Tilt

Written by Ellen Hopkins, Jacques Roy and Candace Thaxton

Narrated by Kirby Heyborne, Madeleine Maby and Rebekkah Ross

Love—good and bad—forces three teens’ worlds to tilt in a riveting novel from New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins.

Three teens, three stories—all interconnected through their parents’ family relationships. As the adults pull away, caught up in their own dilemmas, the lives of the teens begin to tilt...​

Mikayla, almost eighteen, is over-the-top in love with Dylan, who loves her back. But what happens to that love when Mikayla gets pregnant the summer before their senior year—and decides to keep the baby?

Shane turns sixteen that same summer and falls hard in love with his first boyfriend, Alex, who happens to be HIV positive. Shane has lived for four years with his little sister’s impending death. Can he accept Alex’s love, knowing that his life, too, will be shortened?

Harley is fourteen—a good girl searching for new experiences, especially love from an older boy. She never expects to hurdle toward self-destructive extremes in order to define who she is and who she wants to be.

Love, in all its forms, has crucial consequences in this standalone novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Feb 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781442368125

Ellen Hopkins

Ellen Hopkins is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of numerous young adult novels, as well as the adult novels such as Triangles, Collateral, and Love Lies Beneath. She lives with her family in Carson City, Nevada, where she has founded Ventana Sierra, a nonprofit youth housing and resource initiative. Follow her on Twitter at @EllenHopkinsLit.

Reviews for Tilt

[sixteendays · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This review is of the Advanced Reader's Edition of the book.Tilt is a companion story to Hopkins' adult novel, Triangles. As I have yet to read Triangles, all of the characters in this book were new to me. Tilt follows the story of three teenagers, Harley, Mikayla, and Shane. Harley is 13 and desperate to fall in love for the first time. Mikayla is 17 and in the midst of the most powerful love of her life. Shane is 15 and starting his first real relationship while trying to escape his family drama.The voices of these three are not the only ones present in the book. Although the book is not divided into chapters, the character's POV is switched by interspersed pages (inverted with white text on black) of secondary characters relevant to the story. At first, I found this to be too jarring. It took at least 200 pages for me to understand how these characters were connected to each other, who was friends with whom and who was cousins with whom. (A character list or "family tree" at the front of the book would have been helpful to reference.) However, by the end of the novel I really appreciated hearing the voices of these other characters. For example, hearing from Shelby, Shane's severely disabled younger sister that has never been able to speak, was very powerful. Likewise, hearing from Lucas, a guy that Harley begins experimenting sexually with was the only way to give the reader an insight into what a huge creep he is.It is an understatement to say that the lives of these three are completely changed from the beginning of the book to the end. Not only do major life events play themselves out on the pages, but the audience can detect the difference in their personal narrative as time goes on (even though the book only covers about 6 months of real time). I could see each person grow and change and oftentimes feel how they lived uncomfortably in their new realities.As I finished this book, I felt completely empty. This is not a happy-ending fairy tale (though anyone familiar with Hopkins' works wouldn't expect it anyway). The stories of these characters, (Shane especially) were so harsh and uncomfortable that I was gasping for a little light at the end of the tunnel. Much like real life, though, I was only left with a vague promise of change on horizon.

[S. S. Yolken · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Shane and Alex make this book worthwhile, Mikki/Mikayla also makes it good, but Harley's whole POV crosses into abuse and hidden awful scenarios that do not get resolved, nothing here besides Shane gets resolved, while Hopkins has written great books, this one is only good because Shane and Alex are good characters. The rest are trash heaps that don't need to be or unused potential.

Hopkins has a lot of character archetypes she leans on, but this book had a ton of leaning, and while the ending was intentionally vague, it ended on the vaguest POV character who brought nothing to the book but more problems and annoyance.

3 stars, there's much better out there.

Cross post from Goodreads and Librarything.

[chaoticbooklover · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I picked this one up because I previously read Triangles. I was not as interested in this as I was Triangles, though it was nice to see things from the children's perspective.

