Full Tilt

Quinn is Blake’s 13-year-old brother and functions as his foil. He is a rebellious teen who wears “[s]tuds, rings, and dangling things […] in his ears […] his eyebrows and nose” (4). Readers first meet him as he sulks about the loss of his favorite baseball cap that “featured a rude cartoon of a hand with its middle finger up” (1). This opposes Blake’s personality, one ruled by organization and caution.

Blake notes, “Whole galaxies of traumas revolved around my brother” (1). As a child, Quinn was nonverbal until his father took him on a children’s roller coaster. The ride caused Quinn to smile and speak for the first time—words spoken directly to his father. Blake suggests “that first ride opened the door to […] Stimulation and saturation” (6). Quinn’s attraction to risk only grows when his father leaves.

Quinn does not value his life. When Blake rescues Quinn from the sinking ship, he reminds Quinn that he might not have survived the ride on his own: “Quinn looked me dead in the eyes. ‘Who says I wanted to?’” (84). Blake and Quinn share trauma that prevents them from feeling happy with their lives. Their reactions to it, however, vastly differ.

The park indulges Quinn’s self-centeredness by making him pharaoh of the Egyptian city. Blake narrates, “He was so full of this fantasy […] that I didn’t know if there was any way to reach him” (138). Quinn’s hubris nearly kills him, and he relies on Blake to survive. The rescue moment illustrates a significant shift: Quinn wants to live, and he is willing to work alongside his brother.

Quinn’s journey mirrors Blake’s in that they must both find balance with one another. Blake is frozen by fear, but Quinn feels “afraid […] maybe for the first time in his life” (153) when he is nearly mummified. In the park’s final ride, they find common ground between caution and recklessness. That commonality saves them on the ride but is also key to their happiness in life.

Cassandra is a supernatural being that first appears to Blake after he rides on the Kamikaze. When he first meets her, Blake believes Cassandra is a young woman who works at the park. He is initially attracted to her but notices “something about her eyes—blue as glacier ice, yet hot as a gas flame” (17). This is his first indication that Cassandra holds deeper secrets. It is also relevant to the theme of balance; Cassandra exists as two extremes that do not cooperate.

Blake learns about Cassandra’s role as a supernatural force from his father: “Whenever something horrible happens in the world […] whenever there are no survivors, Cassandra is there” (147). Blake is the only person to have survived one of her disasters, and she lures him into the park to correct her mistake. As such, Cassandra is the antagonist of Blake’s journey. She represents the chaos of extremes—both emotional coldness and rage. Her personality has flavors of both Blake and Quinn, and her inability to reconcile the two leads to her downfall.

Cassandra to fulfills multiple structural roles. Besides being the central antagonist, she is also a tempter. She uses her physical beauty to capture Blake’s attention and lure him onto the first ride. She tempts him with multiple bargains as he nears the climax of his journey and succeeds in tricking Russ into a false agreement. In this sense, she is also a trickster. Cassandra also fulfills some expectations of a mentor’s role. She supplies Blake with the information he needs to continue his journey, and she is responsible for Blake’s rediscovery of his inner strength.

Maggie is one of Blake’s best friends and Russ’s girlfriend. She is the only character who shows Blake empathy from the beginning of the novel. When he feels shaken up about his first ride on the Kamikaze, she “put her hand on mine […] I went a little red at Maggie’s touch” (16). However, she functions as more than a love interest. In fact, Blake and Maggie don’t resolve their romantic feelings in the story.

Maggie’s central characteristic is her low self-esteem. While Blake describes Maggie as “slim and nice looking,” she sees herself in a purposefully distorted funhouse mirror and asks her friends, “do I look fat to you?” (2). The mirror maze ride takes advantage of this weakness. It physically distorts her body into “an awful mockery of life […] [with] a spine hunched in a roller-coaster curve” (98). The mirror realizes her worst nightmare, and she cannot escape until Blake shows her compassion.

Maggie is not a weak young woman, as shown when she is on the first ride and “the look on her face […] was something slowly creeping toward ecstasy” (51). She is, however, often saved or overpowered by men. Blake’s kindness nearly saves her in the maze, although her fears finally overcome her. Russ holds her in a way that makes Blake wonder “if Maggie got bruises from [it]—like, if he let go, she might get away” (3). 

While Blake refers to Russ as his best friend, there is friction between them. Blake calls him a “disenfranchised jock” who “loses interest too quickly” (2). Blake also seems to be jealous of Russ’s long-standing relationship with Maggie and bristles at how roughly Russ holds her.

Blake’s personality is set in opposition to other characters, and Russ is no exception. He is outwardly strong; he loves his ride on the Kamikaze and tries to bully Blake into going to the address on the invitation. Russ lacks inner strength, however. The park rides terrify him from the beginning. Blake, Quinn, and Maggie emerge from the park stronger: “We’d all learned things about ourselves tonight, and I didn’t think Russ was too comfortable with what he’d discovered. I could tell he’d been damaged” (199).

Russ’s and Blake’s friendship is left open-ended at the conclusion of the story. Blake forgives him for abandoning Maggie and making a deal with Cassandra, but Russ isn’t ready to forgive himself. As Blake relates, “fear isn’t what makes you a coward. It’s how depraved your heart becomes when fear gets pumped through it” (125). Russ fell into the trap of cowardice after accusing Blake of the same weakness in real life.