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A review by teenage_reads
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
4.0
Plot:
Clostridium difficile, something most people have never heard of. Shorten to C. diff, it is a bacterium that can cause systems from anything normal to death. That is what Aza Holmes is constantly worrying about. During lunch, watching television, driving, all she can think about is how many bacteria are entering her body. Thus, her OCD, which is why she goes to her doctors and sometimes take pills that do not work. Her best friend Daisy, who is queen on writing Star Wars fanfictions, does her homework on her phone faster than Aza can on her laptop, and could “literally die” working her Chucky Cheese job. Best friends since childhood, they do pretty much everything together. When media strikes of missing Russell Pickett with a one hundred-thousand-dollar reward for any information, Daisy see this as a chance. Aza knowing his son, Davis, as they attended Camp Spero, for kids who lost a parent (Aza her dad, Davis his mom), and were childhood friends also due to the fact they were neighbors. Reaching out, Aza finds there more to Davis than she remembers, and even though he is not missing his father, his little brother Noah is. Asked by Noah, Aza cannot stop thinking of Russell Pickett, and where he was. Plus, the fact her body is trying to protect her from not getting C. diff, she cannot even kiss Davis without thinking of what his bacteria would do inside her. Aza is in for the long haul, as her thoughts would not leave her alone, she begins to spiral into herself.
Thoughts:
This is different than the other books that John Green writes. He deals with teen issues all the time, relationships, but even for him this is different. As someone who has OCD, Green made this book harder to write, because he did not want to over or under-do OCD. Thus, why it took him forever and everyone was super pumped about its released. Aza, the main girl, is not someone who is easily liked. For the other characters Aza has been always inside her own head, making her self-centered, and not really care about the people around her. It was really nice to see the fight between Daisy and Aza, where Aza reveals that she is not inside her own head, but trapped using the words: “but imagine being actually stuck inside my head with no way out, with no way to ever take a break from it, because that’s my life” (217).While reading her thoughts, and the one that Aza cannot control, she is not a bad person, but the fact that she does not pay any attention to what is going on in Daisy’s life also hurt. Some may criticize Green for explaining the title of his book, but it was kind of nice knowing why he chose it. After all, Turtles All the Way Down, is a different title. It goes with the World Turtle theory, of the fact earth is suspended on a giant turtle back, in which that turtle is standing on another turtle’s back, and so on and so forth; thus, it is turtles all the way down to infinity. With Green writing this book has a lot of analogies in it, which is a great way to explain things, but also a little overdone in most parts. Yet, his writing is compelling as every making this story very fast pace. The relationship between Davis and Aza is hard though, because you want it to work, but also, she how difficult it is on both sides. The ending has a real shocking twist in a way, but then ends like what you expected, as Green does not write fairy tale endings, but realistic ones that have both their good and their bad. Aza may not be the most beloved character, but she is a hero in some way, and wins her battle day by day, and earns her spot on the John Green’s heroes list.
Clostridium difficile, something most people have never heard of. Shorten to C. diff, it is a bacterium that can cause systems from anything normal to death. That is what Aza Holmes is constantly worrying about. During lunch, watching television, driving, all she can think about is how many bacteria are entering her body. Thus, her OCD, which is why she goes to her doctors and sometimes take pills that do not work. Her best friend Daisy, who is queen on writing Star Wars fanfictions, does her homework on her phone faster than Aza can on her laptop, and could “literally die” working her Chucky Cheese job. Best friends since childhood, they do pretty much everything together. When media strikes of missing Russell Pickett with a one hundred-thousand-dollar reward for any information, Daisy see this as a chance. Aza knowing his son, Davis, as they attended Camp Spero, for kids who lost a parent (Aza her dad, Davis his mom), and were childhood friends also due to the fact they were neighbors. Reaching out, Aza finds there more to Davis than she remembers, and even though he is not missing his father, his little brother Noah is. Asked by Noah, Aza cannot stop thinking of Russell Pickett, and where he was. Plus, the fact her body is trying to protect her from not getting C. diff, she cannot even kiss Davis without thinking of what his bacteria would do inside her. Aza is in for the long haul, as her thoughts would not leave her alone, she begins to spiral into herself.
Thoughts:
This is different than the other books that John Green writes. He deals with teen issues all the time, relationships, but even for him this is different. As someone who has OCD, Green made this book harder to write, because he did not want to over or under-do OCD. Thus, why it took him forever and everyone was super pumped about its released. Aza, the main girl, is not someone who is easily liked. For the other characters Aza has been always inside her own head, making her self-centered, and not really care about the people around her. It was really nice to see the fight between Daisy and Aza, where Aza reveals that she is not inside her own head, but trapped using the words: “but imagine being actually stuck inside my head with no way out, with no way to ever take a break from it, because that’s my life” (217).While reading her thoughts, and the one that Aza cannot control, she is not a bad person, but the fact that she does not pay any attention to what is going on in Daisy’s life also hurt. Some may criticize Green for explaining the title of his book, but it was kind of nice knowing why he chose it. After all, Turtles All the Way Down, is a different title. It goes with the World Turtle theory, of the fact earth is suspended on a giant turtle back, in which that turtle is standing on another turtle’s back, and so on and so forth; thus, it is turtles all the way down to infinity. With Green writing this book has a lot of analogies in it, which is a great way to explain things, but also a little overdone in most parts. Yet, his writing is compelling as every making this story very fast pace. The relationship between Davis and Aza is hard though, because you want it to work, but also, she how difficult it is on both sides. The ending has a real shocking twist in a way, but then ends like what you expected, as Green does not write fairy tale endings, but realistic ones that have both their good and their bad. Aza may not be the most beloved character, but she is a hero in some way, and wins her battle day by day, and earns her spot on the John Green’s heroes list.