#52 [2025/CBR17] Tilt by Emma Pattee

I am so excited by all of the end-of-the-year book lists coming out. I have so many books to read and so little time. I found Tilt by Emma Pattee (2025) after I saw it on both the Times and NPR's lists. The NPR blurb about this book made it sound a little more lighthearted and fun than I found it to be. However, it did keep my interest.

Annie lives in Portland. She is nine months pregnant, due any day, and picking out a crib in Ikea. She is hungry, her feet hurt, her back hurts, and she is frustrated with herself for her lack of ability to just get things done. And then a huge earthquake hits, and there is immediate chaos. Annie is initially trapped under some collapse, but is helped by the Ikea clerk who had been so annoying just a moment before. 

When the two make it out of the store, they are separated. Annie doesn't know what to do, so she decides to walk to the coffee shop where her husband is working. It is a hot, sunny day. Annie is thirsty and tired, and she sees evidence of the destruction all around her as she walks. 

The book goes back and forth through Annie's memories as she walks. How she met her husband, how she dropped out of college with big dreams of becoming a playwright, and how those dreams slowly faded away. Now she has a child on the way, and she has become terrified of what might happen to him. Her relationship with her husband is struggling because she can't talk to him about how she feels.

When Emma can't find her husband at the coffee shop, she heads towards downtown, which she has heard has been ravaged. At some point she sees the same Ikea woman, Taylor, in her bright yellow Ikea t-shirt. Taylor is walking to her daughter's school, desperate to find her. Annie and Taylor stay together until after they reach the school. I thought this was a very moving part of the book.

Afterwards, Annie heads out on her own, still trying to get downtown to find her husband. It was this part of the book that felt especially uncomfortable for me to read. It was often more and more details of Annie's pain and suffering as she walked without much purpose. I didn't understand what was pushing Annie to drag her poor body all over the city when she had no idea where her husband would be. Wouldn't he head home, if he was able? I wanted Annie to either get to a community shelter or head home herself. 

I won't go into detail about the ending, but I found it frustrating. It felt abrupt, and I wanted to know more. I'm sure that was the point of the book and may even make it more memorable, but I felt disappointed. In the end, I thought this book was both interesting and painful to read. It is well written, but I found it occasionally frustrating. I'm not sure I would recommend this one to everyone.