Books like Icebreaker by Lian Tanner

Petrel is known as the Nothing Girl and is an outcast on an ancient wooden ship that has drifted unchanged for 300 years. The crew has forgotten the vessel’s original purpose and now lives in three hostile tribes, leaving Petrel without a group. After her parents were thrown overboard as punishment for a crime, she survives in the ship’s darkest corners, trusting only two gray rats. The fragile peace is shaken when a boy, barely alive on an iceberg and suffering from amnesia, is brought aboard. He has no recollection of his name or past. The tribes are wary of outsiders, so Petrel hides the boy, hoping the strange newcomer might become a friend. Little does she know that the ship keeps a secret the boy has been sent to uncover and destroy. This story explores themes of exclusion, trust, and the hidden dangers that can lurk beneath everyday life, set aboard a long‑married ocean vessel in a world of water, isolation, and undocumented history.

First publish date: 2015