Full Tilt

Blake’s story is about his relationships with his family and friends, with a focus on the role of trauma in those relationships. The first chapter concentrates on developing the characters of Blake, Quinn, Maggie, and Russ because their shifting relationships will provide much of the novel’s emotional heft.

Blake and Quinn are foils. While Quinn is not Blake’s antagonist, he functions as an ongoing hurdle between Blake and his eventual goal (escaping the park). Blake is reliable and mature; as he puts it, “I’m the constant. Constantly studying […] with the regularity of a celestial clock” (3). On the other hand, “Quinn’s life was a bullet in a barrel ready to explode” (6). Finding common ground between them will prove necessary and difficult. The brothers’ relationship is explored in these early chapters through the loss of Quinn’s hat. The hat “feature[s] a rude cartoon of a hand with its middle finger up,” (1) and Quinn’s quest to retrieve it shows the strained relationship between him and Blake: Blake watches Quinn scale the coaster from a safe vantage point, but he ultimately saves Quinn’s life. The main plot of the novel—Blake’s journey to survive all seven of Cassandra’s rides—reflects this core conflict.

Maggie and Russ play smaller roles in Blake’s journey, and their weaknesses foreshadow the difficulties they will face in Cassandra’s park. Maggie is obsessed with her image, even in a funhouse mirror: “to hear her talk, you’d think she was dumb and ugly” (3). While Maggie’s foibles do not affect the way Blake sees her, the same is not true for her boyfriend, Russ. Blake refers to Russ as “a disenfranchised jock. He muscles up regularly, […] but never lasts more than a month in any of the sports he’s tried” (2). From the beginning, readers know that Russ is image-conscious and easily distracted—traits that will factor into the novel’s central plot. Blake also hints at romantic feelings for Maggie. When she touches Blake’s hand, he “went a little red” (16). This complication will impact his interactions with both Maggie and Russ and create further obstacles.

The park’s danger, and its relationship to Blake’s trauma, is foreshadowed early in the novel. Blake is unaware that the Kamikaze includes a fake derailment. His response gives readers a first clue to the bus crash that dictates his view of the world around him: “Seven years old, spinning out of control” (14). This trauma is the central emotional hurdle of the novel. While Cassandra is the story’s antagonist, Blake must make peace with his trauma before he can escape her plans. While the novel is not yet a supernatural tale, there are hints of its impending paranormal elements. In the first chapter, Quinn confesses, “I go places sometimes” (9), which foreshadows Quinn’s spiritual presence at Cassandra’s park later.

When Blake and his friends first enter the Kamikaze’s line, the long wait gives Blake an excuse to avoid the ride. However, park staff “removed the chain that blocked the ride’s second line—a line that was completely empty” (11). Blake mentions feelings of destiny or déjà vu throughout these early chapters, and the sudden opening of a second line aligns with these concepts. Even in these early pages, Cassandra is manipulating Blake’s world to lure him into her park.

Cassandra’s introduction is deceiving. When Blake first sees her, he describes her in romantic terms: “This girl was beautiful. Beautiful in a way that even now is hard to explain” (17). She isn’t an immediately threatening antagonist. As a villain, Cassandra relies on psychological manipulation. Using her beauty to convince Blake to play the ball toss game is an early indication of her methods, and a few instances foreshadow her threatening nature: The teddy bear she gives Blake wears “a bright yellow jersey bearing the number 7. School bus yellow,” (19), which reminds him of the school bus crash. After Blake reads the invitation, Cassandra vanishes and there is another employee at the booth, who does not know who she is.