[mariannelee_0902 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I’ve only ever read Perfect by Ellen Hopkins, and I absolutely loved it. When I faced Tilt, I thought I had another great book in my hands.What really ruined this book for me was the fact that I could not get emotionally invested in the characters’ lives.Mikayla never really spoke to me. I couldn’t understand her romance with Dylan. I really couldn’t see their romance as anything other than a very unhealthy co-dependency. Mikayla’s every thought was about Dylan, and about how she could twist and turn and bend herself in every which way to make him happy. We only start to see real character from her when she finds out she’s pregnant, and even then she’s over the top, jealous, petty and immature. I really wished throughout the whole book that someone would give her a reality check, because her chapters were definitely very difficult to tolerate.Harley got on my nerves more than anything. She's is tired of being a “good girl”, so she wants to change that. Harley does so many things that I really wish never to read again. I’m 18, and seeing a 14-year old make so many subsequent bad decisions was agonizing. I ached to be her mother and slap some sense into her. All I can really say about her overall outcome is: it was expected.The only point of view that I really enjoyed was Shane’s. Shane’s story was the one that captivated me the most, and the one that didn’t make me want to roll my eyes most of the time. Shane and Alex’s relationship was so different and so genuine from the other relationships in this book. They had to overcome religious parents, judgmental peers, health issues, mental disorders, etc. There were so many things happening between them, and it was so nice to see how their relationship would twist and turn and accommodate to what was happening. I loved this part of the story.Between each chapter there was a point of view of a different minor character, and at first it was good. After that, it turned really unnecessary to the plot and basically useless.The narrators for this audiobook were wonderful. They each knew how to represent their characters and did excellent jobs at portraying the emotions. They really played at my heartstrings in some parts, and I really loved that. However, not even the brilliant narration could have salvaged the book for me.The ending was by far the worst part of this book. Because of the ending I had to remove a star from my rating. When I had thought that I was finally going to see how everything was resolved, the book ended. It ended abruptly; every single problem was left unresolved. Every character’s story was left wide open. I really don't know what happened with any of them. I was really disappointed at this.Overall, if it wouldn’t have been for the disappointing ending and the lack of connection to most of the characters, I would've enjoyed this book. However, I do recommend audiobooks with the same narrators, because they did a wonderful job.Rating: 1.5 stars

[darkartsy · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Okay. I've been reading Ellen Hopkin's books for quite a while, and I do enjoy most of them. I gotta say, that I think I enjoyed Triangles more than Tilt. It's gotten to a point to where these stereotypical story lines have been done by her before, and it's getting a little tiring. My love for the prose hasn't changed though. It just seems incredibly unrealistic, at least Harley's story did.

I absolutely hated her story. I found it unrealistic in the sense that I find it hard to believe that a 17 year old boy would want to have anything to do with a 13, eventually turning 14 year old girl. Virgin or not. Not to mention she did just about everything imaginable with him. Oral sex and naked photos is a-okay, but god forbid if she goes all the way with him. I mean, the naked pics he took of her and sent around to everyone wasn't enough to tell her that this idiot is bad news. She gets angry at him for sending those pics, but stops once he tells her that he wanted to show her off. Are you kidding me? Yeah, I just hated her story in general.

Shane's POV was alright I guess. Again, nothing I haven't read in her books before. It started out well enough, until the end, which seemed a bit disappointing. I was hoping for some insight on what happened to all three of them.

Mikayla's POV was the predictable one. Teen pregnancy, father bails as soon as he hears, blah blah blah. I was more curious about what she's going to decide to do about the baby, since Melissa changed her mind.

Again, I thought Triangles was a lot better than this one. It's an adult book, but in all honesty, it's pretty much the same. At least their stories are a tad bit more interesting. If this is your first Ellen Hopkins book, I'm sorry. Read some of her earlier books, specifically Crank or Impulse.

[mirandalg14 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure what to do with books that are amazingly written, but ultimately disturbing and depressing. So this gets a middle of the road rating. I didn't necessarily like it, but I admire her ability to write how and what she does.

