Full Tilt (novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Full Tilt
Author	Neal Shusterman
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Adventure novel
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	September 1, 2004
Media type	Print (Paperback), (Hardcover)
Pages	208 pages
ISBN	ISBN 9780689803741

Full Tilt is a young adult novel by Neal Shusterman, published in September, 2004 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.^[1] Full Tilt has won numerous awards, including many state book awards.^[2]

[edit] Plot

The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia.
Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.(May 2008)

Brothers Blake and Quinn, along with their friends, Russ and Maggie go to an amusement park one day. Blake wins a park game and receives an ugly stuffed bear with a school bus yellow vest and an invitation to a rave-type amusement park later that night. Blake doesn't want to go, despite being urged by his friends. He decides to leave the park and, after dropping off Russ and Maggie, goes home. As he and Quinn walk up the porch they see their mother with her boyfriend of the week. Embarrassed with being caught she surprises them by announcing her engagement. Quinn stalks off and Blake turns down a gift from the guy saying he doesn't need to be bought. Later that evening the boys end up fighting before bed. Blake is awakened during the night by sirens, and finds out Quinn is in a coma-like state. As they carry Quinn out Blake discovers the bear on the ground and realizes that the invite is gone, and looking at Quinn, swears he can see carnival lights in his eyes. Blake imbued with this information picks up Maggie and Russ and heads out to the ravine where the after hours park is being held. Once there he finds out that someone has been expecting him and that his brother had been there for a while already. As they are admitted they are given the rules of the park which simply are: ride seven rides by dawn or you can't leave and are forced to become a worker in the park for the rest of time, thinking he was joking they enter anyway, but soon find out a terrible truth; The worker wasn’t lying and now they are in a race against time. They try to stick together but unfortunately Blake loses Maggie and Russ at the second ride. He later finds Maggie in his fourth ride they finish it together but he lets go of her hand at the very end forcing him to once again go on alone. The next time he sees a friend is in-between rides five and six at which time Russ attacks him for his "own good", because Cassandra made a deal with him saying that if he kills or stops Blake from continuing, he gets to leave the park. He sees his brother for the first time in his third ride but Quinn runs away. They meet again in Blake's sixth ride and Quinn escapes it with him. They ride Blake's last ride together and survive. Blake's world is crushed when he is informed that the last ride was only his brothers six and time is up. He makes a choice that he will ride an extra ride for a bet: if he wins he leaves with not only his brother but Maggie and Russ as well, who had been trapped in "the works", and if he loses he will stay forever. In the end Blake beats the ride, conquers his fears and saves the people he cares about.

There were seven different rides at the amusement park at that people had to rise to survive

[edit] Characters

Blake is the protagonist. He experienced a traumatizing event when he was young, but has no recollection of it until the book's end, when he is able to accept it. He finished high school at 16, and has been sent to college.

Quinn is Blake's 13 year-old brother. Quinn loves thrills and has many facial piercings.

Russ is Blake's best friend. He is strong and is Maggie's girlfriend.

Maggie is Russ's girlfriend and Blake's friend. She constanly is worried about her outward appearance.

Cassandra a mysterious worker at the park. She is deceiving and lures teenagers and children into her supernatural park. She is the park's soul and is the one responsible for all worldly disasters that leave no one alive. Blake eventually is able to defeat her and free the park's prisoners.