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A review by wolfiegrrrl
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This book follows the story of a teenager combating her day-to-day struggles with anxiety and OCD. Some things happen around and to her, but the main focus is what goes on in her head and how hard it is for her and her loved ones to come to terms with it. The extra "plot" is secondary and extraneous. As this is an own-voice story, I think it comes across pretty clearly that the point of the book being written this way is to spread awareness to those who do not share Aza's experiences and to offer reassurance / understanding to those who do.
With that in mind, I can understand both sides of the debate that I have seen surrounding this book.
With that in mind, I can understand both sides of the debate that I have seen surrounding this book.
On the one hand, high praises have been sung for this book. People who relate to Aza in one way or another have felt seen and understood by her story, and people who had no idea what struggles their loved ones go through every day felt that this book walked them through a firsthand experience that enabled them to empathize. I would recommend that anyone in this camp who is looking for a book to do just this for them should thoroughly examine the content warnings first for any potential triggers and then be cautious upon deciding to read. John Green does not hold back any punches with Aza's thoughts. In the spirit of true-to-life accuracy, they get rather graphic and you may accidentally find yourself tumbling down a spiral right along with her.
On the opposite end of the debate, some people feel that this book is harmful to anyone struggling with their mental health because, since Aza spends most of the story insisting that her medication is bad for her and she seems to view therapy as unhelpful, they fear that it will convince impressionable teen minds that Aza is correct in her assertions. This is an understandable fear, considering the stigma surrounding medication and therapy for mental health. While reading the therapy scenes, I kept waiting for Aza's therapist to actually clear up the misconceptions about what medication is and does, but that explanation didn't exactly come. It would be easy to view that as confirmation that Aza is right to be distrustful... That is, if you disregard the ending of the book where Aza speaks encouragingly about a future for herself where taking her medication and going to therapy do have a better affect on her life and how it is worth all of the hard work to get to that point. If someone reads this book cover to cover and walks away from that ending thinking that John Green set out to sabotage the brains of the youth with his words, I think they might not be giving enough credit to teenagers' critical thinking skills.
No matter how you look at it, this book is meant as a conversation starter for a very important topic. If you manage to read as far as the Acknowledgements, there is even a section singing the praises of therapy and mental health care, a redirect to a treatment referral helpline for the United States, and yet another encouragement to readers that there is hope for the future.
All that being said, I have to admit that I was distracted by one thing in particular while reading. It became excessively clear that John Green absorbed a lot of his information about "how young adults talk and think these days" from the popular Tumblr posts of the time span he was writing this book and it was very surreal to me, as someone who remembers seeing all of those posts on my dashboard too. All I can say is that, if he didn't heavily lift ideas and concepts wholesale from Tumblr, he did an amazing job of guessing what conflicted young adults were talking about. The accuracy of how we blogged our thoughts with no filter, trying to fit together the puzzle pieces of our lives with loosely-interpreted philosophy and dramatic comparisons to the injustices of the world around us, surely would have had much more of an impact on me if I had read this book when it was published rather than several years later when reading those blog posts in book form made my spine cringe a little in embarrassment. To everyone saying "why can't he write teens who talk like teens?" - he did.
No matter how you look at it, this book is meant as a conversation starter for a very important topic. If you manage to read as far as the Acknowledgements, there is even a section singing the praises of therapy and mental health care, a redirect to a treatment referral helpline for the United States, and yet another encouragement to readers that there is hope for the future.
All that being said, I have to admit that I was distracted by one thing in particular while reading. It became excessively clear that John Green absorbed a lot of his information about "how young adults talk and think these days" from the popular Tumblr posts of the time span he was writing this book and it was very surreal to me, as someone who remembers seeing all of those posts on my dashboard too. All I can say is that, if he didn't heavily lift ideas and concepts wholesale from Tumblr, he did an amazing job of guessing what conflicted young adults were talking about. The accuracy of how we blogged our thoughts with no filter, trying to fit together the puzzle pieces of our lives with loosely-interpreted philosophy and dramatic comparisons to the injustices of the world around us, surely would have had much more of an impact on me if I had read this book when it was published rather than several years later when reading those blog posts in book form made my spine cringe a little in embarrassment. To everyone saying "why can't he write teens who talk like teens?" - he did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Medical content, and Grief
Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
Minor: Drug abuse, Blood, and Vomit
Once again, I would just like to emphasize: please thoroughly examine the content warnings for any potential triggers and then be cautious upon deciding to read. John Green does not hold back any punches with Aza's thoughts. In the spirit of true-to-life accuracy, they get rather graphic and you may accidentally find yourself tumbling down a spiral right along with her.