Thank you to NetGalley for this free preview copy in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book. It's definitely one of those books, "Once you start...you can't put it down". I needed to know what happens to the characters. It was well written, fast paced and you feel for all the characters. Highly recommend.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley but opinions are my own. This book had me hooked, and I finished it in about a day. Annie is questioning a lot about her life. And what a time to do that-during a natural disaster!

The writing in this book was beautiful and eloquent. I am shocked this is the author’s first book! I can’t wait to see what she puts out next!

It had me (a girl who realistically won’t encounter an earthquake since I live in the Midwest) terrified of the idea of an earthquake. I didn’t realize this was a real and likely possibility! 😬 I think the fact that I am a mom also increases that feeling. I could 100% feel Taylor’s desperation.

I wish the ending would have tied up a few loose ends, especially one in particular, but overall this was a super engaging book that I didn’t want to put down! Thank you for the opportunity to read and review!

I liked this! I was very intrigued by the description, and it paid off in the end. Very much a page-turner.

This was a gripping novel about the fallout after a catastrophic earthquake in Portland, Oregon.

The novel's narrator is Annie, a woman who is 9 months pregnant and nervous about bringing a baby into the world and a somewhat tumultuous relationship.

The book moves back and forth in time as we follow Annie's relationship with her husband from the start of their relationship to when they get pregnant and to the present-day after the earthquake.

It's an adventurous and emotional read that I think you'll enjoy!

I'm thankful to Simon & Schuster for suggesting the book to me after I requested Hum, another great read from them!

Thank you to #netgalley for this ARC of #tilt

Smart and entertaining, this compact novel is just the right length. I love it when publishers don't force extra pages or unnecessary padding. Let the story be the length it needs to be.

While the dictation to the unborn child might annoy some readers, it worked for me.

The story moves at a nice clip, and the main character's various interactions with the people around her, before and after the earthquake, ring true. I won't say she is an easy character to love, because she's not, but she comes across like a fully dimensional real person with faults, which can be hard to do from a craft perspective.

I recommend TILT for fans of literary fiction.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance e-galley; all opinions in my review are 100% my own.

"Tilt" is a compact novel that delivers a powerful impact. Set over the course of a single day, it tracks Annie, who is nine months pregnant, as she navigates the chaos of a massive earthquake and its aftermath. The story unfolds through a series of flashbacks while Annie makes a long and sometimes harrowing journey home from an Ikea, where she was shopping for a baby crib. These reflections prompt her to reassess her life choices and relationships. Poignant and memorable, Annie's story in "Tilt" is one that will resonate with readers long after the last page is turned.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon Element for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars. I would give it more stars if I could!

Wow. Read this book. Full review to come.

Ok I have had a few days to think about Tilt. What an incredible debut novel. Well done Emma Pattee you have a huge new fan. I love dystopian, end of the world books, especially when the broken world is rebuilding. Tilt is a bit different as it takes place on one very long day when a huge earthquake hits Portland, Oregon, and decimates the city. Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping at Ikea to get a crib. She starts walking to find her husband in downtown.

The book flips from Annie's day to chapters back in time--her childhood, mother, meeting her husband, their relationship. It is almost a stream of consciousness as she talks to Bean, her baby.

I am glad I read the book vs. an audiobook because I highlighted so many fantastic lines.

The book really resonated with me and I loved it. Grab a copy and enjoy!

A whirlwind of a story as an expectant mother (8 mos pregnant) survives a massive Portland Earthquake and attempts to navigate out of Ikea and home. Pattee juxtaposes stories of Annie as a college student meeting her husband, losing her mother, writing her first play with chapters of the earthquake disaster and what happens next. Annie's voice is clear and kind as she speaks to her unborn child and Annie herself is a truly good person. I loved this short little shocker and I know you will too!

#SimonElement #S&S #MarysueRucciBooks #tiltanovel #tilt #emmapattee

This book was fabulous, but I'm an easy sell as a mom (who, like our hero, didn't really love being pregnant) who loves disaster stories and IKEA. This probably a 4.5 for me.

Why knock it a half star? First, that cover isn't doing this book any favors. (By the end of the story, you understand the birds...and it's a heart wrenching reveal) but at first glance this doesn't pull me in. Also, while this book starts with a literal bang, it takes awhile to start building momentum as the flashbacks move forward in time to align with the start of the story.

The book moves quickly and takes place in one day. The action of the earthquake and the ensuing chaos is balanced by Annie's thoughts about her life, narrating them to her unborn child (who she calls, "Bean.") As a parent, I really resonated with these passages about this huge life transition--when you realize you're starting a new, busy chapter in your life that will likely push YOUR hopes and dreams even further down the road.

