Review Detail

Ellen Hopkins is a New York Times bestseller. She is author of many young adult novels. Tilt is her newest novel and surely very close in quality to her other books. Tilt is the story of three main teens, Shane Mikayla, and Harley. They are all trying to discover themselves and learn about the things they have contact with. It is a companion novel to her adult book, Triangles, which is the story, told from the parents’ point of view. It is told from the points of view from each of the three main characters. The intended audience, young adults, should find this to be a good book.
At first while reading this I was confused as to who was related to whom and how, because all of the characters are related in some way. I believe that some of the experiences that they go through, have been written about a lot but she takes a fresh view on them. I defiantly would recommend this book to other teens who like her books and that like books about real world problems.
She developed this book well. Her descriptions of the events that happened were great, I felt like I was there having the experiences as well, but not way too much. The events are presented in chronological order with interchanging viewpoints. I think this book had accurate information. At the end she places a list of statistics that pertain to the things the characters go through. A teen pregnancy where the father leaves after the mother decides to keep it is a common subject but one I think that teenagers should know more about. Also pregnant mothers should know more about their options and what happens after they choose one, so that they don’t choose one and then regret it. The problems of rape, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, teen sexuality and finding oneself are the most explored topics in this book with quite a few others. Tilt makes you think “What would I do if I were that person or going through what they are going through?”
Tilt is the story of three teens. Shane is gay and thinks he’s found the man he loves only there’s a catch. He also has a sister who is struggling to keep her life. Then there’s Mikayla who thinks she will be with the boy she’s currently with forever, only when he doesn’t buck up and take responsibility for his actions does she realize he was never that great. Lastly there’s Harley who is struggling to find who she is. She does a complete turn around with her character and then Lucas does something not so great and she realizes the she’s spent the last little bit of her life as the wrong person. These teens are all interconnected somehow; family, friends or other things. Throughout this book they all learn things and Ellen Hopkins sticks to her true style with surprises at every turn.
Her characters are all people that I could know. They could be people in my school; they could even be people in my family. In fact I identified with Shane a little bit more than the rest because I had a brother who had Down’s syndrome and at certain points in the story I realized that sometimes I felt the same way he did. I think that Ms. Hopkins must’ve spent a lot of time developing them, everyone in the story is three dimensional.
Some of her major themes are popular themes and ideas. There’s one that you can make your own choices despite what other people think. There’s not everyone is who you think they are. These are just a couple of the themes that she explored in Tilt.
The plot was great. If I were to draw out the “hill” diagram we use in school, there would be a lot of little bumps and some big ones in there too. The three biggest climaxes are mixed in with the little ones so you don’t get a ton of tiny ones then a bunch of big ones. I think that her opening was good and the ending great. It leaves the possibility for a sequel and I believe that she should write one. I would defiantly read it; I want to know what happens to these characters, especially Shane and Mikayla.
At the end of every poem she has a phrase that is similar to the one that she uses at the beginning of the next one. Also at the end of each set of poems about one person she does one poem from one of the bigger characters but not the main ones. After that she goes to the next character.
The novel is very clear but not exactly simple. There are a lot of little interconnected characters and quite a few subplots as well as the main plot. There’s not much dialogue but you get what the people would say if they were to talk. There's also not much humor because it isn’t supposed to be funny. There are some jokes made that are supposed to be sarcastic.
It is set in Nevada but it’s not really that significant to the plot. I remember a few instances where it was gloomy outside at times when you would expect it to be gloomy.
Overall I thinkt that Tilt is very well written. I like the storyline and connected well with the characters, certain ones especially. I didn’t want to put it down but, I had to or else I wouldn’t have been able to get all of my homework done. I loved this book and all of her other ones. She’s a writer all her own and I recommend her to all teens that are struggling with something because she most likely has written a book about it.