The Rides Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman

1414 Words3 Pages

This novel tells the story of a sixteen-year-old named Blake. One day, when Blake went to Six Flags with his two friends, Maggie (with whom Blake is in love with) and her boyfriend, Russ, and his brother, Quinn, Blake received an invitation to a carnival from a strange, gorgeous girl, Cassandra. Blake thought that the idea of going to the carnival is stupid, until he realized his brother stole the invitation. Blake convinced his two friends to tag along with him, so they could go find Quinn. As the characters entered the carnival, they learned that they have to survive seven deadly rides by dawn.

The first ride that the characters experienced was a carousel. Normally, if you rode on a carousel, you would ride on plastic or wooden animals. On this carousel, you rode on real animals! They seemed normal at first, although, as you kept riding, they came to life. The animals had extremely loud, exotic colors. It became an animal stampede, and Blake recognized the girl that was riding on the dinosaur/hog creature. The girl was Cassandra, the girl that gave him the invitation in the first place. Cassandra tried to distract Blake from the ride, however Blake, Russ and Maggie found a way to ride past all the other animals and escape from the ride.

The second ride of the story was a bumper car ride. Maggie and Russ got into one car, as Blake rode himself in another car. As the ride went on, it became a demolition derby in 1931 Chicago. As Blake was driving, he saw many Billboards with people that had the same facial expressions- everyone had a fixed look. Just then, Blake remembered something that happened in the past. As a child, Blake had survived a deadly school-bus crash. He could never talk about it, it ...

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...Quinn that Blake was free to go home, however, Quinn had to stay at The Works with Maggie and Russ because he did not complete all seven rides. Cassandra said under one condition Blake could rescue his friends and brother, if he completes one extra ride. Blake immediately accepted. Blake had to ride the Tea Cups. As Blake started to ride the ride, it becomes a flashback of Blake?s childhood memory, the school bus crash. All those horrible memories just came back into his head, over and over. Before, Blake did not want to think about anything that happened on that day, but he really forgot something important. Before, Blake thought that he could not open the emergency exit. Although, after replaying the whole incident in his mind, Blake remembered? he did open that emergency door and jump off the bus! The ride ended, and everyone was freed from the park.

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