September 19, 2012

Review: Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Tilt
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Publication Date: September 11, 2012
Pages: 604
Source: Hardcover/Library

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 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: I absolutely loved this book! I am one of the people who read Triangles so I really enjoyed not only reading about the kids lives during what was happening, but also what the kids perspective of their parents struggles were. This book definitely took you on an emotional roller coaster and really confronted those real life issues so many teenagers deal with! You definitely don't want to miss this book!

I want to start with Mikayla. She's the typical almost 18 year old whose head over heels for her boyfriend, Dylan. So at first I thought they were great together. They definitely loved each other when there was nothing complicated about their relationship. But as soon as the pregnancy happened, it was like Dylan shut off. I immediately started disliking him after that. He had no regard for Mikayla's feelings whatsoever regarding the baby. Mikayla really needed him! She was really struggling with her decision about what to do concerning the baby. And all Dylan was telling her was to get an abortion or he'll just leave her. That was seriously messed up and honestly, I'm glad he left Mikayla, not because she deserved it, but because she didn't need someone like that in her life and she was better off without him. I definitely thought Mikayla made the right choice to keep the baby. She struggled with that decision but she decided it was right to keep it in the end and i really respected her for that. Unlike Dylan, she didn't take the easy way out and she earned a lot of respect for stepping up with that. 

Shane. He was dealing with a whole different set of issues. His sister is dying, he's gay and his own dad doesn't even respect him because of that AND his parents have grown a million miles apart. I felt so bad for him sometimes, especially with his sister dying. He knew it was coming, yet all he could do was wait for it to happen and he couldn't help her in anyway. Then there's the fact that he's gay. So many other people accepted him for who he was but one of the people who mattered the most couldn't, his dad. His dad was just so rude to him for a while just because he was gay. I had no problem with him. I loved Alex as well. Alex coming into Shanes life made it ten times better. He lit up Shanes life and it just made him a happier person, even in spite of the bad things happening around him. I was however happy that Shanes dad did finally come around to accepting him AND accepting Alex along with him. I felt for his entire family (and Alex) when Shelby died! They all loved her s much and it really hurt them all. Though it was hard seeing Shane spiral out of control after Shelby's death. And especially with what happened to Shane at the end. That scared everyone so much and I'm glad hes ok. Alex seriously saved him!

Harley. She is younger than both Mikayla and Shane. She's all concerned about losing weight, and getting boys to notice her like they do her best friend Bri. She also wanted to experience new things, which I thought wasn't exactly the best at her age (because of the type of experiences that kept coming up). She really let herself experience new things when she met Lucas and she really changed herself into someone she wasn't with him and that kinda upset me, reading it, and her friends. You shouldnt have to change yourself for a guy to like you. They should like you for who you are and if they dont well, it sucks for them. I really hated what happened to her at the end, because it was just wrong and no one should be taken advantage of like that, but I also felt like she fell right into Lucas' trap by being so naive and believing everything he said. 

5 Stars!