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Customer Reviews

Full Tilt

2008-10-18
This book was an assignment for my 6th grader and I read it with him. I loved the book, it moved quickly and was constantly moving from one dilema to another.

From a teacher's perspective

2007-09-09
As a reading teacher, I am always looking for new and exciting young adult literature for my students. While "Full Tilt" may not be a new book, it is certainly an exiting book that I have difficulty keep in my class library. Every year, students argue over who gets to check out the book first. One student said, "Any book that begins with, 'It all started the night we died...' has to be good!" . Mr. Shusterman's book is what contemporary Y.A. literature needs to be. It is intelligent, fast paced, exciting, and a topic kids want to read about. If you are looking for a book that just about any teen will enjoy reading, look no firther!

no tilt at all

2007-03-13
This book absoulutley sucked. If you bought it it would be a waste of money. The beginning is hard to understand the middle is slow and the ending is absoulutley pointless. This book is a waste of paper, your money and your time. All in all if you bought this book you should check into a mental home.

Confronting Fears

2007-02-20
Blake is sixteen and incredibly responsible. His room is always clean, he is an excellent driver and he has already been accepted early into Columbia University. He will be able to skip his senior year of high school to start there. His brother Quinn is the exact opposite. At thirteen he already has metal earrings all over his face. He is irresponsible, messy and always looking for a thrill. After Blake's experience as a seven-year-old on a bus that spun out of control, Blake has had enough thrills.

One day at an amusement park with two of his friends and Quinn, Blake is given a card by the girl running one of the booths. The card has an address on it and a weird symbol. Supposedly this place is a super exclusive amusement park, open only at night, from midnight until dawn. It seems creepy and Blake doesn't really like amusement parks, anyway, so he disregards the card. Later, though, after a fight, Quinn falls into what looks like a coma. Blake is pretty sure some part of his consciousness has escaped to this amusement park, though, and he resolves to go and bring his brother back.

Thus begins a nightmare like no other Blake could have imagined. When he enters the gate of the park, he is told that he will have to ride seven rides by dawn to get out. Otherwise, he will be stuck in this place forever. The rides start off as something ordinary, such as bumper cars, but then as he rides they change into something more real and horrifying. Blake is ending up having to face all of his worst fears. Will he be able to get through and bring his brother safely home?

I loved the concept of this book! The idea of amusement park rides that force people to confront their fears is a great one, and I liked the leadup to what actually happened on the bus, which was obviously a traumatic event for Blake. I liked that Blake's devotion to his brother allowed him to face his weaknesses and fears over and over.

I didn't like the characters of Maggie and Russ. They didn't really add anything to the story and they weren't strong enough characters to really make a difference. I would have liked it better if the book was just the story of the two brothers.

"No Tilt!" - a collection of various junior high class reviews

2007-02-07
1. Full Tilt was way too predictable. The beginning started off weird and the ending was boring and empty. The best part of the book was the middle because it was exciting, yet still only decent.
2. The book was suspenseful and thrilling throughout every chapter. The author gave us a vivid description to help us visualize the ride.
3. We thought this book was very suspenseful but it got slow toward the end which was disappointing.
4. We thought this book was a page-turner that kept us on the edge of our seats throughout each chapter.
5. Full Tilt was a fast-paced novel that successfully created alot of suspense.

Full Tilt

2006-10-06
Sixteen-year-old Blake and his younger brother, Quinn, are exact opposites. Blake is the responsible member of the family. He constantly has to keep an eye on the fearless Quinn, whose thrill-seeking sometimes goes too far. But the stakes get higher when Blake has to chase Quinn into a bizarre phantom carnival that traps its customers forever.

In order to escape, Blake must survive seven deadly rides by dawn, each of which represents a deep, personal fear -- from a carousel of stampeding animals to a hall of mirrors that changes people into their deformed reflections. Blake ultimately has to face up to a horrible secret from his own past to save himself and his brother -- that is, if the carnival doesn't claim their souls first!

