Full Tilt

A simple horror book about an amusement park isn't good enough for Neal Shusterman. Oh no, he could never write anything so simple as that.

Full Tilt is... chilling. And moving. And deep. As fiction fans like to say, "it says something about the human condition." When I first read this book five years ago, I loved it. It terrified me and thrilled me, I suppose just like an amusement park does for other people. Rereading it this time, though, brought a lot of things to life that I had missed before because of my young age and inexperience.

Blake dealing with survival guilt. Quinn dealing with depression. Maggie and Russ have their own problems that aren't really explained, but they're still there, which makes even those two supporting show more characters believable. The way Blake slowly makes his way through ride after ride, gaining confidence and determination, is just plan old impressive.

And the rides are chilling to the bone. Terrifying. Neal Shusterman's ability to make stories come to life is awe-inspiring.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has or has had survival guilt or depression. And I would strongly recommend this book to everyone else too. show less

I know a lot of people really like Neal Schusterman. He’s one of those authors I’ve had on my TBR for years, but for one reason or another, I just haven’t read yet. Trust me, it’s not for lack of desire – I actually have a hardcopy of Scythe on my shelf I got on a good special a couple years ago that simply hasn’t popped out of the TBR Jar yet. I got my copy of Full Tilt for $3 on Audible a couple years ago, and it’s been sitting on my audiobook TBR ever since.

In fact, I have no definitive reason why I decided today would be the day to read it. I was scrolling through my Audible and saw the title and thought, “Sure!”.

It’s was exactly perfect timing.

While I know other people will scream praises of his more recent show more novels, I’m really glad I started with Full Tilt. I’m afraid if I didn’t, I wouldn’t like it as much as I did. Full Tilt is like a love letter to Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes crossed with the campy thrills of a Goosebumps novel. Thirteen-year-old me would have loved this book. Thirty-year-old me did as well. It was just the right level of horror to be interesting but not gory, and there were so many elements in the book that kept me on edge. Schusterman did a great job of building a ghost carnival overflowing with imagination. It sucks the reader in… literally, and figuratively.

In the modern world of YA., Full Tilt probably comes off as oversimplified. The characters are impulsive and genuine and emotional. They react rashly, and care about shallow things. And they’re sixteen, so all of this makes perfect sense. The characters in this novel are the most realistic teenagers I’ve read in a while. Adult readers of YA expect unreasonable levels of maturity from their characters, but guess what? I don’t think any of us were perfectly rational, calculated people at that age. I know I wasn’t! Their flaws make them that much more real.

Despite the setting and the length of the book (only xx pages), Schusterman’ not only manages to provide a plot with a ticking clock and great rising and falling actions, fabulous world building, and multilayered characters… he manages to deliver so many small gems of wisdom in each experience. On one hand, these wholesome moments can be cheesy. But it’s also great writing. Full Tilt feels properly like a book written for teens, with a purpose other than entertainment. Schusterman has a clear message of strength and acceptance and self-worth he wants his readers to take away from this experience.

Generally speaking, I liked this book so much. I had no expectations, then I walked into a book about a secret carnival, kidnapped siblings, and a battle for the main character’s soul until sunrise? Any one of those things would have had me picking up this book. For me, Full Tilt is one of those diamond-in-the-rough books that comes out of nowhere and has me wanting to scream about it to the world. It’s horribly underrated in a genre that has become so focused on female protagonists, adult consumers, and sappy romance. Full Tilt is fun, spooky, and delightful. I wholeheartedly recommend you add it to your TBR. show less

I have a thing for circuses and carnivals, I'm not quite sure why, I've only ever been to one (rather shitty) one when I was little. But something about them fascinates me, always has. In particular, movies, books, and tv shows that revolve around them always grabs my attention. This novel revolves around a carnival, but it is not just any carnival. This carnival takes prisoners. You must have an invitation to enter, and you have to make it threw seven rides before dawn, or you are stuck there forever. The rides are not all that normal, they appear to be, but once you get on them, they are deadly, somehow drawing on the riders worst fears in the most horrible ways. The narrator for this novel is a teenager named Blake. He lives in a show more small town with his mother, her revolving door of boyfriends and his maniac of a little brother Quinn. Blake is the good kid. He got a scholarship to Columbia in NYC, drives safely, keeps his room neat, doesn't hurt people's feelings, thinks before he acts, etc. His little brother, is the exact opposite. After going to a carnival with his two friends, Maggie and Russ (Quinn tagging along) Quinn has an attack that seems like an overdose. While he is rushed to the hospital, all Blake can think about is the invitation to a different carnival that he received on the way home. Somehow, he knows Quinn is there. He and his friends go back to save Quinn and Blake ends up learning a hell of a lot about himself. A lot to do with an accident he was in on a school bus when he was seven.


