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ghh2023 's review for:
Turtles All the Way Down
by John Green
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Turtles All the Way Down is my first John Green book and I kind of feel like I am late to the party on this one. But, I have finally made it to the very end of my very first John Green book and it did not disappoint. Turtles All the Way Down reminded me a lot of a book called Obsessed which I read a few years ago. It also tackled the hard feelings and intrusive thoughts that come from OCD. The way that both books talked about OCD made my skin crawl and I was really close to putting them both down multiple times because of how they made me feel. I think that is a sign of excellent writing because it really connected me to the main character.
I think that this book is really important because it shows people that not everything is OCD. People say that they are OCD just because they have to have everything super organized. But, that is not necessarily true; OCD can manifest itself in many ways and it can often be an invisible affliction.
The main character, Aza, has OCD and it makes it almost impossible for her to function in normal everyday life. Many of her closest friends and family have no idea that she is suffering so much because she goes to such lengths to hide her actions. She is constantly worried about bacteria infecting her microbiome. The worry is accompanied by constant intrusive thoughts that tell her to do certain things to make herself feel better. The only problem is that her behaviors are very self destructive. I liked the part where she told her Mom that she can't live with the guilt of being sick because of how it affects her Mom. That was an important part of the story to add because it reminds readers that people have to want to get better for themselves. They can't get better if they feel the constant pressure of someone else willing them to get better. Otherwise, they will hide their true feelings and never get the space to truly feel better.
In the background of the story, we have the mystery of the billionaire going missing and Aza's relationship with Daisy. The story does not focus nearly enough on either of those things and I think that is used as a perfectly constructed plot device. The author is trying to show readers that OCD makes life pass by without the participant even realizing it. The victim is so caught up in their own intrusive thoughts that they have limited brain capacity to deal with anyone or anything else. Overall, this book gave me a sort of panicky and confused feelings because it was hard to keep track of what we should be focusing on. I clicked on this book because I thought it was a mystery novel but that quickly faded into the background of the setting.
I really don't know that the mystery of the billionaire belonged in this book except for the point that it connects Aza to his son again. I think it was supposed to show readers, once again, how much Aza was missing out because of OCD. She was not able to fully delve into the mystery and have a normal teenage love story because of how intrusive her thoughts were. I will say that I believe that the billionaire's mystery disappearance was solved a little bit too easily. I feel like there should have been more sleuthing and fact finding instead of Daisy and Aza randomly finding him like that. The ending of that mystery was not very fulfilling. Did he choose that specific spot to die or did someone kill him down there? If he chose to commit suicide, why didn't he leave a note for the boys to find? I would have liked a little more elaboration as to why his disappearance and subsequent death happened like it did.
It was really interesting to see how Aza's family and friends handled her condition and how much OCD affected her relationship with them. Her mom was definitely a helicopter parent and I don't think that Aza responded very well to that. She was trying to be supportive but I think that it put extra pressure on Aza and that was difficult given the intrusive thoughts that she experienced. At times, I got frustrated for Aza because I wanted her to be able to turn off her intrusive thoughts too. The way that Daisy handled it was typical teenager approach but definitely not the best approach either. She should not have written a fanfiction that was so clearly inspired by her. That was not fair ; I understand why she did it. But, I still think that it would have been better to confront Aza about how she was feeling and get it sorted out. I don't think there was one correct way to support Aza through her OCD journey but the approaches taken were definitely not the best course of action.
My favorite parts of this book was the blog Davis wrote and all of the snippets of astronomy factoids. I really like books that explore how our sense of self is connected to the vastness of the universe. Aza was right to question if she is real or if this is all some great thought experiment. It is hard to tell. But, I would like to believe its real for the sole purpose of feeling like my life means something in the grand scheme of the universe. I like that this author poses these questions to younger readers in order to make them think outside of themselves and who people expect them to be. As humanity moves farther and farther into the future, our sense of self is going to get harder to identify as technology takes over more and more of our daily lives. What a thought provoking story!
I think that this book is really important because it shows people that not everything is OCD. People say that they are OCD just because they have to have everything super organized. But, that is not necessarily true; OCD can manifest itself in many ways and it can often be an invisible affliction.
The main character, Aza, has OCD and it makes it almost impossible for her to function in normal everyday life. Many of her closest friends and family have no idea that she is suffering so much because she goes to such lengths to hide her actions. She is constantly worried about bacteria infecting her microbiome. The worry is accompanied by constant intrusive thoughts that tell her to do certain things to make herself feel better. The only problem is that her behaviors are very self destructive. I liked the part where she told her Mom that she can't live with the guilt of being sick because of how it affects her Mom. That was an important part of the story to add because it reminds readers that people have to want to get better for themselves. They can't get better if they feel the constant pressure of someone else willing them to get better. Otherwise, they will hide their true feelings and never get the space to truly feel better.
In the background of the story, we have the mystery of the billionaire going missing and Aza's relationship with Daisy. The story does not focus nearly enough on either of those things and I think that is used as a perfectly constructed plot device. The author is trying to show readers that OCD makes life pass by without the participant even realizing it. The victim is so caught up in their own intrusive thoughts that they have limited brain capacity to deal with anyone or anything else. Overall, this book gave me a sort of panicky and confused feelings because it was hard to keep track of what we should be focusing on. I clicked on this book because I thought it was a mystery novel but that quickly faded into the background of the setting.
I really don't know that the mystery of the billionaire belonged in this book except for the point that it connects Aza to his son again. I think it was supposed to show readers, once again, how much Aza was missing out because of OCD. She was not able to fully delve into the mystery and have a normal teenage love story because of how intrusive her thoughts were. I will say that I believe that the billionaire's mystery disappearance was solved a little bit too easily. I feel like there should have been more sleuthing and fact finding instead of Daisy and Aza randomly finding him like that. The ending of that mystery was not very fulfilling. Did he choose that specific spot to die or did someone kill him down there? If he chose to commit suicide, why didn't he leave a note for the boys to find? I would have liked a little more elaboration as to why his disappearance and subsequent death happened like it did.
It was really interesting to see how Aza's family and friends handled her condition and how much OCD affected her relationship with them. Her mom was definitely a helicopter parent and I don't think that Aza responded very well to that. She was trying to be supportive but I think that it put extra pressure on Aza and that was difficult given the intrusive thoughts that she experienced. At times, I got frustrated for Aza because I wanted her to be able to turn off her intrusive thoughts too. The way that Daisy handled it was typical teenager approach but definitely not the best approach either. She should not have written a fanfiction that was so clearly inspired by her. That was not fair ; I understand why she did it. But, I still think that it would have been better to confront Aza about how she was feeling and get it sorted out. I don't think there was one correct way to support Aza through her OCD journey but the approaches taken were definitely not the best course of action.
My favorite parts of this book was the blog Davis wrote and all of the snippets of astronomy factoids. I really like books that explore how our sense of self is connected to the vastness of the universe. Aza was right to question if she is real or if this is all some great thought experiment. It is hard to tell. But, I would like to believe its real for the sole purpose of feeling like my life means something in the grand scheme of the universe. I like that this author poses these questions to younger readers in order to make them think outside of themselves and who people expect them to be. As humanity moves farther and farther into the future, our sense of self is going to get harder to identify as technology takes over more and more of our daily lives. What a thought provoking story!