full til, by neal shusterman reviewed by M.A.Channon 2006-10-05

A sixteen-year-old boy named Blake is given an invitation to a mysterious theme park, but his rambunctious younger brother, Quinn, takes it from him. Blake must save his brother from the dangerous theme park, before it's too late. Or else the horrible amusement park owner will doom them to a future of enslavement in the park.
One day Blake goes to a Six Flags with his brother and his friends Rick and Maggie. Blake is the only one in the group that does not like the roller coasters. Blake decides to play a few of the games while he waits for some of his friends to get off of the ride. He wins a prize, It's an ugly teddy bear with a strange card in its pocket that appears to be an invitation to an amusement park. Blake does not plan on going, but his brother does, so he takes the invitation from Blake.
Almost instantaneously, Blake comes home and finds an ambulance taking away his comatose brother. Blake knows that somehow, his brother is at the park so he goes to find him with his friends Maggie and Rick. As soon as they enter, they know that this is no ordinary amusement park and they are afraid to go on any of the rides. Unfortunately, they have to ride seven rides by dawn to get out of the park.
Each of these rides is dangerous, each more than the next. There are rides that simulate shipwrecks, kamikaze flights and risky car fights. The rides are designed to attack you from within by using what's in your had to create your worst nightmare or to teach you a lesson. Each ride reveals a deep, dark truth about the rider that makes it more difficult to get out and go on the next one.
When Blake finally meets up with his brother, he has difficulty pulling him from his ride because Quinn plays the part of king in the ride. The other people running the ride, the people who never made it out of the park, help Blake because he has made it further than anyone else.
When Blake manages to finish all seven rides, he finds that his brother has not. Blake must make a deal with the owner of the park, he must ride one more ride that proves much worse that he could have ever imagined. Blake unearths the memory he most wanted to forget in order to save his brother. Blake must remember hurting other people save himself. By doing this, the park falls apart and all of the people leak out.
Blake wakes up in his crashed car with Maggie and Rick, they vow secrecy and make changes in their lives based on what happened in the park.
I liked this book for many reasons but I had reasons not to like it, I think it is worth your while to read this book.
I liked this book because it was very suspenseful. The character development in this book was also great. Each ride defines and matures the character, creating a better understanding of who that is. I did not like the character of Blake very much, some of his actions made little sense to me. Being the protagonist of the story , believe he should be very likeable.
I thought that the story was suspenseful because the reader is always questions in the story, this piques the interest of the reader. Often the answers of these questions unearth more questions. "Will Blake and Quinn make it out alive?" "How does the park work?" "How does the owner of the park know so much about the people on the rides?" are jut some of the questions the reader may ask..
I thought that the character development in this story was also very good. Each ride gets your weakness, your fatal flaw. Maggie had been self about her appearance, so she finds herself in a hall of strange mirrors that deform your appearance in impossible ways. Some mirrors changed how you felt about yourself, some made you feel stupid, inadequate or fat. Rick went on a ride so miserable that he showed his weakness by striking a deal with the park owner and was forced to harm Blake. Quinn went on a ride that made him king of the realm, but he faced a mummification if he didn't make it out.
Overall this was a good book about two brothers in desperate need of learning about each other and themselves. The horrible park was a mere intervention that forced them to make dramatic changes in their lives. It started with an invitation, went to obstacles beyond imagination and ended with a lasting bond.

BaKeR_sKaTeR123,(treasure island) 2006-05-16
Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman is absolutely the best book EVER!
In the book a boy goes to an amusment park and wins an invitation to another scary amusment park.There he has to survive 7 rides befour dawn or he will become part of the scenery.Can he do it?And save his big brother?Find out by reading this book.TRUST ME.....you'll never put this book down!

The Best Book Ever Written on this Entire Earth! I Wish I Could Give it 10,000 Stars! 2006-05-11
Opinion: The title says it all! I've read it 5 times and am reading it for a 6th! It never gets old!

Summery: 16 year old Blake finds himself in a new predicament. With the beautiful and intriging Cassandra (She rules!) who owns and created this evioland malignent park that traps people in her prk and forces them to work for her, unless they can ride all 7 rides in about 3 hours! Will Blake be the first ever to beat Cassandra? Or will he find a way to make it a win-wi situation? In the end, he must face an important and hard fact of his life and child hood to save his fearless brother Quinn, his friend Maggie, and her boyfriend (and back-stabber) Russ, and get himself out? It's all up to him, and his memery. See for yourself in this faboulus, exciting, original, fascinating, thrilling, intriging, beutiful, amzing (I could go on forever!), work of art. READ IT OR YOU WILL NEVER EXPERIENCE THE PAGE TURNING THRILLS IT BRINGS! YOU CAN'T GET THIS FEELING EVER AGAIN! IT IS THE BEST BOOK IN THE WORLD! I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE THIS BOOK!

the best 2006-04-19
this was one of my favorite books. It has so much to think about there's love drama and some scary stuff.