It’s been quite some time since I’ve sat down and read a John Green novel, but my curiosity finally won out and I borrowed Turtles All the Way Down from my aunt. When I first read a blurb about this book, it sounded intriguing but not necessarily something I was interested in reading at the time. I truthfully can’t tell you what’s changed in the four-ish years to suddenly make me want to read this, but I did, and I’m glad for it.
The story is told from Aza’s perspective. We read what she’s saying out loud to people, but also what’s plaguing her mind. More specifically, the thoughts she can’t control. While the book never comes right out and says it, Aza clearly has obsessive compulsive disorder, and for her specifically it’s manifesting itself by making her constantly think about the human microbiome. Even more specifically, catching C. diff, which is a valid fear for some people, but it shouldn’t be for Aza. In order to combat her worries, she constantly re-opens an unhealed callous on her finger to rid herself of the pathogens. Aside from being stuck in her own mind a lot, it is clear she is still also really affected by the death of her father several years prior.
While Aza has these personal conflicts to deal with, she’s trying her best to be a good daughter, a good best friend to Daisy, and just generally trying to control her own thoughts. At the beginning of the novel, a wealthy man named Pickett goes missing for some financial crimes and Daisy wants Aza to help her find some information so they can collect reward money of 100 thousand dollars. I was fooled into thinking most of the book was going to be them sort of solving this mystery, a la Paper Towns or Looking for Alaska, but the mystery here gets pretty well resolved towards the beginning. Instead, the mystery leads Aza to reconnect with Pickett’s son and an old co-camper she knew named Davis. They hit it off right away, but Aza isn’t looking to put labels on anything because she’s pretty sure she knows how it’s going to turn out.
Aza might be a little bit right about predicting her future, but not the journey there, that’s for sure. What I liked best about the book was seeing how supportive the close people in her life were, mainly because they were honest. I’m sure most people suffering with sometimes debilitating mental illness would like people to be honest instead of glossing over things out of concern. It’s also an interesting look into the mind of someone with OCD and trying to put into words how it feels. John Green can speak to this because he has been suffering with this for most if not all of his life. Aside from those insights, the supporting characters were really well fleshed out and I found everyone exciting to read about!
This re-introduction to John Green has me creeping on his bibliography, so look out for more reviews on his novels in the near future! Just like The Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, and Paper Towns, Turtles All the Way Down this book is really something special and deserves your attention. I’m glad it finally caught mine!