Turtles All the Way Down

This book is about Aza Holmes, a character who struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder. While I don’t personally have OCD, this book helped me understand what it’s like. Aza’s anxious thoughts are so well-described that they made me feel anxious by proxy. That’s something only a master can pull off.

The plot sees Aza attempting to solve what happened to a childhood friend’s missing father, but to me, it is less about that external struggle and more about Aza’s internal struggle with her own mind. And it portrays that struggle as well as I’ve ever seen it done. 

John Green’s description of Aza’s obsessive-compulsive disorder was so vivid, so real, I felt as though I was living Aza’s torment.

Many people might find this type of immersive experience off-putting and think, “Why would I want to feel such an extreme, when all I really want is an escape?”

I love nothing more than a story that takes me deep inside a character, and makes me “feel-the-feels” so to speak.

Plus, John Green’s eloquence with prose and dialog is unmatched. His writing stands in a league of its own.

Green is a master at handling character-driven plots and complex interior spaces. Turtles All the Way Down is a spectacle of that skill, centralizing a teenage girl tangled up in some spiraling intrusive thoughts. This complicates typical YA things like dating, friendships, school, and some not-so-typical YA things like a case of a missing billionaire. Green’s mix of sobriety and hope for mental health is glacial water in a sweltering pressure for an immoral smile (especially from young women).

Turtles All the Way Down was the first fiction book I read where I saw myself, the neurodivergent, insecure person living one day at a time. And I’m talking books in all age categories and genres. I remember saying out loud, and later to anyone who would listen, “he gets it. The feelings, the thoughts, the interactions with others. Everything!” And then I went on to tell everyone what a genius John Green is. What makes this book special, and why I recommend it, is that this is a story all readers will love. It is about individuality and miscommunication… show more.

Does John Green need me to recommend his book? No, he does not. However. I’ve talked to so many teens about this book who have said – He gets how my brain works and that’s a fabulous thing. As a parent, I loved this inside into how my oldest was struggling, and as a human, I loved what I learned. There’s no glorification of her mental health, nor is it used to aid another character in their own story. Turtles All the Way Down is brutally honest about the mistakes and ups and downs that come from having any… show more.