What would you do if you were shopping at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits, you have no phone or money, and you’re nine months pregnant? That’s what Annie in TILT faces when this happens to her in Portland, Oregon. She’s crib shopping on her own, and after the earthquake settles, she’s on a mission to go find her husband. We get to learn about Annie and her husband, Dom, as she talks to the baby inside her, who she calls Bean. Annie comes across different scenarios and people on this brutal walk through wreckage and heat and exhaustion and dehydration. I had full body chills reading this one.

Tilt by Emma Pattee is a highly recommended literary survival story that takes place over the course of one day.

Annie, 35, is pregnant, 37 weeks along, and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a major earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. She is rescued from the debris by Taylor, a salesperson she had just lost her temper with, and they make their way outside the store. She sets out without her purse or phone amid the confusion and chaos to walk to her husband Dom's workplace. While walking she talks to her unborn baby, nicknamed "Bean" and reflects on her past, meeting her husband, conversations with her mother. All this while she makes her way through devastating destruction in an increasingly dangerous city.

Tilt is an impressive, well-written debut novel that covers the hopefulness, disappointments, and struggles found in self sacrifice, marriage, and impending motherhood, along with the self doubts all while the character is seeking safety and survival. The narrative switches between Annie's memories of the past and her navigation through the current catastrophe. Her internal monologue to to Bean continues throughout her trek in search of safety and her husband. The setting feels realistic and the trauma of the crisis increases with each step her swollen feet take.

Annie is depicted as a realistic character amidst an unimaginable situation. While she isn't always likable and doesn't always act in a logical manner, it is clear that she is doing the best she can through the disaster. As she shares her reflection with Bean, her bond grows strong.

I do love the cover of the book. This is a very quick read and resembles another novel where a woman is traveling through a disaster. The ending was disappointing in the lack of closure but it was also somewhat expected. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

I thought this book was brilliant! It had you on the edge of your seat. You feel every emotion as you follow a soon to be mother trying to get through the aftermath of an earthquake while also questioning her life choices and trying to comfort her unborn child. I couldn't put this book down. It was beautifully written.

I was so excited to receive a copy of this book as I have heard so much about it. I was not disappointed.

Emma Pattee’s, “Tilt” is a crazy ride from start to finish. Set against the backdrop of a devastating earthquake in Portland, the novel follows Annie, a heavily pregnant woman, as she fights to make it home through a city in chaos. With each chapter, the tension builds, making it impossible to put down.

Pattee masterfully captures the raw fear, desperation, and resilience that emerge in the face of disaster. The pacing is relentless, and just when you think Annie has faced the worst, another obstacle throws her into deeper turmoil. The mix of physical survival and emotional depth makes Tilt more than just a thriller—it’s a gripping exploration of human nature in crisis.

If you're looking for an adrenaline-fueled, emotionally charged story, Tilt is a must-read. Buckle up, because this one is a crazy ride.

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4
Publish date: 3/25/25

This was a quick read, and overall I did enjoy it. The main character makes some questionable choices, but I was invested in seeing how everything played out in the end. Sadly, I found the ending incredibly disappointing. An epilogue would've been perfect, giving some answers regarding Dom, Taylor, Gabby. It felt very much like a season cliffhanger, but without any promise of answers to come later.

Tilt is an outstanding debut novel from Emma Pattee. It’s a story of disaster and survival after a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. Oh, and our protagonist, Annie, is 37 weeks pregnant.

Told over the course of one day, the narrative alternates between Annie’s perilous journey to find her husband across town and her thoughts about days, months and years previously.

This is a fast, thought provoking read that I could not put down.

I look forward to reading more by this author.

It’s been a while since I read a whole book in one day but I could not put this down and couldn’t stop thinking about during the moments I was forced to put it down anyway.

More so than being about the aftermath of an earthquake, this felt like it was about the journey of pregnancy, but the earthquake aspect certainly served to heighten the highs and cast more shadow on the lows. Plus, I LOVE a good disaster.

I loved living inside Annie’s head as she walked, and even during the “before”. Who hasn’t struggled to like their husband, or thrown away a dream in favor of joining the rat race to pay bills? Or occasionally wanted to lash out at a stranger?

Annie is SO real, and everything she experienced along her way home felt real as well. The fear of being a woman walking alone, people choosing themselves when no one is looking, joining the angry mob. This was an incredibly wild and introspective ride and a really good read.

That ending left me hanging though 😖

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Where to even begin!? This book is the manifestation of my darkest nightmare: Annie, 37-weeks pregnant, is out shopping for a crib when “The Big One” hits. The rest of the book follows her treacherous journey home.

I’ve never been more afraid to read something, therefore, I had to. And let me just say… this book is ~*stunning*~.

From start to finish, you’re completely inside the experience alongside Annie. You feel her pain, her fear, and the WILL it takes for her to keep going. Along the way, she encounters the VAST scope of humanity — the best, the worst, the weirdest. Also, for such a heightened premise (she says, as the world disintegrates around her…) this book is so grounded and feels like a terrifyingly real depiction of what it would be like to be a part of such a catastrophic event . No surprise given that the author, Emma is a climate journalist who did copious research. It is also such a swift, propulsive read. There were times I was so in it, I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath.

