Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Genre: Contemporary
Publishing year: 2012
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Rating: 3/5
Series: Companion to Triangles

Synopsis:
Witnessing the fallout from the poor choices their parents make and the lies adults tell themselves, three teens are clinging to the last remnants of the secure and familiar world in which they've grown up. But the ground is shifting. What was once clear is now confused. Everything is tilting.
Mikayla is sure she's found the love her parents seem to have lost, but is suddenly weighing nearly impossible choices in the wake of dashed expectations. Shane has come out, unwilling to lie anymore about who he is, but finds himself struggling to keep it all under control in the face of first love and a horrific loss. Harley, a good girl just seeking new experiences, never expects to hurtle toward self-destructive extremes in order to define who she is and who she wants to be.

Review:
I don't feel that this book lives up to the standard set by Hopkins' other books. It just felt flat to me. Before reading Impulse, I could only remember one time I had cried over a book, and that book was A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks. But Impulse and several books after it made me burst into tears.  Just not this one. At least part of my problem is that I couldn't connect with any of the characters.I honestly didn't like a single one aside from Alex, and he wasn't involved enough for me to grow attached.

The biggest issue is the number of narrators. In every other book by Hopkins we might have three to five main characters, it just depends. But it seems like every character in Tilt had a say. Mikayla, Dylan, Tyler, Shelby, Shane, Alex, Harley, Lucas, and a few others. While getting a peak into character's head was interesting it really made it hard to focus on the story. I felt myself getting turned around and confused several times and it became frustrating when I began mixing up the characters. Whose sister is that? Wait is this girl's parents the ones getting divorced or is it that other girl. By the end of the book my head was spinning off into space.

The only character I came close to liking was Shelby, but knowing her fate from the get go stopped me from becoming emotional over her narrations. Having already read Triangles, I knew most of the plot spoilers for this book already, but I did like getting into Mikayla's head. She seemed childish in the first book, and while I'm not ready to completely change my opinion of her, she did take a small step to redemption in the end.

Question: How many characters are too many?

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

First impression: This book is dull. If I had picked it up in a store and read the first chapter, it would have immediately found its way back to the shelf. After a few chapters, I did realize that the author is setting up the plot and giving us a wealth of background information. Sadly, it reads like an autobiography and the fact that it has been highly praised and placed on summer reading lists kept me going.

A quote I liked: “He served me tea and biscuits in a tea set that tinkled and rattled at every touch; he treated me like a grown-up; and he told me a story. Or rather, since Christians are so fond of capital letters, a Story.”

Religion is a topic that is discussed throughout this book and while I am an atheist and I’m sure that people of differing religions might find some things written to be offensive I found it engaging. The above quote, made me chuckle quietly. Pi was raised Hindu and during his first brush with Christianity the quote is an observation with a touch of gentle humor. If nothing else this book allowed me to see a Hindu’s assessment of different religions. Before reading this book, all the characters I had heard of were either Christian, agnostic, or atheist. To me this book as academic value, right from the start. Shortly after he accepts Jesus he also joins in the Muslim faith, and by this point he is a polytheist. 

But what I really want to discuss is the ending of this book. So, from here on they be spoilers. SPOILERS!

I could compare this novel to a favorite short story of mine, The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton. It’s a story I read for the first time in middle school and it’s one I’ve never forgotten. I won’t bother with the backstory. A man is in an arena and two doors are before him. Behind one is a tiger, which will surely be his death, and behind the other is a maiden who he will marry. His lover has discovered which fate is behind each door beforehand and she gestures discreetly to the door he is certain holds the more pleasant fate. But the story ends just as the door opens. Did his lover send him into the arms of another woman, willing to see him happy with someone else if only so he can live? Or did she send him to the tiger, jealousy overpowering her? It’s a tough call and there is no right or wrong answer to this question. The reader has to decide for herself what happened next. 

