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

* Stand Alone- Better Than Revenge
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last updated Sep 15, 2025 07:03AM

* Stand Alone- Maybe Meant to Be
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What Members Thought

Oct 12, 2017 Megan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

"She noted, more than once, that the meteor shower was happening, beyond the overcast sky, even if we could not see it. Who cares if she can kiss? She can see through the clouds."

"Anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see."

I have been impatiently waiting for the next novel by John Green for years. I distinctly remember finishing Fault in our Stars ridiculously early one morning while staying at my then boyfriends house after he left to go to wor "She noted, more than once, that the meteor shower was happening, beyond the overcast sky, even if we could not see it. Who cares if she can kiss? She can see through the clouds."

"Anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see."

I have been impatiently waiting for the next novel by John Green for years. I distinctly remember finishing Fault in our Stars ridiculously early one morning while staying at my then boyfriends house after he left to go to work. He lived an hour and a half away so we saw each other whenever we could, even if that meant I hung around his apartment while he was at work. He woke me up to say goodbye and I stayed up to finish the book, trying to stay quite while sobbing so as not to wake up his roommate. John Green has always been that author for me who pulls at my heartstrings in ways I didn't think possible. This book was no different.

This book mainly focused on mental health. Mental health is such an important topic that many people tend to gloss over if they have never experienced it. This story really hit home for me. I have dealt with PMDD for years, which causes depression around the same time each month. I have found ways to deal with it and some months are less intense than others. I am also currently dealing with anxiety and stress while planning my wedding, so it has been a feeling I have never experienced before. I'm not trying to make this review out to be about my personal life or anything, I just think it is important to understand that many people may suffer in silence and if more people truly understood the impact that mental illnesses have, there would be more empathy and more focus on finding a cure instead of treating patients as an inconvenience. Now, onto the actual book.

Turtles All the Way Down focuses on a high school girl name Aza. She is dealing with the sudden loss of her father when she was younger and the anxiety that she suffers from. As someone who has never had to deal with anything this severe, it was difficult to read at times. It broke my heart to read the internal struggles she had and how many of the people around her couldn't understand how she just couldn't "get over it" or make herself better. She reconnects with an old friend who had lost a parent years before as well. The friend, Davis, is the son of a wealthy businessman who has turned up missing. He was under investigation for some shady things he had done and just left his 2 teenage sons high and dry. Aza and Davis kind of helped each other through the struggles that come at them.

In typical John Green fashion, this book made me cry. It wasn't the deep sobs like Fault in Our Stars or Looking for Alaska. But I still cried. The writing was incredible as always. Especially when trying to convey the internal battle Aza had daily while dealing with her anxiety. I understand this was a work of fiction, but then you realize that these are real struggles that real people deal with all of the time. It of course had some witty humor and quirky characters but it never took away from the main theme of the book.

I honestly feel like this is a book everyone should read. I will always adore John Green and will recommend anything and everything he writes (aside from the last couple chapters of Paper Towns haha but I won't get into that). But I think this one is so much more important as he tackles a subject that many ignore, even if not on purpose. Anyone who struggles with mental illness should not live in fear of the stigma that comes along with it. There are people who can help and people who will not look at you as a fragile little flower who is an inconvenience. As he mentions at the end in his dedications: There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn't.

SAMHSA treatment referral hotline: 1-877-SAMHSA7

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Oct 26, 2017 Sarah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, ya, contemporary-realism, favorites

This is another fabulous book from John Green. It is the story of a teenage girl struggling with anxiety/ OCD issues while trying to balance relationships and solve a mystery. The novel is at times heartbreaking and hilarious. Aza is a beautiful and flawed character that is incredibly believable and relatable. The descriptions of Aza's instrusive thoughts and compulsive actions are insightful and painful to read. "The ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts" constricted my own heart and breat ...more

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Oct 27, 2017 Tweller83 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: contemporary

I loved this book about Aza and Davis. They were both so fragile and broken and yet survivors. This is a beautifully written, heartbreaking book about mental illness. Wonderful!
Blue Spruce nominee 2018.

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