Full Tilt

By: Neal Shusterman

Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg

Sixteen-year-old Blake has always been the responsible one in his dysfunctional family - the one who drives safely, gets good grades, and looks after his wild younger brother, Quinn. Quinn is his brother's opposite - a thrill-seeker who's always chasing the next scary rush, no matter what the cost. But Quinn and Blake are in for the surprise of their lives when they're thrust into the world of a bizarre phantom carnival - and their souls are the price of admission.

In order to save his brother, and himself, Blake must survive seven different carnival rides before dawn. Seven rides; it sounds easy. But each ride is full of unexpected dangers, because each ride is a reflection of one of Blake's deepest fears. And the last ride is the worst one of all. That's the one that confronts Blake with a terrifying secret from his past - a secret he's been running from for years.

Full of roller-coaster twists and turns, Neal Shusterman's latest novel is an Orpheus-like adventure into one boy's psyche.

©2003 Neal Shusterman (P)2018 Tantor

Roller Coaster Ride

Great concept for a YA novel for boys -- teen has to take seven deadly carnival rides before dawn to save his brother. The rides start out as standard ones -- bumper cars, tilt-a-whirl, carousel -- but then grow increasingly fantastical and horrific as they go along. And they ultimately tie in to a traumatic real life bus ride the teen survived as a boy.

Neal Shusterman has a lot of fun with the metaphorical gold mine of a carnival and its rides, relating them to various forms of teen angst. Adults will find many of them facile and obvious, but never mind, they are perfect for the actual target audience, teenage boys. A short adrenaline rush of a book by a master YA craftsman who should be better known for his body of work.

The only problem is with one aspect of the otherwise excellent narration -- the supposedly frightening and alluring Cassandra gets a voice that is inappropriately childish and whiny.

Reminds me of R.L. Stine books I liked as a teen

Full Tilt brings the nostalgia and reminds me of one of those R.L. Stine books I read when I was younger. That is probably one of the reasons I enjoyed the “ride”. I recently experienced my first Neal Shusterman books, the Scythe series, which were fantastic and the reason I picked this up when I seen it on sale. This is quite a different experience from those books as it’s a short single book that’s very entertaining as keeps the action and suspense flowing. Keep in mind though, the target audience of this book is probably young teenagers, so if you’re looking for something that’s in-depth this is probably not the book for you. Overall this was a fun quick read and I look forward to enjoying more books from Shusterman.
The narrator, Josh Bloomberg, was fantastic. He really varied his voices and tone which added to the suspenseful mood the story was trying to create.

Super Creepy!

I can't remember whether I grabbed this as a freebie or on sale. Whatever the reason, it was an awesome story, filled with crazy intrigue and really dark. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys dark paranormal or horror. The narrator is awesome, and the story is terrifying in the way that Final Destination was scary. The imagery will stick with you.

narrator was ok. story was weak

I will be returning this one. skipped to the end because I was pretty sure of what it would be. so much repetition of his turmoil that it was not a surprise. Glad I did not drag through it.

GREAT book, frustrating reader

Full Tilt is a wonderful book. I've taught it for a few years with both special education and general education secondary students. Even kids who generally hate reading have absolutely loved this book, with a handful trying to check out the book and read ahead of me. It's a thought-provoking story that explores all of the rough corners of childhood and what it means to deal with trauma and fear. For secondary students, this is a great and emotional read while being highly entertaining the whole way through. The historical references and multiple layers of meaning woven throughout make it a great novel study for both literary and informational text. I highly recommend it!! The reader for this book, however, was nearly terrible. His voicing for some characters is rather off, particularly for Cassandra. He reads Cassandra like an old woman (instead of seductive and mysterious as she's written), incorrectly reads key words, and mispronounces a variety of common words in the book. This leads to great confusion, particularly if you're only listening to the audiobook. With students, this is extremely frustrating. As there are so many of these issues, it seems like something that should have been caught in production and easily corrected. For an audiobook recording, I expect much better. As it's the only audio version I could find, there are no other options unless I record it myself. In short, I highly recommend the book, but Audible should consider creating a better recording of it. If you look for audiobooks as strong performances of great reads, this is not it. You might enjoy your own read aloud much more.