Imagine that you’ve got till dawn to finish seven deadly rides, riding on a Japanese kamikaze plane while being attacked by the Americans. These rides contain personal fears, intensiveness, and a memory from the past that is wanted to be forgotten. If you do not make it through the rides, you are either dead or trapped forever. This is a situation sixteen year old Blake has to face when he is invited to a mysterious carnival.








I would highly recommend this book, Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman, for you to read. The suspension and descriptive details of this book is what makes it great. It gets the reader to understand more about what is happening in the book because while reading, you could clearly see what is going on in your head. The details of this book make it seem like it’s a movie. For example, in the scene where Blake finds himself on the first ride, describing the tiger he sees behind his friend, Russ, and the lion appearing in front of him.
“I was looking at the purple and gray tiger behind him, at how its wooden eyes appeared to track his movements. The creature right in front of me was a menacing lion painted bright blue. Was it my imagination, or was its snarling mouth an inch wider than it had been a moment ago?”

In this passage, you can see how it describes the animals very well. This can give a picture in your head about what is happening, the purple and gray tiger watching his friend and his movements and the bright blue lion standing right in front of Blake. The author of this book also describes the characters of this book well. He uses a lot of metaphors to describe the characters’ appearance and explain a lot about the characters’ background as well. For example, Blake explains a girl, Cassandra, he just saw…

“This girl was beautiful. Beautiful in a way that even now is hard to explain. Like an impressionist painting in a soft gallery spotlight…Her hair was long and red-the kind that must have been brushed a thousand times to make it flow in a perfect fall of copper silk. And there was something about her eyes-blue as glacier ice, yet hot as a gas flame-reflecting the chasing lights of the midway.”


The passage shows a lot of details about Cassandra and compares her appearance with metaphors. This passage also explains what Blake thinks about Cassandra when he first sees her.


I would say that this book is the most intense book that I have ever read. When I first began to read Full Tilt, I thought of it just as an ordinary book. As I went on, I realized that this book was more interesting and different from other books that I have read because the other books would be about people’s lives that happen every day, but this book is different. It is about something that can’t really happen in life such as riding on a kamikaze plane, seeing your mother as a big blue whale, and seeing your brother’s face as the Great Sphinx of Egypt. This book has you to read new things and have a lot of imagination.
Also, when I started reading, I noticed how the author would change your opinion on what will happen later in the book. First, you would think that Blake will finish all the rides in the end. Then later you might change your mind about that because the author shows a lot of conflict that would make it seem like Blake will never make it. This surprises the reader about what happens when they come to read farther in the book.

Full Tilt can also relate to our lives because it teaches us about overcoming our fears and to have hope in something that you can finish. In the book, Blake overcomes his fears and finds hope many times during the story. The lesson of the book also relates to life because people everyday would have fears that they would want to overcome and having hope about something that they could accomplish. A personal example about me is when I’d lose hope on winning our basketball or volleyball game because of how poorly we’d do against the other team. Once I found hope again, I did better and met my goal that I wanted to accomplish- win the game. An example in the book where it shows Blake losing hope on finishing the rides is shown in this passage…

“They merely ripped my watch from my wrist, figuring I’d have no further use for it. It was the one thing that had stayed with me from ride to ride, an ever present reminder of the passing night.”

This passage shows how Blake will not use his watch anymore; since he used it the whole time he finished rides to check the time. He now thinks there is no use of it if he will not make the seventh rides.

If you like suspense, then you would definitely agree that this book is wonderful. It is filled with great description and action, while at the same time, will fill you with surprises.