So, this is the book I abandoned, only to pick back up again when I realized just how much worse it could be. 
 It's still not great. Closer to 1.5* than 2*, but I feel like rounding up today. 
 Content aside, I think the biggest letdown with this book has to do with its construction. There's a trick to multiple PoV characters. You have to maintain each of them as a person without giving away the plot. Bacigalupi... doesn't quite manage that. 
 Theoretically, the story is told through the eyes of three people. Angel, Lucy, and Maria. In reality, only Angel and Maria are fully formed characters with clear motivations. Lucy exists to create plot and romantic tension, her knowledge and motivations frequently concealed from the reader until they're convenient for Angel to know. (view spoiler)[Accordingly, when her usefulness to the plot ends, she dies. (hide spoiler)] 
 The plot itself is more mediocre action movie than anything. Big on explosions, gore, and sudden twists (that weren't all that surprising), but low on actual tension for me as a reader. Something about betrayals every 10 pages just makes it start to lose its impact--especially when the characters don't seem to care for each other too much in the first place. It makes the Shock and Horror seem really put-upon. 
 Honestly, all that bothers me much more than the general ugliness of the (somewhat poorly-constructed) world in which the book occurs. Still, don't know that I'll try another book by Bacigalupi any time soon.