From the Bookshelf of Drop Everything And Read…

Turtles All the Way Down

John Green

Start date: March 1, 2018

Finish date: March 31, 2018

Discussion: Read

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What Members Thought

Jun 23, 2018 Ahtims rated it really liked it

Shelves: borrowed, audi, young-adult

Am not a great fan of John Green . I find his books pretensive and written focussing around a single point which is later expanded to fit in peripherals... like cancer, loneliness...
And troubled teens HAVE to feature.
Nevertheless there are a few books that I enjoy at the moment of reading, and as days go by, nd I ponder more , I wonder what made me like those.

Liked this book much more than I expected. Started with a prejudiced mind and felt certain things and ideals were harped upon. As I went ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Jan 26, 2019 Nicole rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read, january, young-adult, re-reads, ya-2019, indiana

Re-read 2023:

Thoughtful, sad, intense, and even funny. The following quote cracked me up:

…meanwhile I’ve got this boy hemming and hawing like we’re in a Jane Austin novel”. P. 240

First review 2019:

Probably my third favorite of Green’s so far. I have read 4 of his books. To me, John Green is like the Michael Jordan of YA. He can’t be beat. I say this not because I loved every one of his books (I didn’t really like Paper Towns) or because he wrote my favorite all-time ya book (it’s Eleanor and Par ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 25, 2017 Summer rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, book-club, 2017

There's a lot to like about John Green and a fair bit to be critical of. I appreciate his efforts to deconstruct the Manic Pixie Dream Girl in Looking for Alaska and for giving us a more honest look at teen mortality in A Fault in Our Stars. Turtles All the Way Down, however, is more of a miss for me. Perhaps I shouldn't be looking for realism in YA, but it frustrates me that we keep selling kids and young adults the idea that fantasies will solve their problems rather than building skills. I me There's a lot to like about John Green and a fair bit to be critical of. I appreciate his efforts to deconstruct the Manic Pixie Dream Girl in Looking for Alaska and for giving us a more honest look at teen mortality in A Fault in Our Stars. Turtles All the Way Down, however, is more of a miss for me. Perhaps I shouldn't be looking for realism in YA, but it frustrates me that we keep selling kids and young adults the idea that fantasies will solve their problems rather than building skills. I mean, don't we all have (view spoiler)?

The one thing I did appreciate about this book, however, was the way mental illness was addressed. (view spoiler)

The last quibble I have is the way the novel ended. (view spoiler)

Overall this was miss for me, but Green definitely gets credit for trying. ...more

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Dec 24, 2017 Rachel Pruchno rated it it was ok

Green does a good job showing how anxiety affects a young girl. The reader feels Aza's anxiety and struggle. Reading this book could help young people with mental illness understand that they are not alone. Plot of the book doesn't have much to recommend it, but then the book was written for Young Adults.

...more

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Oct 14, 2017 Thida rated it really liked it

This novel raised awareness on mental health issues.

It was a bit too real for me because I suffer from a bit of OCD myself. I wish I can control myself but I really can't and people don't understand what I'm going through.

“It’s so weird, to know you’re crazy and not be able to do anything about it, you know? It’s not like you believe yourself to be normal. You know there is a problem. But you can’t figure a way through to fixing it. Because you can’t be sure, you know?” ...more

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Feb 25, 2021 Cynthia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own

I’m giving this 5 stars for how it showed mental illness so well, especially when listening to the audiobook. I think this could be useful for people struggling with similar issues as the main character to read.

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Oct 14, 2017 Zara Arshad rated it really liked it

Shelves: good-start-bad-end

So 5 years after TFIOS, John Green gives us Turtles All The Way Down. I admit the cover was pretty catchy, but other than that I had no idea what the storyline was about. I had heard from other reviewers that it was an attempt at a mystery-thriller, and not a very good one so I was a little wary of not liking the book.

Without further ado, here is my unadultered review of TATWD...
The story is about a girl named Aza (one letter short of becoming my name :P). She has this best friend Daisy who is So 5 years after TFIOS, John Green gives us Turtles All The Way Down. I admit the cover was pretty catchy, but other than that I had no idea what the storyline was about. I had heard from other reviewers that it was an attempt at a mystery-thriller, and not a very good one so I was a little wary of not liking the book.

Without further ado, here is my unadultered review of TATWD...
The story is about a girl named Aza (one letter short of becoming my name :P). She has this best friend Daisy who is the life of our story here, honestly. Daisy has been childhood friends with Aza, she is the energetic and funny one of them both AND she writes Star Wars fanfic (though I didn't understand it much). There is Aza's single-parent mother who's a teacher at her school.

So our story starts when Daisy tells Aza about the mysterious disappearance of the hometown billionaire, Mr. Pickett. They -well basically Daisy- decide to do some of their own sleuthing and that's where our story kicks off.

SPOILERS AHEAD
Turns out that the missing billionaire is next-door neighbor of our protagonist (cliche #1). They row across the White River (that separates their homes) to trespass on their property and turns out (cliche #2) Aza used to be best buds with the billionaire's son, Davis when they were little. This sleuthing rekindles their childhood friendship which turns into dating. Davis is a very sweet guy whose father disappeared; he has a teenage younger brother who's going through a phase.

Also, Aza is suffering from a mental condition, (I think OCD), she calls it the invasives. From time to time in the story, Aza is consumed by these invasive thoughts that compel her to do things that would seem crazy to others and in all honesty seemed bat-shit crazy to me when I was reading them. I kept getting annoyed at her for acting this way.

BUT I so appreciated the author's writing for us how Aza's mind would be thinking. It gave me a chance as a normal person to feel how a person suffering from an illness goes through and I felt such compassion for her. It's hard for someone who is living this way already, it gets more hard if the people around them don't understand them.
^That was my main take-away from this novel.

I also liked one moment with Aza and Daisy, where they both talk it out. Aza thinks Daisy judges her and doesn't understand her, and Daisy has been thinking the same. In modern young-adult books, I feel this component is drastically lacking. Kids are supposed to be learning about life stuff from reading books. It's actually great that we make characters have these uncomfortable mushy talks about feelings and all that so we can take inspiration and do so in real life.

Other than that, there was no sleuthing what-so-ever. So those people who misled me into thinking this was a mystery-thriller... BOO HOO! -_-

All in all, a 4.0 read. ...more

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