A Review of Turtles All The Way Down

Turtles All The Way Down is a book by John Green. Unless you've lived under a rock for the last few years, you know what else he's written. Aza Holmes is a student at White River High School, Indiana. When local billionaire Russell Pickett goes on the run to escape corruption charges, Aza would really prefer to stay out of it. However, her friend Daisy, tempted by the reward offered, wants to investigate, and ends up dragging Aza along with her.

So, I enjoyed it. It varies slightly from the John Green standard - average male teen falls in love with quirky teenage girl, and he has a bunch of quirky friends - but still with the same Green charm.

As we all know, characters are Green's bread and butter, but these are different from the usual Green fare. Aza has a mental illness. And it's not a pretty, neat one she can treat easily. It invades her thoughts, constantly turning the narrative towards it. It effects her ability to live a normal life and do things that teenagers should. It's not easy to read about, and it's probably not easy to have, either. She is getting therapy and treatment, but they don't seem to make it better for her. That's one of the points that it can take a lot of effort to get to a stage where mental health is manageable, let along better. Just because one way doesn't work, doesn't mean you should stop trying. Daisy writes a lot of Star Wars fanfiction. That's the most stereotypical Green quirk of the lot. She discusses it using terms that go over my head, and I'm a Star Wars fan myself. Her love interest, Davis Pickett, is rich, and by that I mean extremely, but he's the good sort of rich. He has the common thing where he recites trivia, but the narrative never tells us he likes trivia. Normally, when that pops up a character will tell someone else "hey, I tend to recite trivia." Let's compare that to two other Green books - I think the first thing we learn about Colin from An Abundance of Katherines is that he can do anagrams. Similarly, the thing I remember most about Pudge from Looking for Alaska is his quoting of famous dead peoples' last words. But Davis is notable in that the narrative never tells us, only shows us.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I love how John Green writes teenagers. I was one of those teens with a good vocabulary and I can distinctly remember having philosophical discussions with my friends at lunchtime in school. But they still make mistakes, they misinterpret things, they fight with their friends because they don't understand their point of view. They have problems we can all relate to and problems that are more unique to them.

At a few points, Aza wonders if she's fictional. She feels like she is the sidekick to Daisy, but Aza... your last name is Holmes and you're in a mystery novel. I've never been a fan of this trope, actually. As soon as a character starts wondering if they're fictional, it takes me right out of the narrative, the immersion. It doesn't happen often enough here to really annoy me, thankfully.

You never really realise how many dead parents there are in fiction until it happens to you. Some of the ways Green describes it are spot on. The point where Aza says she still expected to see her father everywhere, months after his death? That's the point I'm still in, now.

Was the line explaining what Applebee's is in all editions of the books? As someone who has eaten at Applebee's, it was weird, and I don't think Americans would need a line explaining it.

The mystery part of the book isn't as big a part of it as the cover might make you think. If Green wants to make this a series with Aza and Daisy as teen detectives, I would be okay with that. I'd recommend this to John Green fans and also, since it is different from his usual fare, to John Green not-fans.