Its a short novel, only about 200 pages, and its a quick read. The characters are believable and interesting. But what I really liked about it was how thoughtful and interesting Blake's narration was. It makes you think about fear, and survival and what can make people tick. It was an interesting read. show less

Reading Full Tilt reminded me of staying up all night reading some juicy young adult horror novel by someone like R.L. Stine, except with more of a message. One night when Blake and his brother Quinn are at an amusement park, a mysterious worker in a ball-toss game slips him an invitation to ride, and an address. After a terrifying ride on the Kamikaze roller coaster, Blake's had about enough of thrill rides for one night and has no interest in going. When Blake wakes up and something is wrong with his brother, Blake knows he's got no choice but to check out the amusement park.

What he finds is a sinister game where riders have to ride five terrifying, life threatening rides before dawn to escape the black magical amusement park. Failure show more means being stuck in the park forever. Success is facing all your very worst fears embedded in what, from the outside, look like ordinary amusement park rides. Despite a niggling sense that the facing your fears angle is all a bit too after-school special, Full Tilt is an addicting book. The ride ideas and the way Blake's fears are woven into them are pretty ingenious, so ingenious that it takes a while even for Blake and, by extension, readers to figure out how exactly they relate, but once it's revealed, it makes sense. It's the first book I've read in a while that has demanded that I stay up late to finish because I just had to know what the next ride would be and if Blake would succeed in saving himself and his brother. If you're looking for a fun pageturner of a book with a serious twist, Full Tilt is definitely one to try. show less

"They say you never know who's the real hero and who's the real coward until you're looking death in the face. I've always been afraid of plenty of things, but fear isn't what makes you a coward. It's how depraved your heart becomes when fear gets pumped through it. I would never climb over the backs of my friends to save myself."Would you? Blake has always been careful -- ever since he was the lone survivor of a school bus crash when he was seven. His brother Quinn has always been the opposite -- rash and impulsive, and always getting into scrapes requiring Blake to rescue him. Tonight is no different -- Quinn has disappeared from the local carnival, and Blake finds him at home, comatose, with an invitation that Blake had been given to show more another carnival. Blake goes there only to discover that the price of admission is your soul, and the only way out is to survive seven nightmare rides before dawn. No one has escaped the carnival yet, but if Blake is going to save his brother, he's got to try. Each ride is based on one of Blake's deepest fears -- but every ride has a way out as long as you survive it. Surreal, scary, and quite the wild ride all the way through! 7th grade and up. show less

Full Tilt is a short story that is quick paced and fun to read. It feeds off the characters fears and puts them to the test.

After going to a fair ground and playing at one of the stalls, Blake is given a inbred looking teddy (his words not mine!) with a secret invitation hidden in one of its pockets to visit a mysterious fair from 12am till 6am!
Blake is a headstrong, slightly scared boy traumatised by a past event that he wont let go of, refusing to be pressured by his older thrill seeking brother Quinn to go he puts it out his mind until later he is woken by ambulance lights flashing outside his window and paramedics in Quinn's room. He gazes into his brothers open eyes and sees a fairground.
Together Blake and his two friends follow show more the directions on the invitation and enter into a fairground that consumes those to afraid to overcome their fears on the rides.

I didn't really know what to expect from Full Tilt, all I knew was I loved the Unwind series by Shusterman and wanted to see what else he had going on in his wonderful imagination. This book was simple. Ride 7 rides by dawn and you may leave, until then you are trapped. The rides morphed into the deeply placed fears of the characters and if you couldn't overcome your fear then you would be stuck on the ride forever, becoming part of the fair.
A grim and entertaining read that wasn't too predictable and kept me wanting more. Full Tilt was a unique read. show less

Wow--that Neil Shusterman has a great imagination! The main character, Blake, is a teen who has survivor guilt after being the sole survivor of a school bus crash when he was seven years old. No one has ever talk about it with him but it has been festering in his unconscious, controlling the careful way he has lived his life. His brother Quinn, as so often happens, has taken another road--he lives recklessly, needing constant bail-outs which Blake thinks are his responsibility to provide. Full Tilt is set in an amusement park, where Blake goes, once again to rescue his brother. In this alternate reality, Blake and his friends must successfully get through seven terrifying rides by dawn, or be forever trapped in the park. The book is a show more fast-paced thrill ride. As an adult, I was wondering at each ride, why is Blake being made to experience this? What is the lesson for him, and for his brother and friends? Shusterman writes a thrilling page-turner that manages to relay a message about facing ourselves and overcoming our challenges. It's short, only 224 pages, which might make it a good choice for reluctant readers. Would be a good pick for middle and high school boys. show less