Reviews with content warning for Death - Tartarughe all'infinito

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Tartarughe all'infinito by John Green

103 reviews

fiwwa's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

You think you’re the painter, but you’re the canvas.

Since the moment I opened the first page, I was already hooked by the relatable quotes. It’s not the first book I’ve read from him, and this one, like any other Green’s books, the book revolves around the struggle of a teenage girl living her life. This time, it’s about Aza Holmes, a sixteen year-old girl who has an obsession with C. diff bacteria, because of her disorder and afraid it (the bacteria) will kill her someday.

I’d like to start this review by saying that I feel seen by Aza’s character. I might not be thinking about how bacterias from things we touch and food we eat works inside our body and how it might kill us whenever and wherever, but I still relate so much to her.

Aza is right when she said that life is told about us, not the other way. You never really have control of your own thoughts, even you move because life controls you. You go to bed? Because the sun is down. You eat lunch? Because the bell rings. We live on someone else’s schedule and we never even meet that someone. Sort of like a prison, or exactly like it. And I agree, life does feel like a prison sometimes.

Being a teenager itself is not easy, introduced by many life problems that we should face whether we like it or not (well, it’s problems, no one likes problems) and then there’s that anxiety feeling that makes everything worse. And that’s the thing about anxiety, you keep expecting the worst. You never had an answer for your own questions but more kept coming through your mind. And as someone who also struggles with anxiety, the way Aza had a conversation with herself in her mind because she has many questions stuck in her head but having no one to ask about it is something that I do a lot too. Like two people arguing, but in reality, it’s just herself. Two different minds of one same person.

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

That’s exactly how the thoughts go, spiraling, infinitely. And it sucks that some of those thoughts are becoming a reality, but it doesn’t mean that the world is gonna end. There was this one time Daisy confessed about something Aza worried about. It hurts, but does that mean they keep fighting? No, life goes on and so are we.

The side characters in this book are the type of side characters that has their own characteristics. Daisy Ramirez is a Star Wars (pretty successful) fan-fiction author. Unlike Aza who barely talks what’s in her mind, Daisy tells everything, though sometimes it might hurt, but she’s a very supportive best friend. She is a unique character, some might think that she was annoying about the money that they got, but to me, she was just being happy with something she never really had.

On the other hand, the rich boy Davis Pickett is such a likable one. Despite the fact that he has a lot of money (like, a LOT, the guy has a home theater), from the way Davis writes his thoughts on his blog, I can tell how much of a romantic person he is.

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.

I found it adorable how they are both a little awkward because the relationship they had in the past, but it seemed so honest and innocent. Although Davis is a romantic guy, I love how the author didn’t make their conversation too much of an adult. I would love to see more of them as a couple, but we can't... If you know, you know.

For the other characters such as Aza’s mother and Dr. Singh, the author described them as realistic enough to be what they should be. A mother who’s always worried about her daughter who struggles with anxiety and a psychiatrist who’s trying her best to help her patient. The characters are well-developed but not too much, you can never be perfect or flawless.

In the best conversations, you don’t even remember what you talked about, only how it felt.

Now for the plot, there were moments when it was so heart-breaking but Green didn’t try to sugar-coat the raw and painfulness of mental illness, he stripped down the ugly reality of living with anxiety and OCD. He wonderfully put the emotion and feeling of being in a never-ending thought spiral into words. But not just that, each conversation that the characters had felt so real. It feels like I’m there next to them, listening to them talking.

But the bad news is, there isn’t actually a real plot. If you expected a young adult mystery book, you’re wrong. I hate how they marketed this book from the blurb because the mystery covers only 20% of the book, the rest was just about Aza, Aza’s thoughts, and Aza’s obsession with bacterias (no, she’s not even a biologist). I expected more from the plot, the ending itself was a bit underwhelming. I myself would like to think that there’s an extra chapter where what I wanted to happen will happen.

The problem with happy endings is that they’re either not really happy, or not really endings, you know? In real life, some things get better and some things get worse. And then eventually you die.

I won’t say much about what the phrase “turtles all the way” means, but it metaphors everything this book is trying to tell us. Don’t try to find the bottom of the pile.

