Ship Breaker is set in a future where global warming has changed the tide levels, the ice caps no longer exist, oil is like gold, and ships are wrecked all along the coast of the gulf- a future that seems almost too realistic.

Nailer and his crew work as ship breakers- they go into the wrecked tankers and scavenge what they can. Life is rough: Money is scarce, there is little food and the housing is built from whatever they can find. Everything changes though after a hurricane hits their town and Nailer, with his friend Pima, find a crashed clipper (a rich person's boat). While scavenging the boat, and finding tons of goods!, they discover a young girl who some how survived the wreck. Nita is the daughter for a rich man and bargains with Nailer and Pima for her life, but just having her there is going to change everything for Nailer and Pima.

The question that Nailer asks himself throughout the entire book is: What is family? He questions if loyalty or blood are the answer to this question.

The book is filled with fight scenes and life or death situations. Ship Breaker is a book not only for dystopian lovers, but for readers of action/adventure as well.