Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

85 reviews

brooketreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Wow! Turtles All the Way Down is so extremely heavy. Early on I immediately felt like I wasn’t the target audience for this. It seemed very YA in the beginning / high school focused. I quickly began to change my mind. I found Aza relatable as someone with mental health issues. Although, the escalation as the book went out felt devastating. At some point, I found myself thinking Daisy is a terrible friend, but the more I thought on it it’s just really the fact that Daisy doesn’t understand mental illness and certainly didn’t understand the level to which Aza struggled with it. Aza and Davis’s friendship/ relationship development was so sweet. I felt the ending was really fitting for the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment and Body horror

Minor: Car accident

blossom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

My goodness I adore this book. The portrayal of mental illness and pain is so spot on. 

The term chronic pain captures nothing of the grinding, constant, ceaseless, inescapable hurt. And the term crazy arrives at us with none of the terror and worry you live with. Nor do either of those terms connote the courage people in such pains exemplify

Thank you John Green for another modern classic, there are so many life-altering quotes in this book. Each one is a tasty morsel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Mental illness

Moderate: Car accident and Death of parent

jessiesnoww's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Grief, and Self harm

Moderate: Vomit, Car accident, and Blood

lavib's review

emotional reflective 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

4.0

John Green has done it again!! Loved this and absolutely could not put it down, it’s actually a crime I didn’t read this earlier. Loved the characters and the narrative tone of voice. This book has some damn good quotes and I love how mental illness is represented in this book as well as how we clearly see how it strains the relationships between the main character and her loved ones. At the same time John Green does a wonderful job of showing that it is possible to have happy and fulfilling relationships with mental illness and I loved that about the book and how it wove the characters’ stories together so beautifully. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent and Abandonment

Minor: Medical trauma

cath_reads_books's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad 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

3.0

give this a solid 3 of 5 stars. The characters in the book are fully developed, but honestly some of them are a little insufferable. I found myself questioning through the entire book whether Daisy was actually a good friend to Aza. Oftentimes Daisy was just straight up mean; as someone who claims to understand how Aza’s mind works and to be accommodating of that, she sure wasn’t at times. Re-framing this story as coming from the perspectives of children rather than mini-adults did help some.

In addition to being a coming of age novel, this book was also a portrait of grief. It showed how people don’t ever really move on from a loss, it just fits into their life in a different way as time goes by. The grief in this book didn’t absolutely rip my heart out like The Fault In Our Stars did, but it did make me feel things. I think I also have a better idea of what it’s like to live with chronic anxiety now; I love when books have something to teach me. 

Overall a decent book, but not my favorite by John Green. He’s written better in my opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Mental illness

Moderate: Mental illness, Car accident, Death of parent, and Panic attacks/disorders

callidoralblack's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Abandonment

Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Self harm, Blood, Death of parent, and Medical content

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, Alcoholism, Death, and Suicidal thoughts

ennsez's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Car accident and Abandonment

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Death of parent

lindasoderlundd's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective fast-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Abandonment, Mental illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Vomit, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Blood

ismildlypoetic's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

3.0

3 stars = I liked it!

Longtime nerdfighter here! This is technically a reread, I read it in three days the day I got my preorder in the mail, so fast that by the time I closed the cover I forgot what happened😂

This book is a wonderful representation of OCD (i assume, as someone who doesn’t have it.) It’s also just a wonderful representation of anxiety, and relates to a lot of mental health disorders. Because of that, I found it pretty hard to read at times, and was hurt by my relation to Aza more than it held me. However, I loved the Pickett mystery, and wish it took up more of the book.

Would recommend to anyone trying to understand their loved-ones OCD or anxiety better!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Gore, Medical content, and Self harm

Moderate: Car accident, Abandonment, and Death of parent

Minor: Classism

Aza’s main compulsion manifests in

opening and closing a callus on her finger.

It is reoccurring and graphic throughout the story. The scenes can be skipped, but if mentions is triggering, I would find a new book

bellisk's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abandonment and Death of parent