From the Bookshelf of Around the Year in 52 Books …

Turtles All the Way Down

John Green

Why we're reading this: 7/8 -
- Challenger Deep
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
- Brain on Fire
- Sharp Objects
- The Hours
- A Head F…more
[close] 7/8 -
- Challenger Deep
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
- Brain on Fire
- Sharp Objects
- The Hours
- A Head Full of Ghosts
- You

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What Members Thought

Oct 06, 2018 E.S. rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, mental-and-physical-disorders

I have been very bad about reading lately, I will just say that to begin with, because that is the reason why it took me so long to read this book.

I love John Green. Although I feel like usually his characters say things that real life teenagers wouldn't say (because an adult is writing these words), his books are still insightful and powerful for teenagers.

Aza is a high schooler living with OCD. She is unable to escape her brain and her intrusive thought spirals about C. Diff Colitis. Aza's be ...more

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Jan 15, 2019 Tania rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: prev-2019-usa, prev-2019-ps

What did I think? That's what Goodreads wants to know - what did I think? I don't know what to think, exactly, there are so many things to think about this book. I think that this was a really honest dive into a really dark place that some people have more than others, but everyone has somewhere inside of them. I think that this was a really delicate but authentic piece on mental illness, how it affects the person who has it and the people who surround them. I think this author is really in touc What did I think? That's what Goodreads wants to know - what did I think? I don't know what to think, exactly, there are so many things to think about this book. I think that this was a really honest dive into a really dark place that some people have more than others, but everyone has somewhere inside of them. I think that this was a really delicate but authentic piece on mental illness, how it affects the person who has it and the people who surround them. I think this author is really in touch with what it means to be a teenager, not only their feelings but their actions and reactions to themselves and the world around them, the way they carry themselves and interact with each other and with adults. I think that this book is hopeful and heartbreaking all in one, and it reduced me to tears.

Aza faces life as a teen with a mental illness. Facing life as a teen is hard enough; this feels impossible. It's not just that it feels impossible to her character; it feels impossible to the reader as well. She struggles, every day, to get up and function like a normal teen. Every night she feels like she's failed. Her mother reaches out to her and feels she's fallen short. Not only do you see her mother's sense of failing, as a reader you feel it. Her best friend shields her when she needs it, but becomes understandably frustrated sometimes because she's also a teen, not a saint, and she needs support too. Her frustration literally leaps off the page at times, and it is relatable. Relationships are explored - mother/daughter, best friends, blooming first loves, siblings, dr/patient... and often that exploration is interrupted by Aza's issues, as they would be in real life. When Aza's thoughts interrupt the action, all you want is for her to be able to subdue them even as you can feel how difficult a task that is.

It's easy to connect with Aza, because her character is the embodiment of a problem(s) that feels all too real to the person who has it while appearing much less real to the outside world. Her description of spiraling is so accurate; Aza clearly has serious issues which shouldn't be belittled by comparing them to other less serious issues, but honestly whose issues aren't deadly serious to them, particularly if they are pulling you away from real life, and from the people who love you? This is the best description I've ever seen of what someone feels when they are losing control of themselves and their thoughts, and how oblivious the people around them can be to it. Aza tells Davis that she realizes he can tell she's sweating profusely, abnormally, and he tells her that she's not. She can't believe him, and he can't understand why. Aza tells Daisy, her best friend, that most of the time she feels the pure panic that one feels when totally in the dark; Daisy is surprised, she asks "is that what it's like for you?" It's not possible to see, or to understand, what someone is going through in their mind. That's the terror of mental illness. Green captures it perfectly, and he is equally skilled at showing the different kind of terror that friends and family go through when they realize they can't understand, and they can't fix it. Daisy asks, "what helps?" and there is no answer, because when you are spiraling you have no answers. It makes me want to cry right now, to imagine all of it, and how it's so very real for countless people around the world at this very minute. This story is absolutely devastating, but it is also illuminating. It won't leave me for a long time, maybe it will never leave me. ...more

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Aug 21, 2018 Hannah Peterson rated it really liked it

Shelves: aty-2019-2020

I don't read a lot of YA these days and I was a little worried about going back to this one, but I ended up really enjoying my reread. It was very quick and engaging and I found the descriptions of the main character's struggle with anxiety to be very relatable.

I had recalled not feeling as intensely about this story as I did about some of John Green's other books and I think it's true that it isn't quite as hard hitting or emotionally intense as Looking for Alaska or The Fault in Our Stars. But ...more

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Feb 04, 2018 Penny rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018

I enjoyed this far more than any other book of John Green's that I have read, and I have read most. The protagonist, Aza, was far more believable, and while the plot was improbable at a couple of points it was not to the extent I ever considered not finishing it. I really enjoyed her relationship with her best friend, Daisy. John Green was spot on. ...more

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Dec 25, 2017 Sara rated it really liked it

Not my favorite John Green book. It took a while to get into the story. I had a hard time connecting to the characters.

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Apr 08, 2018 Marie (UK) rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018-reading-challenge

This is a strange one. To me it is not obviously of he young adult genre there are greater depths than YA usually achieves. It is also not obviously a linear story line there are, for me, a lot of intersections. It just didn't grab me in the way some other John Green novels did. its not bad but not great either. ...more

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