While "Salvage" is elegantly written and thoughtful, the slow pacing over 500 pages makes it a novel hard to recommend for most teens. Those that are into speculative fiction heavy on world-building and social critique will glean worthwhile meaning from it, but they have to overcome a slow winding plot that lets its most interesting aspects give it sparks of color instead of making it the propelling cause. it's almost like reading a YA novel from Margaret Atwood crossed with China Miéville, thick with intent yet not easily approached.