From the Bookshelf of Addicted to YA…

Turtles All the Way Down

John Green

Start date: November 1, 2017

Finish date: November 30, 2017

Discussion: Stand Alone

Why we're reading this: Won the poll for the stand alone BOTM
[close] Won the poll for the stand alone BOTM

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* Stand Alone- Maybe Meant to Be
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What Members Thought

Oct 19, 2017 Kathryn rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya, best-of-2017, ya-realistic-fic

The parasite believes itself to be the host.

I’m an unabashed John Green fan. So what if his teenage protagonists spout off unrealistically pithy, nuggets of wisdom like characters in a Richard Linklater film? My suspension of disbelief is fully intact. But even my brazen John Green love balked in the face of a plot centered on a missing billionaire. Nancy Drew for the YA crowd? YAWN. Despite my misgivings I valiantly plowed forth and you know what? I WAS SO WRONG. Yes there’s an investigative e The parasite believes itself to be the host.

I’m an unabashed John Green fan. So what if his teenage protagonists spout off unrealistically pithy, nuggets of wisdom like characters in a Richard Linklater film? My suspension of disbelief is fully intact. But even my brazen John Green love balked in the face of a plot centered on a missing billionaire. Nancy Drew for the YA crowd? YAWN. Despite my misgivings I valiantly plowed forth and you know what? I WAS SO WRONG. Yes there’s an investigative element, but Turtles All the Way Down is so much more than that.

Turtles All the Way Down has an ostensibly basic plot. It’s the story of 16-year-old Aza who with her bestie Daisy’s encouragement, delves into the case of missing fugitive billionaire, Russell Pickett. But Turtles All the Way Down is tricky. It exists in contradictions. A simple premise, but a complex tale. It’s about a missing person’s case and it’s not. The writing is light and funny, but also raw and painful. With lesser authors, such inconsistencies would read as sloppy. But John Green has deftly maneuvered these discrepancies to create a multi-layered, meaningful narrative.

I thought about how we all believed ourselves to be the hero of some personal epic, when in fact we were basically identical organisms colonizing a vast and windowless room that smelled of Lysol and lard.

Turtles All the Way Down’s greatness heavily lies in John Green’s ability to distill and articulate complicated emotions. Aza suffers from both Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and anxiety. It’s these conditions and Aza’s experience with them that are the novel’s crux. Mental Health is currently a trending topic in YA lit. Shelves are packed with stories addressing bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and similar conditions. Believe me, I’ve read ‘em all. But what distinguishes Turtles All the Way Down is the sensitivity, accuracy, and believability present. John Green veers from Afterschool Movie territory by scrupulously avoiding the maudlin and trite. And this is why he succeeds where so many others fail. To be fair, John Green has both OCD and anxiety, which grants him insight other authors may lack. As a fellow anxiety/OCDer, this story resonated for me. Turtles All the Way Down demystifies and portrays OCD and anxiety in such a realistic way that it felt like John Green was tearing actual thoughts from my brain. Yes, it’s painful to read at times but OCD and anxiety are PAINFUL disorders. They’re not fun. There’s no magic cure. And they don’t at all look like the media’s image of the compulsively neat, dust-phobic individual who gets cranky when shoes are left on the floor. John Green GETS it. And gets it in a way that provides both hope and manageable expectations.

The thing about a spiral is, if you follow it inward, it never actually ends. It just keeps tightening, infinitely.

John Green’s understanding of OCD and anxiety is also reflected through Aza’s different relationships. The frustration, annoyance, and disappointment Aza’s friends and family experience are entirely true to life. When Daisy accuses Aza of being self-involved, I shouted YES (to the bewilderment of my colleagues). These are words I’ve heard and Aza’s response matched my explanation. We don’t want to be self-involved. We do care. But we can’t disengage from the constant thought spiral. It’s like when a person condescendingly tells a clearly anxious friend to calm down. If we could calm down, don’t you think we would?! But as challenging as OCD/anxiety can be to the sufferer, it can be equally difficult for a friend. That’s why Turtles All the Way Down excels--it captures the entire experience, rather than a solitary perspective.

Most adults are just hollowed out. You watch them try to fill themselves up with booze or money or God or fame or whatever they worship, and it all rots them from the inside until nothing is left but the money or booze or God they thought would save them.

For non-OCDers, Turtles All the Way Down can be a difficult read--but that’s to John Green’s credit. Wading through the vast morass that is an OCDers brain is an intense feat. But one that’s worth it. Luckily John Green injects his now characteristic humor into the story to prevent it from becoming another 90s problem novel. So yes, it’s hard to read, but it’s also fun. And Daisy is a gem.

Verdict: Read it--even if you HATE issue books. It’s definitely worth the time and effort. ...more

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