Ship Out Of Luck by Neal Shusterman REVIEW

I love the Antsy Bonano series, and I wish that it had been around what I was in Jr. High. The characters are so much fun to read. Not that I don’t enjoy this series now as a recent college grad, but had these books been published ten years before, they probably would have been some of my favorites.

Ship Out of Luck is the third book in the Antsy Bonano series, the first and most popular being The Schwa Was Here. One of the great things about this series, is that even if you haven’t read all three books, you can still pick up any of them and not be too confused, which is especially nice since they come out years apart. This time, Antsy and his family have been invited, well it has been demanded of them, to accompany Old Mr. Crowley on a cruise trip to celebrate his birthday. As usually, trouble seem to find Antsy before the ship even leaves port, when he becomes convinced that someone jumped for the upper deck and into the water. Of course no one believes him, but he meets a strange girl who breaks into peoples cabins, hides out in life boats, and has been smuggling and storing canned food. There is something mysterious about her, and as hard as Antsy tries to stay away from her, she keeps showing up everywhere Antsy goes on the ship. Even Antsy’s best friend Howie takes to calling her a stalker.

But this girl isn’t the only thing that’s weird on the ship, rumors of a Viking ghost run rampant, and both Howie and Mr. Crowley’s nice start acting weird and hanging out with different sorts of people then they do back home. Could this all be coincidence, or is the Bermuda triangle really starting to affect how people behave?

There are some political messages in this book as well. While in today’s world it is hard not to be hammered with political agendas in books, I still sighed inwardly when it started to come up. I think that is the only thing that I didn’t like about the book. Possibly because it is aimed at a younger audience, Mr. Shusterman felt the need to make is obvious what he was trying to get at, but I think the book and its ideas could have been achieved without being so annoyingly obvious. While immigration is a hot button issue, it didn’t need to be so bluntly put.

Again, this series is such a fun read, I was ecstatic when Neal Shusterman tweeted that he had written another book and ordered it right away. I would recommend this book to people ages 11-15, although it can be enjoyable even by adults. There is a brief moment towards the end with one of the minor character’s questioning his sexuality, and while that topic shouldn’t be ignored, some younger people may not fully understand the struggle. People who have real Neal Shusterman’s other young adult novels will also enjoy this, as will people who enjoy Louis Sachar and Roahl Dahl novels.