Book Review: Turtles All the Way Down

Turtles All the Way Down

By John Green

(Finished reading: 26/05/20)

4/5 stars

Honest, philosophical, beautiful.

“You're both the fire and the water that extinguishes it. You're the narrator, the protagonist, and the sidekick. You're the storyteller and the story told. You are somebody's something, but you are also your you.”

Turtles All the Way Down follows 16-year-old Aza Holmes who has suffered with OCD her whole life. When fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett goes missing, Aza’s Best and Most Fearless Friend Daisy convinces her to find the answers, in hope of securing the hefty $100,000 reward. But Aza’s compulsive thought-spirals keep tightening, and Pickett’s son Davis becomes another part of Aza’s life that she knows is destined to fall apart.

I love John Green’s philosophical writing style and this book is certainly no exception. It is written so beautifully and lyrically that the pages almost read like poetry. I found myself having to pause on a sentence before moving on, just to let the imagery soak into my skin for a little longer. I felt like I was inside Aza’s head and I could feel her anxiety through the page. There is something so wonderful about how a metaphor can perfectly capture a thought or feeling so well that you instantly feel it as though it were happening to you. Every page was a painting, a window into the prison of the human mind.

Green’s metaphors present mental illness in such an honest and hard-hitting way. You could tell that this book was written from a place of experience and pain. It pained me to read and understand how this illness affects those who suffer with it. The topic was handled so well, the illness wasn’t over-simplified or glorified, we are instead presented it in its rawest form. It feels honest, like a confession turned into a song. There is something so truly wonderful about how artists can take their pain and turn it into something so beautiful. Most of all, I finished this book feeling like I understood OCD so much better, and this is why I think that it is such an important read. Not only this, but I think anyone who has suffered from a mental illness can relate to Aza’s struggles. In fact, anyone who’s ever suffered from being stuck inside their own head should read this book.

I adored the literary quotes, the poems, the nuggets of knowledge about astronomy, microbiology and tuataras. The setting in Indianapolis also felt so vivid and bright and I liked how the scenery tied into the story. At first these threads were interesting and seemingly random, but I liked how they all seemed to converge at the end with an overall message. I like how Green’s novels often read like a philosophical parable, strung together by parables and philosophy. There’s something so unique about his writing and I’ve never read anything else like it.

Although I loved the writing style, I found the plot a little underwhelming. It was ok, it just didn’t blow me away. The mystery around Pickett’s disappearance felt kind of unnecessary and, for me, took away from the focus on mental illness. Having said this, I understand that without this mystery there wouldn’t really be a plot at all. We would be left only with pages of metaphors and quotes and emotions, so I completely understand why this backdrop is there. I would have liked for the whole novel to be like the first chapter— an exploration inside Aza’s head. I found that this level of detail from the opening of the novel quickly dissipated as the plotline progressed. I suppose it would perhaps feel tiring to read this from cover to cover, but I just wanted a little bit more than we got.

Overall, I really enjoyed how the elements all came together. I can’t say the plot did much for me, but I liked reading it all the same. The writing style is personally what made it for me. But the focus on mental illness is the reason why everyone absolutely must give this a read.