I love this quote Annie says to Bean as she thinks about her dream of being a playwright, "You will not chain yourself to a dream so big, so heavy, that you will spend years hauling it behind you, falling further and further behind until you turn to try to let it go and realize you can't. The chains are gone; they've been gone for years. You are the chain."

My favorite part of the book is the author's notes at the end! As someone who's been very, very pregnant I kept thinking, "can a super prego lady really do that?) Rest assured, our fearless author test drove one of these ideas! Also, I had no idea about the fault line by Oregon and the high chance that an earthquake will happen there (and likely destroy all the of the brick schoolhouses.) The book being based in scientific fact made it much more compelling

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Add this one to your 2025 reads! The setting is in Portland, Oregon. Annie is 8 months pregnant and shopping for a crib in IKEA. The book is set in one single day as she focuses on her survival after an earthquake and trying to reunite with her husband.

The reader is privy to her inner feelings as she navigates her way through the city’s ruins to her home. She has had concerns about her marriage, career, finances, and mothering. At the same time,flashback chapters create character development allowing the reader to understand why Annie has these feelings. It was engaging!

“Tilt” by Emma Pattee is a powerful debut novel that is based on the premise of surviving a disastrous earthquake in Portland Oregon. The story centers around a young woman who is about to purchase a crib for her yet unborn child. She is 8 months pregnant and in IKEA when the earthquake hits. The timeline of the book takes us through one single day in this woman’s life, where she is totally focused on her survival, the survival of her unborn child and reflecting on her stale marriage, unfulfilled dreams, and motherhood. I was holding my breath several times as she wove her way through a city in ruins, people desperately searching for their children, violence & death all while trying to find her way home. The images were so vivid to me that I tasted the dust and smelled the smoke!

This book is beautifully written and based on the very real threat of an earthquake of this magnitude hitting the Cascadia fault in the Pacific Northwest.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon Element for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Tilt was a really fantastic read. Set in barely post-pandemic times, the characters felt real and vibrant. The setting - Portland, Oregon - was familiar to me as I have friends there and have visited in the recent past. As such, I've heard a bit about the phenomenon posited here, that the Cascadian fault line has produced a massive earthquake. Our protagonist, Annie, is a pregnant ball of anxiety - her multitude of worries about her marriage, her future child, her relationship with her mother, and her career are evident from the get-go, and I can relate to her ongoing inner monologue!

The journey Annie takes to get from Ikea, where she's buying a crib at the last minute before the birth, to where she thinks her husband is, takes up the majority of the story and is compelling and really readable. I found myself wondering if I'd have the strength to do what she did in her condition. And I was rooting for her to get to a safe place and find her husband before labor began!

I don't want to spoil any of this for anyone, so I'll just summarize: if you like books about relationship drama (both mother-daughter and husband-wife) and if you like disaster stories, I would highly recommend this. Annie is determined and resourceful, as well as insightful and humble. I found the writing to be easy to read and very engaging. Also, I just love the cover. Beautiful!

***Thank you so much to Net Galley and Simon Element for the ARC!***

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Element/S&S/Marysue Rucci Books for this ARC of Tilt by Emma Pattee.

This book is categorized in the fiction genre but as the story of the span of one day post-earthquake disaster, and the FMC Annie is 9-months pregnant, the description had a thriller aspect.

The writing in this book is *fierce.*
It contains Millennial vibes of generalized-anxiety and ennui that I as Gen X could not fully relate to but could sympathize with.
I however can now relate to Millennial phone dependence and could feel the visceral “phantom limb” of Annie navigating the disaster without it. It’s mostly only herself and her soon-born “Bean” trying to get to Annie’s husband through the wreckage that is now Portland.

The story immediately yanked and held me, whether the MC was talking in her (snarky, astute!) dialogue in thoughts to Bean, questioning her marriage and her life’s decisions, reliving flashbacks, or enduring the harrowing present.
The parallel narratives of Annie’s devolving past in internal dialogue to Bean and the natural disaster/ earthquake aftermath she must survive propels the plot. And creates suspense: at 75% or the book I had to stop myself from peeking to the end to see what happens.

Four stars and I will read any future books from Emma Pattee.

I honestly could not stop reading this book - it had me from the first page. I loved being able to picture exactly where Annie was in Portland, and I related to her feelings about pregnancy, motherhood and marriage very much. The ending was perfect (so many fantastic books are ruined by the ending but I couldn't imagine a better one).

3.5 stars. I was kind of mixed about this one. On the one hand, I appreciated the dictation of the book to the unborn baby. The myriad of emotions were clearly felt and described. On the other hand, I never felt danger or impending doom (in the midst of the natural disaster).

