Tilt

Tilt (2025) is the debut novel by Emma Pattee, an American journalist and climate reporter whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Pattee earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in writing, literature, and publishing from Emerson College. She coined the term “Climate Shadow” in 2021 to describe individuals’ impacts on climate change. Tilt draws extensively on real seismological research about the Cascadia Subduction Zone, reflecting Pattee’s background in environmental journalism and her deep knowledge of Portland, Oregon, where she currently resides.

Tilt follows Annie, a pregnant woman in her final weeks of pregnancy, as she navigates the catastrophic aftermath of a massive earthquake while searching for her husband and trying to survive. The novel explores themes including Crisis as Liberation From Social Performance, Motherhood as a Force That Transcends Individual Identity, and The Crushing Weight of Dreams Deferred.

This guide refers to the 2025 Marysue Rucci Books hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, child death, graphic violence, physical abuse, and cursing.

Plot Summary

On the first day of her maternity leave, Annie, a 35-year-old woman who is nine months pregnant, visits the IKEA in northeast Portland, Oregon, to buy a crib. Throughout the novel, Annie narrates her experiences to her unborn child, addressing them as “Bean.” She explains how she struggles with late pregnancy symptoms and feels frustrated by her financial instability. Her husband, Dom, is an aspiring actor who works at a café while pursuing his big break. 

After some indecision, Annie chooses the most expensive crib she can find, only to discover that it is missing from the shelf. She asks for help from a young IKEA employee in a yellow shirt, named Taylor; however, she dismisses Annie and forgets her request, prompting a tense confrontation. Taylor eventually leads Annie to the crib aisle, where Annie finds the crib she wanted. As Annie attempts to load the crib onto her cart, a massive earthquake strikes and throws the IKEA warehouse into chaos.

During the earthquake, Annie is knocked to the floor and crawls between boxes to shield her abdomen. She panics and contemplates her wasted potential and the possibility of dying with her unborn child. Taylor searches for her and pulls Annie free from the rubble. On her way out of the warehouse, Annie spots a caterpillar toy among the debris and grabs it. She makes it outside to the chaotic parking lot, where she is surrounded by injured people and destruction. She briefly searches for Taylor but loses track of her. 

Without her phone or car keys, Annie decides to walk toward the café where Dom works, believing that he does not know where she is and will be worried about her. She joins other survivors moving on foot through the ruined city. Annie’s physical discomfort and anxiety intensify, especially when she begins to worry about whether Bean is still moving. She encounters scenes of destruction, including derailed trains and damaged infrastructure. She asks a truck driver if she can borrow his phone to contact Dom, but she realizes that cell phone service has failed. 

A series of flashbacks trace Annie’s relationship with Dom, from their first meeting 14 years earlier to their argument the previous night. Annie, an upcoming playwright, was initially unimpressed by Dom, who was one of the actors in her first production. However, they bonded over their shared ambitions as artists, and feeling celebratory after her play’s success, Annie kissed Dom, establishing their relationship. With time, however, Annie gave up on her ambition of being a playwright and took a job as an office manager at a tech company. Though she doesn’t find it fulfilling, she believes it is a practical decision. In contrast, Dom hasn’t given up on his dreams of becoming an actor despite repeated failures. The previous night, he excitedly told Annie that he had an opportunity to be an understudy in a play and would be missing work at the café to attend the play’s rehearsal. Annie, frustrated, told him that he needed to prioritize their finances over his acting aspirations, especially since they have a baby on the way. Dom reluctantly agreed to pick up his work shift and give up on his plan to attend the play rehearsal. 

In the present, Annie walks through heavily damaged neighborhoods. She cuts through a golf course and finds a group of people trying to help Becky, a severely injured cyclist. Becky’s husband goes to find help, and the other members of the group disperse, leaving Annie alone with Becky as she dies. Afterward, Annie guiltily drinks Becky’s water. She feels Bean move inside her soon after and is relieved. En route to Dom’s café, she scavenges some food and milk from a looted convenience store and presses on.

