Turtles All the Way Down in Reading with Style

Nov 03, 2017 Jen from Quebec :0) rated it liked it

Shelves: ya, school, reading-challenge-books, color-challenge-for-book-covers, copies-i-own, disney-challenge, aty-challenge, totally-overrated, re-read, buddy-reads

Not amazing, but not bad. The main problem was that Green couldn't decide what GENRE of book he was writing. A YA romance? A crime thriller? A mystery? An in-depth look at mental illness + anxiety? An examination of family relationships/drama? A delve into the importance of wealth/class differences between people in America? A fluffy, feel-good story for teens? Something quirky or something serious? I'm not sure, and I don't think that John Green was, either.

Teenage best friends Aza and Daisy le Not amazing, but not bad. The main problem was that Green couldn't decide what GENRE of book he was writing. A YA romance? A crime thriller? A mystery? An in-depth look at mental illness + anxiety? An examination of family relationships/drama? A delve into the importance of wealth/class differences between people in America? A fluffy, feel-good story for teens? Something quirky or something serious? I'm not sure, and I don't think that John Green was, either.

Teenage best friends Aza and Daisy learn that the famous, billionaire dad of one of their childhood friends has skipped town while wanted by the police for fraud. They decide to re-enter their old pal Davis Pickett's life in order to possibly learn something that will earn THEM the $100,000 reward offered for info on the whereabouts of Russell Pickett.

Soon though, their money problems disappear and Aza begins a romantic relationship with Davis while trying to help Davis's little brother Noah cope with the fact that their father went MIA without so much as a text to his sons. However, throughout everything, Aza wonders how much of a friend/aide/girlfriend/daughter/student she can be with her crippling anxiety. The anxiety that leads her to doubt her very existence, battle with her 'thought spirals', see a shrink weekly, and self harm to prove to herself that she is 'real'.

I liked that the main character was a girl suffering from anxiety, as I too have similar problems. However, I think John Green should just write books for adults, already. This is the only YA book I have ever read where the SMELL OF A ROTTING CORPSE WAS A MAJOR PLOT POINT! Um...what? Huh. A 'Teen' book? Not so much, at times.

Another major character was Aza (the MC's) best friend, Daisy- she was a successful blogger + fanfic writer about all things 'Star Wars'. She was a 'STAR WARS' fanatic, as am I! (biased ol' me.) She was perky, lively and "very poor", always lambasting Aza for being more affluent than she. However, Daisy did become rather grating on the nerves as the book progressed. In an attempt to create a 'quirky best friend character,' John Green also creates a character that becomes annoying over time.

The teenage characters were in high school (Except for Noah-he was only 13) and they all seemed TOO INTELLIGENT for their ages. I thought the TV show 'Dawson's Creek' made their MC's unrealistically intelligent but this book makes THEM look stupid! There are not many average high school students I know that can identify the works of various obscure painters, keep blogs that begin each entry with bits of Shakespeare, rattle off memorized classic poetry for fun, and know every single scientific fact about every star in the galaxy...and I have been teaching high school for 10 years, so I DO have some idea of what I am talking about here. I've only met a handful of students as intelligent as the ones in this book, yet this book depicted ALL the high school-ers as off-the-chart-geniuses.

The ending was sad and unsatisfactory. It basically ended poorly for each and every character and was a huge bummer. (For me, at least).

Ultimately, this book was startlingly realistic at times and at other points wildly unbelievable...almost as if the author couldn't decide which direction to take the writing.--Jen from Quebec :0) ...more

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Oct 29, 2019 Joseph Cognard rated it it was amazing

I really loved this book. I thought the ending seemed a little rushed , or maybe author was just not comfortable about the ending.
This book was not about the ending, it was about a girls battle with severe anxiety , and there is no real ending for that so in many ways it is unimportant. John green does an amazing job showing the trues horrors one deals with when battling such a condition. Having a family member who deals with it, IMO he does a remarkable job portraying it.
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