Books › Tilt
Tilt
626 pages
A raw, poetic plunge into the turbulent, life-altering consequences of first love and family fracture.
What it feels like
Told through the rhythmic, urgent flow of a novel in verse, this intense narrative captures the turbulent free-fall of adolescence when adult safety nets vanish. The reading experience is propulsive and emotionally heavy, plunging the reader into the raw, interconnected lives of three teenagers grappling with life-altering realities. As the characters navigate the crushing weight of terminal illness, unexpected pregnancy, and self-destructive spirals, the atmosphere remains thick with angst and the desperate search for connection. The poetic format strips away the extraneous, delivering concentrated bursts of heartache and longing. It is a perfect fit for readers who devour issue-driven, dramatic stories that explore the profound and sometimes devastating consequences of young love and fractured family dynamics.
- Mood
- turbulent
- emotionally charged
- heavy
- angsty
- Tone
- intense
- earnest
- dramatic
- urgent
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- the weight of first love · parental neglect · navigating terminal illness · teen pregnancy · self-destructive spirals · interconnected lives
- The writing
- Written in verse, the text flows with a rhythmic, poetic urgency that strips away excess to deliver raw, concentrated emotion.
- The arc
- The narrative plunges from the initial rush of young love and desire into a turbulent descent through heavy, life-altering consequences.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave intense, issue-driven contemporary fiction told through interconnected perspectives and fast-paced poetry.
Content notes
- teen pregnancy
- terminal illness
- HIV/AIDS
- self-destructive behavior
- jealousy
- parental neglect
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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