Audio Book Review: Tilt

Title: Tilt.
Author: Ellen Hopkins.
Series: No.
Source: Publisher, for Review.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio.
Published Date: 2/11/14.
Links:
Book Depository
Goodreads

Summary:

"Love—good and bad—forces three teens’ worlds to tilt in a riveting standalone novel from #1 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 worlds 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 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."

My Thoughts:

Before I started on this one, I had so many thoughts running through my head, it was crazy! Ellen Hopkins has written and published so many meaningful and intense books, about VERY serious topics, and this would be my first one. To just name a few; Burned, Crank, Glass and Fallout. A lot of people have read (and in my case, listened to) Ellen Hopkins books and REALLY loved them!

Tilt definitely wasn't any different than any of those the books I just mentioned. Tilt had so many emotions, feelings, hardships, family and love in it! Everything, everyone said was true, and I absolutely loved every part of it!

Tilt basically follows three teenagers, Mikayla, Shane and Harley, through some of the struggles they face. From pregnancy, to death of a family member, to learning what love ACTUALLY is.

Mikayla's life seems to be going pretty good. She's in love with her boyfriend, Dylan, and couldn't imagine herself with anyone else. She does feel a few insecurities when it comes to Dylan, and their relationship, but all that goes away when the two get intimate.

Shane's life has been a bit of a struggle, since he expose his inner secret of being gay. He knows there aren't any guys at his school that might be interested in him, so Shane goes onto the internet to see who he can find there. One of the first people that pops up is Alex. Before Shane even meets him, he feels like Alex knows him better than his own family.

Harley, the youngest of the three main characters, is struggling with herself. She doesn't know who she wants to be just yet, but she knows she wants to be considered an adult, and as a woman by guys.

But things don't always go as planned, and sometimes we should be VERY careful of what we wish for.

Mikayla soon realizes that Dylan isn't the same guy she though he was, when Mikayla informs him that she's pregnant. Dylan completely changes his act, and tells her to get rid of it. When she says no, Dylan even threatens her, that he won't be in the baby's life.

Shane's disabled sister passes away and completely shatters his family into pieces. Throughout the years, Shane's held his opinions and feelings inside, but when he sees his mother breaking down and never once asking him, how he was doing, he can't take it anymore.

And on the other side of the spectrum, Harley is still struggling to discover herself. But doing it the wrong way, and seeking the wrong kind of attention from older boys. She even decides to send naked pictures to some guy, she hung out with just a handful of times.

Tilt follows these three stories, and shows us just how important family and love can be, especially in really tough times.

Final Verdict:

I'm going to make this one short, since I basically wrote you a novel already, but I LOVED Tilt. While there were a few situations, where I couldn't help but cringe about what one of the characters said or did, I still really enjoyed listening to this one.

I was a bit confused at first, since the listener was introduced to A LOT of characters right away, but I got into the swing of things within just a few minutes.

Overall, Tilt was a heartfelt and emotional read (or listen to?) that I couldn't get enough of. If that sounds like something you might like, I strongly recommend picking it up!