Book Review: Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

On 25 January 2018, I have finished reading the latest book by John Green called Turtles All The Way Down which literally has nothing to do with turtles.

This is the first time I have read a physical book by John Green. For TFIOS, I saw the movie first and cried, later reading the book online. I was slightly hesitant to read this one because I wasn’t sure of its contents yet, I didn’t read the summary of the book. I just bought it because it was John Green.

However, I am glad to have chosen this book. Let’s begin.

I knew that this book was about the main character, Aza Holmes coping with mental illness. I was astonished by the fact it was written in her point of view that I can see how a person with multiple anxiety disorders think and feel. 

The fact is, this book has raise my awareness on mental health. John Green really brought out the attention on what Aza, a teenager is going through and that he had written the book in a simple, subtle way with a slight adventure to it.

Aza’s character way of thinking was annoying that it made me realized this. This is how a person with OCD thinks. It made me understand her more and can comprehend the situation she is in. Especially with metaphor of the spiral, with the quote by Aza;

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

It truly is a suffering of its own where the repetitive thoughts are about possible bacterial infection from littlest things like kissing, sweating or even that bacteria are attacking her stomach that we have never give a thought about.

I also like the friendship and love in this story where her best friend Daisy is coping with Aza’s anxiety by writing about it in her Star Wars fanfic. She was the one who brought up the story regarding the turtles and she basically is the one to have always get Aza back on track in her mind, though it may be temporary. 

Her quote follows:

“You pick your endings, and your beginnings. You get to pick the frame, you know? Maybe you don’t choose the picture, but you decide the frame.”

“It’s turtles all the way fucking down, Holmesy. You’re trying to find the turtle at the bottom of the pile, but that’s not how it works.”

It was really refreshing to read such inspirational metaphors.

There is also Davis, the boyfriend with the missing billionaire father who tries to cope with it in his own way, through astronomical insights and poetry. In a way, Aza and Davis complement each other but they drifted apart in the end but on good terms. Because they both have their issues and the love was just not ready yet.

Quote by him:

“We squeeze his hand. He squeezes back. You stare up at the same sky together, and after a while he says, I have to go, and you say, Good-bye, and he says Good-bye, Aza, and no one ever says good-bye unless they want to see you again.”

To sum it up, this book made me rethink what mental illness means and topped as one of the books that impacted on my mental awareness.