Book Review: Turtles All The Way Down

Hey everyone. Happy December! I know that lately seems that my posts have been sporadic, but the month of December has always been a big posting month for This Fashion Girl. Today, I am going to do a review on Turtles All The Way Down by John Green.

I am a fan of John Green. I've read The Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, Will Grayson Will Grayson, and Papertowns. I started an Abundance of Katherines, but I didn't like it at the time and definitely need a re-read. John Green hasn't released a book in five years (because of writer's block & a multitude of other things), but he recently released Turtles All The Way Down. I  didn't purchase it, but it was in my school's library so I had to read it.

Synopsis from GoodReads:
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. 

My Thoughts:

At first, I wasn't very fond of the book. The point of view is a teenage girl named Aza, who has severe anxiety. Half the book is her brain "spiraling" as she calls it. She'll be eating a sandwich and her thoughts will go from the sandwich to all the bacteria in her stomach digesting it. She doesn't connect with any characters well and doesn't relate well to her best friend, Daisy, until more than halfway through the book. Daisy is the only character who actually calls Aza out on how she doesn't seem to have an interest in anyone but herself. Aza's thoughts and anxiety cause her to do some crazy things such as drink hand sanitizer, periodically open up a wound, and obsessively wash her hands.  It was slightly awkward reading about Aza in the beginning because John Green does a scarily good job of writing from the view of a 15-year-old girl.

I am not going to keep talking bad about Aza because she does eventually become more interesting. My favorite character is Davis. He is the son of a rich billionaire who went into hiding the night before his house was supposed to be raided by the CIA. Davis cares a lot for Aza and for his brother. He makes endless compromises to try to ease Aza's anxiety. He is very multi-dimensional and writes a blog where he quotes Shakespeare and relates it to how he is feeling at the moment. He also knows a lot about astronomy, and there are a ton of references to the stars in the book.

The overall plot of the book is a young girl's life in Indiana, where her thoughts overtake her actions. The way the book is written gave me a bit of anxiety because John Green makes it seem as if you are spiraling with Aza's thoughts. The subplot about the missing billionaire is relevant to the book, but it's not the entire book. I did like this book, but it is not my all-time favorite John Green book (that would be Looking for Alaska).

Turtles All The Way Down is recommended for young adults, and I believe it's perfectly suited for that age group. John Green, as usual, has done an amazing job writing this book.

Some Favorite Quotes:

“The worst part of being truly alone is you think about all the times you wished that everyone would just leave you be. Then they do, and you are left being, and you turn out to be terrible company.” 

"I thought, lying there, that I might love him for the rest of my life. We did love each other- maybe we never said it, and maybe love was never something we were in, but it was something I felt. I loved him, and I thought, maybe I will never see him again, and I'll be stuck missing him, and isn't that so terrible"

"You remember your first love because they show you, prove to you, that you can love and be loved, that nothing in this world is deserved except for love, that love is both how you become a person, and why."

“Spirals grow infinitely small the farther you follow them inward, but they also grow infinitely large the farther you follow them out.” 

“One of the challenges with pain--physical or psychic--is that we can really only approach it through metaphor. It can't be represented the way table or a body can. In some ways, pain is the opposite of language.”

“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 the booze or God they though would save them. Adults think they are wielding power, but really power is wielding them.”

I hope you guys liked this review. Have you read this book yet? Comment below!

See you all with more posts this week, it'll be a shortened version of Blogmas.

                                                                             xx

                                                               Christina Madeleine