“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward,” says Steve Maraboli, a motivational speaker. This is a common theme in many of award-winning author, Neal Shusterman’s novels, such as Full Tilt and Everlost. The novel Full Tilt is about an anxious teenaged boy named Blake who has to go through seven rides, all relating to his fears and past experiences, so that he can survive a paranormal amusement park. Everlost is about two teens, Nick and Allie, who die in a car crash and are sent to a place in-between the afterlife and real life, called Everlost. Though very different in subject, Shusterman uses the same literary techniques to show that it is his writing, and to move the plot forward and express the themes he wants to showcase. Just as left-behind fingerprints can be used to find people, Neal Shusterman leaves behind literary “fingerprints” in his novels, such as allusion, so that the reader can identify his writing. For example, he alludes the well-known movie, The Wizard of Oz. On page six of Full Tilt, Blake mentions that he “still can’t watch that movie without getting a sick feeling in [his] stomach, like it’s [his] own house spinning inside of a tornado.” This is used to explain that Blake feels like his family and home has become a chaotic mess. Another time that Shusterman alludes The Wizard of Oz is on page 194. He describes that once