Review: Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. 

Hardcover, 286 pages

Published October 10th 2017 by Dutton Books for Young Readers 

Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary

Kristine's Thoughts:

This book has been reviewed thousands of times so I'm not going to re-tell the story. If I'm being honest, I'm not sure I could anyway. Instead I am just going to write down my thoughts on Turtles All the Way Down.

I thought the way John Green captured Aza's anxieties and compulsions were spectacular. The way he penned her thought process and lack of control over those thoughts really showcased how difficult it is for someone living with those ailments to cope. Early on I thought that I was in for a deeply moving and serious story about mental illness.

However...

I was completely underwhelmed with the rest of the story. Perhaps it was because this book came on the heals of The Fault in our Stars which was amazing but it felt more like Green was trying too hard. Reviews are great for this book so I am definitely in the minority but I can't help but wonder if  readers were blinded by who the author is and their loyalty to his much loved novels of the past.

Why did I feel this way?.

The story line was crappy. The entire billionaire disappearing story was boring and odd. The only good thing about Aza's interactions with Davis was the showcasing of her OCD about germs when they kissed. There was no emotion to be felt otherwise.

The story was also all over the map. Aza's difficulties, her relationship with Davis, his disappearing dad, a best friends fan fiction, and a moms never ending worry left me questioning what exactly was going on. Not to mention that there was endless quoting throughout the entire book that irritated me tremendously. First of all, no teenager talks like the characters in this book or goes around quoting people all of the time. No adult does either. It was seriously never ending in this book.

It made me so sad that I was so underwhelmed but I am just being honest. I truly feel like the ratings for this book are simple because of Green's past work and not fully on the merit of this particular work.

 
 

About the Author

John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns, is a New York Times bestseller and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best YA Mystery. In January 2012, his most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was met with wide critical acclaim, unprecedented in Green's career. The praise included rave reviews in Time Magazine and The New York Times, on NPR, and from award-winning author Markus Zusak. The book also topped the New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. Green has also coauthored a book with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson, published in 2010. The film rights for all his books, with the exception of Will Grayson Will Grayson, have been optioned to major Hollywood Studios.

Connect with John

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