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A review by madiganinwonderland
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
3.0
3.5 maybe 3.75 if I'm generous...
I finished this book a couple days ago and I'm not really sure what to think about it.
On the one hand, I think I had my expectations way too high for this book. I had no intentions of reading it (not Green's biggest fan), until I heard one of my favorite booktubers talk about it and how much she related to it because of the OCD and anxiety aspect, which I have been diagnosed with both. And while I can totally see how this would be comforting to some people because of that, I personally couldn't relate to Aza's type of either mental illness.
The being said, that's completely personal reasoning and had nothing to do with the book itself.
I do see how people could be "triggered" by this book, because we get to hear Aza and her intrusive thoughts first hand, which can be jarring. But for me personally, it wasn't triggering. It was more that I felt like I couldn't connect to our main character. Actually I didn't connect to any of the characters. They felt dull to me, despite Green's attempts to flesh them out.
The plot is intriguing once you hear about it, but I was wanting more out of it instead of all of the budding love between different people.
Also, I've heard this critiqued for its absent parent syndrome, but I didn't think that was very apparent. Her mom is there for her quite a bit in the story, I found it rather sweet.
The thing with Daisy. Ok. First of all, I haven't heard anything about this book without it being accompanied by "I can't stand her best friend, Daisy. She's such a (some kind of profanity)." so I went into this waiting for the thing that she does to piss people off. Second, I can't believe I'm actually about to defend a moody teenager. So then it happened. And honestly....... People are way overreacting. This is coming from someone who has suffered severe mental illness for almost half my 23 years. Listen. She's a fucking teenager. Who has a best friend with serious mental illness. She doesn't know what the fuck she's doing or what's really happening. She doesn't understand it the way people with mental illness do and I would argue Green was very aware of that and that's why he made her this way. Sometimes your friends aren't going to get it. And sometimes kids do things that are incredibly cruel without them even realizing it is because of the implications it can have. People sit here and get pissy that John Greena's characters are too mature for their age, then Daisy isn't and she's literally hated for it. And what's worse, SHE FUCKING APOLOGIZES FOR IT TO AZA MORE THAN ONCE. That's the other thing I don't get. She's one of the few YA characters to fuck up like this and actually try to rectify it in more than just words and yet literally NO ONE says DITTLY SQUAT about it. They just see her hurt our poor main character (who, if I'm honest, is rather selfish. The girl doesn't even know her best friends parents names, and admits to not always listening to her talk {yes I'm aware mental illness can do that to you. It does it to me as well}) and then Daisy is banished to the most hated characters list. Weak.
Overall, idk. I'm just very underwhelmed by this. I thought it would make me like John Green but I still just see him as rather mediocre now that I've read and critiqued soooo many other, and better books.
I finished this book a couple days ago and I'm not really sure what to think about it.
On the one hand, I think I had my expectations way too high for this book. I had no intentions of reading it (not Green's biggest fan), until I heard one of my favorite booktubers talk about it and how much she related to it because of the OCD and anxiety aspect, which I have been diagnosed with both. And while I can totally see how this would be comforting to some people because of that, I personally couldn't relate to Aza's type of either mental illness.
The being said, that's completely personal reasoning and had nothing to do with the book itself.
I do see how people could be "triggered" by this book, because we get to hear Aza and her intrusive thoughts first hand, which can be jarring. But for me personally, it wasn't triggering. It was more that I felt like I couldn't connect to our main character. Actually I didn't connect to any of the characters. They felt dull to me, despite Green's attempts to flesh them out.
The plot is intriguing once you hear about it, but I was wanting more out of it instead of all of the budding love between different people.
Also, I've heard this critiqued for its absent parent syndrome, but I didn't think that was very apparent. Her mom is there for her quite a bit in the story, I found it rather sweet.
The thing with Daisy. Ok. First of all, I haven't heard anything about this book without it being accompanied by "I can't stand her best friend, Daisy. She's such a (some kind of profanity)." so I went into this waiting for the thing that she does to piss people off. Second, I can't believe I'm actually about to defend a moody teenager. So then it happened. And honestly....... People are way overreacting. This is coming from someone who has suffered severe mental illness for almost half my 23 years. Listen. She's a fucking teenager. Who has a best friend with serious mental illness. She doesn't know what the fuck she's doing or what's really happening. She doesn't understand it the way people with mental illness do and I would argue Green was very aware of that and that's why he made her this way. Sometimes your friends aren't going to get it. And sometimes kids do things that are incredibly cruel without them even realizing it is because of the implications it can have. People sit here and get pissy that John Greena's characters are too mature for their age, then Daisy isn't and she's literally hated for it. And what's worse, SHE FUCKING APOLOGIZES FOR IT TO AZA MORE THAN ONCE. That's the other thing I don't get. She's one of the few YA characters to fuck up like this and actually try to rectify it in more than just words and yet literally NO ONE says DITTLY SQUAT about it. They just see her hurt our poor main character (who, if I'm honest, is rather selfish. The girl doesn't even know her best friends parents names, and admits to not always listening to her talk {yes I'm aware mental illness can do that to you. It does it to me as well}) and then Daisy is banished to the most hated characters list. Weak.
Overall, idk. I'm just very underwhelmed by this. I thought it would make me like John Green but I still just see him as rather mediocre now that I've read and critiqued soooo many other, and better books.