Much is the same with Life of Pi. As we go through the novel, we don’t question the story. The ship sunk and Pi is the only survivor along with a 450-pound Bengal tiger that he shares a lifeboat with. No other humans are seen until almost the end of the book. It’s an incredible story and I was filled with awe as I read. Then we get to the last chapter where he is interviewed. No one believes him and the men ask for the truth. A story without animals they say. He gives them one, and it’s a story much darker in tone. The question is which story is true? Did he survive 227 days with a Bengal tiger or did he escape onto a lifeboat with his mother, a cook, and a sailor, who were all killed? Did the cook murder first the sailor, then his mother? Did Pi kill the cook? After a bit of reflection I have to believe that the second story, without the animals must be true. 

The zebra that jumped into the boat with Pi is symbolic of the sailor; both have broken their leg in the fall. The hyena symbolizes the sailor, and the orangutan symbolizes his mother. The Japanese men interviewing Pi state exactly that in their analysis. Now for the reasons I believe it to be true. When the ship is sinking Pi remarks on several animals being loose in addition to those on his boat, but this is hardly credible. Someone would have had to set them free and the only person with a key was Pi’s father. Surely one or two might have been freed; perhaps a few cages might have been opened things to some crashing and banging about. Still it is easier to believe that four humans made it into the lifeboat than three animals and a human. 

Each time something happens to Pi it happens to his companions. When the tiger is hungry or thirsty so is he. When the tiger goes blind, his eyesight follows quickly. They deteriorate at the same rate without turning on each other. If a sixteen-year-old boy were truly in a confined space with a starving tiger that couldn’t lift his head up, he would keep all the food and allow the animal to starve. But since I believe Pi and the tiger are indeed one individual I believe that the books is about Pi’s struggle with his own humanity and the horrible acts that he has seen and committed. 

The fantastical story of his survival with the tiger could be viewed as an elaborate metaphor, one that Pi embellished after spending months at sea bored to the point he might have started to believe his own tale. Even more likely, it is a story he confounded so that he wouldn’t have to face the reality of his situation. I’ve read several young adult books where a teen has live through a tragedy, often times an abusive home and the character will fabricate a reality that allows them to live without facing the truth.

Still there is no way to truly know which story the author indeed to be taken as truth. I felt this story was very dull and boring at the start but having finished it, I find it marvelous. It’s no wonder that it is called a modern day classic. I wouldn’t want to reread it but it is a book that I would recommend to a friend. 

The question: Which tale do you believe? Animals or humans?

Doppelganger by David Stahler Jr.

Most unusual book I’ve read in a while. I’ve never read a book where a doppelganger has been the protagonist; well I’d have trouble recalling a book that featured a doppelganger at any point. 

At first he doesn’t have a name and for a while when he assumes the form of Chris Parker he goes by that name, but towards the end his girlfriend Amber gives him his own name, Gabriel. Even after reading over two hundred pages of him living as Chris, I feel that Gabriel suits him better. 

This story had many parallels to Macbeth, a point I need to make since the book mentioned it a dozen or so times. Gabriel likens himself to Macbeth, who just like him is a killer although neither of them have the stomach for it. He compares the scene in the play where Lady Macbeth listens as Macbeth plans to kill Banquo and does nothing to hinder him, to the Parker home. The father Barry frequently beats Echo, Chris’s sister and neither the mom nor Chris interferes. This bothers Gabriel on a deep level and this is where we see him change.

If I were asked to describe him in one word, I would choose pacifist. He is not a violent creature by any means. In the prologue, which was what hooked me to the book, we see that he can barely stand to kill a cricket and later when it comes time to murder a human; it has to be either an act of mercy or self-defense for him to stomach it. 

By the end of the book, I think he is more capable of killing and perhaps more at ease with his own nature but I don’t feel that this is the end of his story. He is still largely a pacifist and he has a challenging road ahead of him.

Not sure that I would read this book again but by no means would I toss it in the rubbish pile.