Full Tilt (Neal Shusterman)

Full Tilt
Neal Shusterman
Simon and Schuster
Fiction, YA Horror
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Sixteen-year-old Blake is a level-headed young man, focused and dedicated, the polar opposite of his reckless younger brother Quinn. But for Quinn, he might not have been at the amusement park with friends Russ and Maggie. He certainly never would've ridden the Kamikaze roller coaster... and he wouldn't have ended up at the carnival game booth with the strangely alluring redheaded lady, Cassandra. She offers him an invitation to another park, an exclusive park that only opens from midnight to dawn. Blake never would've considered going, except - once again - Quinn has gotten himself in trouble. Somehow he stole Blake's invitation... only he left his comatose body behind.
When Blake, Russ, and Maggie head out to rescue the boy, they find a theme park like nothing they could ever have dreamed, save perhaps in their wildest nightmares. Cassandra's park is filled with strange attractions and stranger staff - and if they can't finish seven rides before the park closes at dawn, they'll be trapped, the same as countless other lost souls. It seems simple enough, but none of the rides are what they seem, each insidiously crafted to exploit their greatest desires and fears and turn them against the teens. To rescue Quinn and save himself and his friends, Blake may finally have to confront secrets that have haunted him for nearly a decade - secrets he may not be strong enough to face, not even for the sake of his brother.

REVIEW: It's a straightforward setup, the evil carnival preying on human weaknesses, and Shusterman executes it competently in a tale exposing the terrors that underlie the thrills and the secret truths just beneath the surface of reality, secrets that could shatter the thin veneer of normalcy and happiness of so many people's lives.
Blake is the serious student, responsible and driven, who has already landed early admission at an Ivy League school; this trip to the theme park with wannabe-jock Russ and Russ's girlfriend Maggie is something like a last hurrah of childhood before he becomes - at sixteen - a college student living on his own in distant New York City. Blake should be excited, or terrified, or something, but he has built calluses over his extreme emotions, stemming from past traumas that come back to haunt him in the impossible theme park. Quinn is everything Blake isn't, and would never let himself be, wearing rude hats and face piercings and often lacking a shred of personal preservation instincts once he focuses on something he wants (or is told he can't have). Both boys also have the added burden of being in a single parent home after their dad walked out, followed by a string of unpleasant men in their mother's life - more incentive for Blake to dig into his self-appointed position as the family rock and leveler, and for Quinn to get more piercings and more attitude. Even the promise of a possible light at the end of their personal tunnels, with Blake's college prospects and Mom finally landing a decent boyfriend, only makes things worse, to the point where Quinn runs off to Cassandra's hidden theme park and Blake has to go after... each carrying all that extra baggage for the park's rides to prey upon and entrap them with. Russ and Maggie have their own baggage, too, if with less backstory (they are, after all, just the sidekicks), which further complicates Blake's rescue attempts. Everyone who passes through the park's gates must confront their inner demons and the lies they've been telling themselves about what kind of person they truly are, and the three friends are no exception, forced to see truths that they may not be able to handle. The horror becomes more personal for Blake not just because of his own past trauma and the danger to his brother, but because Cassandra has taken a peculiar personal interest in his progress.
Some of the rides seem a bit too on the nose - a maze of mirrors presenting distorted images and self-doubts, for instance - but the surreal terror comes through decently for all that. The climax felt a trifle rushed, and the aftermath had one revelation that cheapened some aspects of one character in a way that nearly knocked the rating down a half-star. Other than that, despite the "evil carnival" thing not exactly being original, Full Tilt makes for a decently creepy thrill ride through one young man's darkest self.

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