Full Tilt

Full Tilt is a young adult novel by the American writer Neal Shusterman, published in 2003. It is a psychological thriller set almost entirely inside an amusement park.

Blake and Quinn are brothers, and the difference between them is where the trouble starts: Quinn is thirteen, more daring than his sixteen-year-old brother, and the one who wants the fastest and most extreme rides. At a fairground one evening Blake talks to a girl named Cassandra at a game stand and is persuaded to play, and having won he is handed a ticket to a different amusement park, one that is invitation-only and open all night. Cassandra then disappears from the park, and the bearded man at the stall has never heard of her. Blake takes Quinn and their friends Russ and Maggie along, and the rides turn out to be less like rides than tests: each one has to be completed before sunrise, and anyone who fails stays on it. The novel follows Blake through the park as he works out what is being asked of him and tries to get the others out.

Shusterman writes for young adult readers and often puts his characters into a situation where the rules have to be worked out rather than explained to them. This book keeps its cast inside one place for the whole of the story.