Turtles All the Way Down

Author: John Green

Genre: Young adult, contemporary, mental health, mystery

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

It all begins with a fugitive billionaire and the promise of a cash reward. Turtles All the Way Down is about lifelong friendship, the intimacy of an unexpected reunion, Star Wars fan fiction, and tuatara. But at its heart is Aza Holmes, a young woman navigating daily existence within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

Finally a John Green book that gets more than 2 stars from me? I really liked the audiobook of this, and due to the nature of the writing style that showcases the spiraling thoughts of Aza, the words tend to be one whole paragraph of back-and-forth between her mind and herself (if that makes sense). Thus, I would even say that you can listen to this via audiobook alone, but merely reading it would be quite difficult (for me at least).

The mental health representation felt very raw and real. (I'm not sure how realistic it is as I do not have experience with this but based on the many other reviews I've seen, it seems to be quite good representation) I'm taking a module on Abnormal Psychology this semester, and after being introduced to some of the mental health conditions and their symptoms in class and then reading this book about Aza and her symptoms hit quite close to home. I also liked how the book ended, even though in other books I would have hated this kind of ending.

However, other than the mental health representation, I thought this book was just okay in terms of the plot, the characters (apart from Aza) etc.. Despite this being quite a short book, I wasn't intrigued enough nor interested enough to keep wanting to read it.

That being said, I think it's time for me to finally stop giving John Green's book second chances. I just don't think his books are for me.