Review: Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Summary: 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 jealously. 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.

Review: Kim here! Today I'm reviewing Tilt by Ellen Hopkins. I really liked this book. The plots were compelling with a few shocking twists, and at times it was hard for me to put this book down. Ellen Hopkins is one of my favorite authors, and while this book is great, I don't think it's her best. Maybe it's just because I haven't read one of her books in a while (it's written in poetry, switching characters every few pages), but I found it hard to keep track of all the characters and their parents and who's friends or cousins with whom. 

One thing I loved about this book (and all of Hopkins' YA novels) is the author's voice. It's poetic but realistic. A lot of the time, with YA books, the teenagers are your stereotypical "OMGZ, we should TOTES go shopping today lol!!!!11" characters. I found these characters believable and relatable because, as she has shown in her other books, Hopkins really seems to understand young adults for what they really are and not what much of the media depicts them as.

This is a very good book, and other than having to keep flipping back to remember the characters, I enjoyed it. I snuck it in my lap under my desk at school. I read it in the food line in the cafeteria. I really felt for these characters, and I needed to know what happened to them in the end. And overall, I was more than satisfied. Tilt has earned a place on my bookshelf, and I hope you feel the same way after reading it.

If you want to read this book, I suggest starting out with Hopkins' first novel, Crank (one of my favorite books--seriously, Ellen Hopkins is amazing), and working your way to the newer ones.