Turtles All the Way Down

No cover — John Green: Turtles All the Way Down (2017, Penguin Books, Limited)

English language

Published Nov. 8, 2017 by Penguin Books, Limited.

ISBN:: 978-0-241-33544-4

(1 review)

SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD AZA NEVER INTENDED to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there's a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at sake 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.

In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza's story with shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.

This description comes from the publisher.

21 editions

Alex Cabe reviewed Turtles all the way down by John Green

Effective, if not a Lot of Fun to Read

3 stars

I thought this book was very effective as an anxiety simulator and did a great job illustrating the thought patterns of a person with anxiety and OCD. It had the hook of a traditional mystery, which was quickly de-emphasized in favor of a character study/coming of age. The reason I rated it three stars instead of four is that it just wasn't very fun or enjoyable to be in the protagonist Aza's head. I know that's not necessarily the book's job, but it's a reason I found it worthwhile but not something I'd like to revisit. It made me think of the movie Uncut Gems, which is a great anxiety simulator, but two hours is a different prospect than seven.

The amount that the characters used texting and the internet felt also true-to-life, but not very fun to read.

There was a lot of dorm-room philosophizing as self-conscious quirk, but …

I thought this book was very effective as an anxiety simulator and did a great job illustrating the thought patterns of a person with anxiety and OCD. It had the hook of a traditional mystery, which was quickly de-emphasized in favor of a character study/coming of age. The reason I rated it three stars instead of four is that it just wasn't very fun or enjoyable to be in the protagonist Aza's head. I know that's not necessarily the book's job, but it's a reason I found it worthwhile but not something I'd like to revisit. It made me think of the movie Uncut Gems, which is a great anxiety simulator, but two hours is a different prospect than seven.

The amount that the characters used texting and the internet felt also true-to-life, but not very fun to read.

There was a lot of dorm-room philosophizing as self-conscious quirk, but it's a John Green book, so I knew that going in.

I liked Daisy, the Aza's best friend, a lot better than Aza herself. Daisy was sometimes immature and insensitive, but I leaned more to her side whenever she was in an argument with Aza. She was an effective device both for readers without anxiety to identify with and to show the effects of anxiety on other people in the anxious person's life. Whenever Daisy wasn't on the page, all the other characters should have been asking "Where's Daisy?"

Note on the Audiobook version: Kate Rudd is great at changing her voice to give the characters individual voices. Only complaint is that she gave Davis kind of a meathead voice.