A review by mama_in_the_rye
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

informative slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I think John Green is a fairly good writer and appreciate his approach to talking about tough topics as it relates to teenagers, especially in this current book with mental health. In this book we meet a group of teenagers. Our main character Aza after experiencing a traumatic event in childhood has turned her grief into a phobia of germs, obsessive compulsions, and death itself. Her best friend Daisy is both completely unaware of how much her friend struggles, but knows that it feels like a burden to her, even if she doesn’t always express it outwardly. In the midst of trying to survive high school a scandal falls over the town they live in when a billionaire on the run from the law goes missing. Teaming up to solve what happened Daisy and Aza turns to a old friend in the billionaires oldest son Davis. This book wasn’t horrible, but it also wasn’t as captivating as I thought it would be. I do understand that most of these books are extremely Y/A and a lot of the representations of mental illness is coated with bubble wrap for the younger generations it just put me in a huge reading slump. It was a decent story about how grief effects young people as we see the trajectory of how both Davis and Ava’s grief manifests into their later lives. All in all… ok.
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