I'm not crazy about calling these kinds of books teen fiction. It is a bit dismissive...like a Buffy book or something. Don't get me wrong, I love Buffy but some of these books deal with themes and ideas more in the literature genre. Can I call this Young Adult fiction?

From the back cover:

andrew Kinnear has dreamt of becoming a ship's engineer and travelling the world. but as his apprenticeship at Dalrossen Dockyard begins, he quickly realises there is much more to his dream than he bargained for. There are unwritten rules in his new workplace that he will break at his peril -- a fearsome pecking order and strange rites of initiation...

who are his allies, and who are his enemies? In sorting this out, Andrew can only watch in horror as the situation get worse -- much worse.