Also, I thought I hated the cover, but after finishing the book, I am OBSESSED with it.

What a debut!!! I hope this book SMASHES because it ruled and I would recommend it to anyone who is in a place to allow their cortisol levels to rise!!!

This was an intriguing book about a very pregnant woman making her way home after a horrible earthquake. I think I would have enjoyed this more in another format. Her speaking to the baby as a way to tell the story was a little less interesting to me than it could have been. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

very cool literary work that's kinda raw and interesting if a bit imperfectly formed at times. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

Unputdownable. I lost sleep & missed a train stop devouring this book. It’s like the show “24””,” but with a full term pregnant heroine fighting for her & her baby’s lives in a catastrophic earthquake. The ending was abrupt, but fit the raw & jarring tone of the book. Fantastic debut!
Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC e-book

Disaster fiction at its best! I couldn’t put this one down. It’s short in length but so emotional and I felt the anguish of the moms in the book especially. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that captured so well as I did here. Highly recommend!!!

Wow. This book was emotional, gutting, and brutally intense. As someone who constantly thinks things like "what would happen if there was a giant earthquake, fire, etc" in so many different settings in my life, I devoured this incredible book. I felt seen by this book. The intensity I felt as I read this book is hard to capture. The author perfectly paced the book with rotating chapters between the day of the earthquake, to flashing back to a month prior, a day prior, etc. This kept me turning the page so fast because I had to know what was going to happen. The scene at the children's elementary school was especially haunting, and it's a scene I will not forget. I cannot believe this is a debut novel. Five stars and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book - to anyone who can handle this emotional roller coaster of a book. Loved it. Thank you NetGalley for the early copy.

The book follows the very pregnant main character through an earthquake and the immediate chaos of the aftermath, weaving in the past and recent events that led her to be in the present moment as she struggles to reach her partner. The story is told almost exclusively through her internal voice as she navigates the post-disaster landscape, filtering the devastation through progressive lenses of devastation, acceptance, and tenacity. I was engaged and interested throughout; I thought the ending was a little bit rushed, but thought that the whole book was thoughtful and it drew me in entirely.

I really enjoyed this book. While the premise itself is scary, I think Pattee did an excellent job telling a story that could actually happen and captured the range of feelings and emotions that one would feel in the situation. It was a thought provoking book and makes the reader wonder what they would do in each of the situations presented.

This book was wild crazy but hopeful. When an earthquake hits Portland, Annie who is 9 nine months is at IKEA shopping for a crib. This is her story about finding her way back home to her house and her husband with whom she has a struggling marriage.. With no phone nor money, she finds herself at the mercy of the people that she meets along the way. A story of disappointments, desires that we all have and what each of us will do for the people that we love. Great first novel!

Wow! This book kept me awake. I could not put it down. The writing was propulsive and intriguing. Nothing like anything I've read before. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved this book! I wanted to read it because I live in the Pacific Northwest and am very interested/concerned about earthquakes. But this book was about so much more than surviving the immediate aftermath of "the big one." When we meet Annie, she is extremely pregnant and is shopping for a crib at IKEA. She and her husband are struggling financially, she lost her mother to COVID, and she's not sure how having a baby will impact her life.

When a major earthquake hits, Annie manages to escape IKEA and set off on foot to find her husband. The book describes her trek and goes back in time to show how she got to where she is now. The author did a brilliant job of weaving these two pieces together. It is both a meditation on impending motherhood and relationships and a page-turning thriller to see whether Annie can reunite with her husband. I can't wait to see what Emma Pattee does next!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Tilt" has a great premise: pregnant woman stuck in an Ikea in Portland when an earthquake strikes (aka "The Big One.") What follows is a thin plot of Annie's attempt to make it downtown to find her husband. Along the way, she buddies up with an Ikea worker, explores a destroyed school, and joins a riot. There are flashbacks to her meeting her husband, their dating years, and his aspirations of making it as an actor. Her inner monologue dominates the prose and what I believe is the heart of the story: how does one react in the midst of chaos and fear?

This was a let down for me as I found Annie's voice to be annoying and highly reactive. I can't say I'd handle an earthquake any better, but what could have been a powerful novel of anger and resilience read more like a caricature of a girlboss. The ending in particular veers into sentimentality which was a stark change of tone and unfortunately one I understood as communicating "see, even crazy women can tap into their motherly instincts and tenderness!"

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

I wanted to read this because it is set in my town, Portland, Oregon. The backdrop is what we Portlanders call The Big One, an earthquake that could go over 8 or 9 on the Richter Scale. The protagonist is a very pregnant woman who is shopping at IKEA when the Big One hits. She escapes from the rubble, but loses her car and her purse. The story is told in a single day as she struggles to walk miles to get to her husband and her home. It’s about the people she meets, with realistic descriptions of her own exhaustion, dehydration, and pain. Pattee did her research on what we can expect. The story is compelling, emotional, sometimes dark and sometimes funny. I’m grateful for the ARC. This is my honest review.