Author: John Green
Publication Date: October 10th 2017
Publisher: Penguin Books
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Vivek Tejuja and Penguin India (THANK YOU!)
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Blurb Description: It’s quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see.
Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis. Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza’s story with shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.
“The way he talked about thoughts was the way I experienced them – not as a choice but a destiny. Not a catalogue of my consciousness, but a refutation of it.”
When you flip open a new book by an author you’ve read
multiple books from before, it’s only natural to compare the books and figure
out where this new one stands on your list.
Which I think was a mistake because Turtles All The Way Down is unlike anything I’ve ever read before
and when you do read it, you’ll fully understand
what I’m talking about.
Turtles All The Way Down was ABSOLUTELY EXCEPTIONAL and
INTENSE and reading it was a journey that everyone should take. Turtles All The
Way Down was a harrowing depiction of life from a teenager who suffers from
mental illness and it was astoundingly well done.
MY THOUGHTS:
1.
I have missed
John Green’s writing. Nobody else writes like him, with shrewd
observations, quirk, sass and dialogue that will make you think. It’s been
forever since I experienced his writing, but waiting all these years for Turtles All The Way Down was worth it.
I’ve never seen mental illness represented better.
2. AZA
WAS A BRILLIANT CHARACTER. I LOVE her name and the story behind it
but I loved the girl the name belonged to too. I realised mid-way through the
book that even though the whole thing was told from her own point of view, she
barely spoke at all. This book is
told mostly through her thoughts and
her illness. She was extremely intelligent and flawed and me describing her
doesn’t do justice to her character at all.
3.
The OCD/ Anxiety rep is INTENSE. And it felt
so real and palpable to me. There was this one particular scene where Aza’s
‘rational’ brain and her illness are battling it out against each other and I
had to put the book down after because John Green and Aza make you FEEL and I
needed a breather.
4.
I think one of my big problems and the reason
that this book wasn’t a five star for me is the pretentiousness of the
characters, specifically the best friend Daisy. I’m ALL for pretentious characters but why does EACH AND EVERY
CHARACTER HAVE TO BE PRETENTIONS/ MANIC PIXIE DREAM-Y? Daisy was…
obnoxious. And RUDE and honestly, AN ASSHOLE. AND RUDE AND HORRIBLE and she *SPOILER* wrote fanfic about her best friend
who had a debilitating mental illness by calling her ‘useless’ and an idiot and
it HURT ME PHYSICALLY THAT SHE COULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT. HOW. I wanted to
strangle her because she was NOT A GOOD FRIEND AT ALL. STOP.
5.
I’m not 100% sure how I felt about the romance
between Davis and Aza. I LOVED them as individual characters and I loved their
interactions but it was a little too flawless for two teenagers. I loved them
and I also… didn’t? I’m a confusing person, I know.
All in all, this book is real and brilliant and intense and it talks about who we are, who are
thoughts belong to and it will make you FEEL. This book makes you understand
mental illness in such an intimate and personal manner and I have, once again,
been left in awe of John Green’s masterful writing. 4 stars.
John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns, is a New York Times bestseller and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best YA Mystery. In January 2012, his most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was met with wide critical acclaim, unprecedented in Green's career. The praise included rave reviews in Time Magazine and The New York Times, on NPR, and from award-winning author Markus Zusak. The book also topped the New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. Green has also coauthored a book with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson, published in 2010. The film rights for all his books, with the exception of Will Grayson Will Grayson, have been optioned to major Hollywood Studios.In 2007, John and his brother Hank were the hosts of a popular internet blog, "Brotherhood 2.0," where they discussed their lives, books and current events every day for a year except for weekends and holidays. They still keep a video blog, now called "The Vlog Brothers," which can be found on the Nerdfighters website, or a direct link here.
What's your favourite John Green book?
What are some of your favourite book on mental health?
Have you read Turtles All The Way Down? What did you think of it?