When Annie reaches Dom’s café, she finds it empty and destroyed. She runs into Gretchen, the café owner’s daughter, who reveals that Dom did not come into work that day because he was at a play rehearsal downtown. Annie realizes that Dom lied to her the night before and that he had no intention of turning down the acting opportunity. She is furious and hurt, but she is also worried because Gretchen tells her that the downtown area was destroyed by the earthquake. Annie resolves to go find Dom downtown despite Gretchen’s warnings.

The narrative flashes back to the moment when Annie discovered her pregnancy and how she experienced conflicted feelings about impending motherhood. The flashback also reveals Annie’s closeness to her mother, who worked hard to bring up Annie as a single mother. After her mother died of COVID-19, Annie was devastated. She feels unsure about motherhood without her mother’s guidance. 

Resuming her trek, Annie’s physical condition worsens. When a pickup full of survivors offers her a ride downtown, she accepts and joins strangers in the truck as they wind through the ruined streets. Suddenly, Annie spots Taylor, the IKEA employee, among the crowd, and she gets out of the truck to join her. Taylor has an injured ankle and is making her way toward her daughter, Gabby, who was at Columbus Elementary School when the earthquake struck. Annie and Taylor become companions, sharing stories of their children, struggles, and failures. 

Approaching Columbus Elementary, Annie and Taylor prepare for the worst. The south side of the school has collapsed, and crowds of distraught parents and children swarm the lawn. Taylor and Annie search the grounds, encountering a small, red-haired girl whom Taylor questions about Gabby’s whereabouts. Taylor spots a child’s body on the lawn covered with a yellow poncho and breaks down because she notices that the child is wearing pink shoes that are just like Gabby’s. Taylor feels unable to lift the poncho and see if it is Gabby, so Annie does it for her; to their relief, the dead child is not Gabby. However, another woman approaches and realizes that the dead child is her daughter, Ava; Taylor and Annie mourn with her. 

Annie gives the caterpillar toy she has been carrying to the red-haired girl who is waiting for her mother. Taylor joins a small group of parents who have found a narrow entrance into the school. She decides that she will attempt to crawl into the unstable school building to look for Gabby. She and Annie share a silent, emotional farewell before Taylor disappears into the wreckage.

Now alone, Annie continues toward downtown, determined to reach Dom. She reaches the Morrison Bridge, which is the only passable route into downtown, only to find it blocked by military vehicles and guards. Annie pleads with them, explaining her need to reach her husband, but they refuse entry and inform her that Old Town, including the theater where Dom would be, has been flattened. As Annie grapples with this devastating news, an aftershock makes the bridge tremble, and she is ordered to leave.

Turning back, Annie focuses on reaching her home. When she comes across a looted grocery store, she gets swept into the chaos and grabs some snacks. Another looter gives her a bottle of water. She scavenges water from a house with an open door, taking a razor blade for self-protection. As she briefly rests on the couch, she experiences the onset of labor pains and is determined to reach her house before the baby comes. She takes a bicycle that she finds at the house so that she can get home faster, but on the way, she is attacked by teenagers who want to rob her. They steal her bike, but Annie slashes a girl’s face with the razor, tapping into a primal rage that enables her to escape.

Experiencing severe labor pains as night falls, Annie pushes onward on foot, navigating dark, debris-strewn streets and entering Mount Tabor Park near her house. Her contractions intensify, signaling imminent birth. She crawls into a clearing and takes shelter near a picnic bench. There, alone in the darkness, she tears off her clothes and delivers her baby by herself, laboring on the forest floor in the shadow of the ruined city.

Annie lies on her side and pulls the newborn Bean onto her chest. She observes the baby’s writhing and shrieks, the warmth of their bodies, and the pulsing connection of the umbilical cord. Annie meets her child’s gaze, fully present with her newborn.