If you’re looking for a light young adult read with great mental illness representation and realistic life of a teenage girl struggling with it, I would recommend you to read this book. It’s less than 300 pages and full of quotes that you might find relatable. But this is not for you who expects an amazing plot and likes neat and happy endings. You’ve been warned.

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kelly_e's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Title: Turtles All the Way Down
Author: John Green
Genre: Contemporary YA
Rating: 3.25
Pub Date: October 10 2017

T H R E E • W O R D S

Emotional • Genuine • Quick

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Swayed by her best friend, Daisy, Aza decides to embark on a search for a missing millionaire, in order to reap the benefits of the reward being offered for information relating to his disappearance. In the process, Aza reconnects with an old friend. But one thing keeps getting in the way: Aza's anxiety and obtrusive thoughts.

💭 T H O U G H T S

This is a hard one to review because I absolutely loved certain aspects, but other parts had me rolling my eyes. It tandem read the audio with a physical copy, and I'd say it's a typical, quick YA story with lots of good quotes.

What I liked:
• the realness of Aza's character
• Aza's supportive mother
• the mental health representation
• a strong friendship
• so many quotes

What I didn't like:
• the focus on the reward
• the side story of Davis and Noah's missing father
• how it felt like two separate stories
• what felt like an unfinished ending

I'll finish by saying I am learning YA is never going to be what I need/want it to be. Turtles All the Way Down is worth the read for it's mental health representation alone, but I do suggest going in without expectations.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• John Green fans
• contemporary YA readers
• mental health advocates

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Every loss is unprecedented. You can't ever know someone else's hurt, not really - just like touching someone else's body isn't the same as having someone else's body."

"You'd think solving mysteries would bring you closure, that closing the loop would comfort and quiet your mind. But it never does. The truth always disappoints."

Content Warnings

fancymcgee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

wow. just wow. this is the first i’ve read of john green and i see why he is so popular. the writing? the living through the mental illness with her? the title? the connection to the title? giving her the SPOILER —————-/PAINTING AND HER KEEPING IT FOREVER. fuck. no one says goodbye unless they want to see you again. this book was like reading the spiral of my own life on paper.
a big problem i had with this is book is that basically after getting institutionalized, everything is better? it felt like the book had developed such a good and strong concept of how bad her mental health was and it just dipped off.
also sad about davis, but i think that was greens way of making it “not a happy ending” but it was very fake and i feel unfinished.
and daisy? fuck her. calling her a burden? i don’t care. that was fucked. SPOILER ava was literally drinking hand sanitizer for weeks but yeah sure daisy you’re the one who’s struggling. fuck i hated that

Content Warnings

jenna_justi2004's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Content Warnings

liz_66855hghg97's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

taylorbethk's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

cstein's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This, to me, is such an important book. Though the plot itself may not be tremendously innovative, Green's descriptions of the emotional highs and lows of life with anxiety/OCD are at once nauseating, jarring, and comforting in their accuracy. The last few paragraphs gave me goosebumps. As with "The Anthropocene Reviewed," I am profoundly grateful for Green's work here. A rare reread.

Content Warnings

balfies's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny informative reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

John Green's YA is always incredibly thoughtful and contains so much depth and exploration of Ideas Bigger Than The Self.

This one (which is the only John Green I hadn't read), is about a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder, and the intrusive invasive way the disorder disrupts and redirects and infects her sense of self and her ability to navigate relationships.

Really brilliantly written, I consumed it in one sitting.

Content Warnings

laurbubbles's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Content Warnings

thazell's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

A spiral, a constant downward spiral that descends deeper with every intrusive thought. This is what Aza deals with constantly. The author portrays those intrusive thoughts and impulsive actions quite accurately, in y opinion at least, and I can feel myself relating and empathizing with the character a lot. The author also accurately shows how the stigma around mental health can affect relationships. Mental illness isn’t pretty and this shows it, it can and has ruined friendships and relationships. The romance in the book is largely affected by Aza’s anxiety and intrusive thoughts shown in a very realistic manner that I’ve never seen before. All of the relationships from mother and daughter to therapist and client give us a deeper understanding of Aza and how she perceives the world. This was such a well-written story about mental illness and how things in life are affected by it and ended with a realistic ending without instantaneous joy. Mental illness is not a straight road.

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