[madamerazz · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

My VOYA: 3Q 3PI wasn’t a huge fan of Tilt. There were multiple storylines with characters in crisis, enough so that each storyline could have been made into an individual novel. By trying to incorporate all of it into one novel (SPOILER teen pregnancy, HIV, drug use, death of family member, rape, I really could go on…), it just felt like too much. I did care about what happened to the individual characters, but I felt that the storylines and characters were overall underdeveloped. The tone was also a little after-school-special preachy for me. Apparently this is a tie-in novel to a previously published adult book, Triangles, using the parents as main characters, and maybe this book would have worked for me if I had read that first. The verse format was interesting and several of the chapters were clever in the formatting and could be used as stand-alone poems.

[alsparks324 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Shane, Mikayla, and Harley are facing many young adult challenges including homosexuality, teen pregnancy, and family dysfunction. Very straightforward in the usual Hopkin's style, these problems are faced head on with a variety of consequences.

[celenam511 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to like this book. The format of the book made it difficult for me to really get into the story. I know it is geared towards YA, but felt the book had too much cavalier drug use for YA readers.

[desilu42 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another amazing book by Ellen! This book is a companion to the adult novel triangles and takes place during and after that book. I liked learning more about the kids who we already had background knowledge of. The end of the book makes me want to know more but even so I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

[briedrake · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought that this book was great, but the numerous amounts of characters did get confusing. I had to constintly write down what was going on with who. The ending was unusually casual for the way that this book was formatted.

[teamdewey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you are a fan of the Ellen Hopkins book then I feel you would enjoy this book. This book has an adult companion that was actually released first, titled "Triangles"

[sareiner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

After reading hopkin's novel triangles, i was excited to read this one since it was from the point of view of the children instead of the parents. Its better to read triangles first because then the things the children talk about make better since. the book is mostly about 3 of the children. shane (gay) who has a 4 yr old sister who is terminally ill, makayla who get pregnant, and harley who is 13 and desperate for guys attention. i Loved this book and i read it in a day because it just draws you in. NOt to give anything away, but this book is a page turner full of surprises but with a not so happy ending.

[sublunarie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This review is of the Advanced Reader's Edition of the book.Tilt is a companion story to Hopkins' adult novel, Triangles. As I have yet to read Triangles, all of the characters in this book were new to me. Tilt follows the story of three teenagers, Harley, Mikayla, and Shane. Harley is 13 and desperate to fall in love for the first time. Mikayla is 17 and in the midst of the most powerful love of her life. Shane is 15 and starting his first real relationship while trying to escape his family drama.The voices of these three are not the only ones present in the book. Although the book is not divided into chapters, the character's POV is switched by interspersed pages (inverted with white text on black) of secondary characters relevant to the story. At first, I found this to be too jarring. It took at least 200 pages for me to understand how these characters were connected to each other, who was friends with whom and who was cousins with whom. (A character list or "family tree" at the front of the book would have been helpful to reference.) However, by the end of the novel I really appreciated hearing the voices of these other characters. For example, hearing from Shelby, Shane's severely disabled younger sister that has never been able to speak, was very powerful. Likewise, hearing from Lucas, a guy that Harley begins experimenting sexually with was the only way to give the reader an insight into what a huge creep he is.It is an understatement to say that the lives of these three are completely changed from the beginning of the book to the end. Not only do major life events play themselves out on the pages, but the audience can detect the difference in their personal narrative as time goes on (even though the book only covers about 6 months of real time). I could see each person grow and change and oftentimes feel how they lived uncomfortably in their new realities.As I finished this book, I felt completely empty. This is not a happy-ending fairy tale (though anyone familiar with Hopkins' works wouldn't expect it anyway). The stories of these characters, (Shane especially) were so harsh and uncomfortable that I was gasping for a little light at the end of the tunnel. Much like real life, though, I was only left with a vague promise of change on horizon.