Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.
Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.
In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza’s story with shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.
My Thoughts
With my previous John Green's experience, I never felt I could relate to his characters. Admittedly, I only have read two of them, The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Town, and even one of them I DNF-ed it. While TFIOS was pretty okay for me, I couldn't connect with Hazel Graze, thus it was 4 stars okay reading for me.
When Turtles All the Way Down was released last year, everyone was excited and raving about it nonstop just like when his previous book has been released. I don't feel the impulse to read another John Green soonest. But I got curious about how everyone talks about this book about this is the own voices novel about anxiety and OCD. So, why don't I try to give John Green another go?
Yes, thankfully I did and I could personally relate to Aza even though I don't have mental illness problem. She's the most human-teenager in the John Green world.
Yes, thankfully I did and I could personally relate to Aza even though I don't have mental illness problem. She's the most human-teenager in the John Green world.
Even though I laughed with them, it felt like I was watching the whole thing from somewhere else, like I was watching a movie about my life instead of living it.
What is my favorite part of this book?
I could literally say EVERYTHING. Yes, in the first couple chapters I was skeptical about the story. Aza Holmes and her best friend Daisy hear news about a billionaire who runs off and the police offers some huge money to those who can give a tip about his whereabouts. And actually this billionaire's son, Davis was Aza's childhood friend, well, if you can say he friend.
The story goes from there, Aza and Daisy start to investigate where Davis's dad trough Aza's long lost connection with Davis.
I love how Aza starting her friendship (or relationship? I don't know how to call it) with Davis. For the most part, Davis's understandable about Aza situation was very cute and I felt grateful for it. But at the same time, I pity him. And I pity Aza.
Not only I pity those two, I pity Daisy as well. Throughout this novel, Aza realizes how deep her friendship with Daisy. Daisy was not some random character who at the beginning of the book seems like important to the main character but as the story goes down, the author threw away and forget about her. Daisy is not the two-dimensional character, she has her own brain and feeling. She's constantly being there. I even feel Daisy was the imagination from a real person based on the authors real life.
When I was little, I knew monsters weren't, like, real. But I also knew I could be hurt by things that weren't real. I knew that made-up things mattered, and could kill you.
Turtles all the way down is very different with John Green's other books. It was way too personal and I even feel like I don't deserve to read it. Through this book, I learned a lot about anxiety, panic attack. I think this is the closest thing I could understand being touched by anxiety. And OCD, it's not just like those people who purposely shows through their Instagram page, like those childish matching color or something. No. OCD is mental illness, not something that you should proud to have it and through Aza, I learned a lot about the ugliness of it. The way John Green's explained to his reader was very personal and it was very valuable reading material.
You are as real as anyone, and your doubts make you more real, not less.
5/5 stars rating!
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