The ending didn't work for me in the slightest, but clearly the author wanted things to end that way.
I really liked the cover, but it actually applied to a minuscule portion of the book, appearing near the very end. Hmm.
All in all, I can clearly see the appeal of this book to a wide audience (and there's almost like a built-in Netflix tie-in) -- it just didn't grab me.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

For how short this book is, it's unbelievable how much it has stuck with me since I've finished it. I think what sealed the 5/5 star fate was the Acknowledgments - the Cascadia earthquake is real, my friends. <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/oem/hazardsprep/pages/cascadia-subduction-zone.aspx#:~:text=Currently%2C%20scientists%20are%20predicting%20that,in%20the%20next%2050%20years.">Per Oregon's gov't site, "Currently, scientists are predicting that there is about a 37% chance that a megathrust earthquake of 7.1+ magnitude in this fault zone will occur in the next 50 years. This event will be felt throughout the Pacific Northwest"</a> Regardless of whether of not you're a mother, that's terrifying.

In hindsight, the natural disaster plotline took a back seat to the profound unveiling of motherhoods' countless dimensions. How Emma Pattee was able to articulate the dualities mothers face daily is beyond me. It was done so seamlessly, too. I was so busy holding my breath for Annie that I couldn't prepare myself for the emotional toll this book would take on me with each chapter.
At one point, my kindle kept slipping through my hands they were so sweaty. Next, I'd have to take a second to breathe so I didn't cry - the sentiments hit THAT close to home.

I bring up motherhood in my reviews (almost to a fault) because your lens is forever smudged by tiny fingerprints once you enter it. I can say with certainty that you have a mom somewhere. Even if you don't want to become a parent yourself you still have that one vital link to <i>someone's</i> motherhood, at the very least. So, you start from that place of understanding. Maybe you've felt a baby kick inside their mom's belly? Okay, now you have a little more understanding and can identify more closely with mentions of baby's kicks. You've had a baby in your own belly kick? Okay, now you can remember the strange sensation of little schools of fish flipping around, bumping into your bladder. You see what I mean? I know this is a simple idea to grasp - I only mention it because SO MUCH of the beauty I found in the book lies in that idea. Beyond the living roles, the (absolutely heartbreaking) exploration of becoming a mother without having a living mother to guide you is yet another perspective to be had.

Thankfully, the intensity was broken up really well. Annie is only a few years older than I am and I can confirm the millennial vibes were immaculate. We've grown up embedded with such a fun (this is sarcasm) mix of shame and need for validation, seeing something and immediately thinking "I need to Instagram this" or "I can't wait to tell so-and-so this story" instead of actively participating in the world around us and helping where we can.

I don't know much about writing, but I'd think that taking on a novel with a timeline of A SINGLE DAY is hard. I only said "there's no way this would really happen" 2x; I usually hit at least 5x when reading anything remotely dystopian. I could keep writing about this book forever probably, and am very willing to if anyone else would like!!! Buuut for my review, I'm going to call it after mentioning... This is Emma Pattee's debut novel!?!?!?!?!? No way??? Can I have dibs on #1 fan?

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Emma Pattee and publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!}

Tilt is exactly what you want in a survival story. High stakes, great backstory, and realistic enough that it scares you. I really enjoyed the direct prose of this book. The narrator talking to her unborn child as she fights to survive a massive earthquake was compelling. Like many survival stories, you want to yell at the characters for their dangerous choices, but it just adds to the suspense. Thanks so much to S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books for the ARC through NetGallery.

Holy shit this book is insane! I loved it! Considering I just had a baby at 37 weeks it was heart pounding and wild. This is a quick but fun must-read if you like thrilling plots, scary apocalypse stories, and innovative story telling.

Sigh. I love this book. Thank you to NetGalley for the truly great honor of reading this book prior to publication. I cannot wait until pub day to get my hands on a final copy, but also so that I can share some of my favorite quotes! This book was incredibly quotable and I was constantly highlighting passages as I read the ebook ARC.

This book is riveting, it's evocative, it's beautiful, and it sucks you in immediately. If you're anything like me (read: a bit of a worrywart) it might also play on some very real life fears that you have. It's a quick read and so worth it.

Nine-month pregnant Annie is shopping in IKEA when a catastrophic earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. The story is told over the course of one single day, with flashbacks to her past that really flesh out both her character and the story itself. The reader is engrossed in Annie's thoughts and reflections as she communicates with her unborn baby and searches the wreckage of the city for her husband.

As a thirty-something myself, I found Annie's thoughts and feelings to be so relatable. Her introspection and musings on her relationships (and life itself) felt very true to the experience of being in your 30s in a time when the kind of catastrophe depicted in the book is so very possible.

I feel a bit biased in my love for this book for reasons I can't explain, but I will read it again. And again. And again! And I can't wait til pub day.

I really enjoyed Tilt and the idea of a major earthquake and the after effects of it. I got drawn in and was cheering on Annie in her quest to find her husband. I loved the flashbacks which gave more insight into her life and relationship. What I didn’t love was the end. It was very disappointing but that’s all I’ll say so I don’t spoil it!