one person doing the voices. High praise for the narrator. 
 All in all, I greatly enjoyed this story. Between this and The Coldest Girl in Cold Town, I think that there is room in my heart for YA books again. I most definitely will be reading or listening to the follow up novel Bacigalupi wrote.