Book Review
I is the hardest word to define
‘Turtles All The Way Down is another teenage novel by John Green. The story is set up in the lands of Indianapolis. The protagonist, Aza Holmes suffers from a cognitive disorder (overwhelming anxiety and germ phobia). One day, news breaks that Russell Pickett, the billionaire father of Davis Pickett, has gone missing. Daisy, Aza’s best friend encourages her to leap back into Davis’ life and try to solve the mystery of Russell’s disappearance. Daisy thought it would be easy since they were childhood acquaintances and they might as well win the reward they could use. But, over time Aza and Davis begin dating. Will Aza be able to unravel the secret or will love make her vision hazy?
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.
REVIEW
Turtles All The Way Down is about friendship, unexpected reunion, Star Wars fan fiction, and tuatara who will be a billionaire when Russell dies. But at the same time, it is about a high school girl who’s caught up spiraling in her own thoughts.
Nobody gets anybody else, not really. We're all stuck inside ourselves.
The most beautiful thing about this novel is that it provides us a glimpse of what it is to live with a mental illness. She gets labels from everyone around her. Her mother thinks she is too fragile, Daisy thinks she is the most self-centered person ever, and Davis feels she’s just like him battling through so many problems at once. Even though Davis is a billionaire his life has never been easy. Not with his father on a mysterious run and a non-adjusting elder brother.
The problem with happy endings, I said, is that they're either not really happy, or not really endings, you know? In real life, some things get better and some things get worse. And then eventually you die.
It’s been a long time since I read a book in less than a day, but I made time for this one. It deals with complex topics without being too heavy on its characters. Daisy and Aza’s strain reflected struggles with friends we all have experienced. So, maybe this is why the book meant so much. I love the ending so much. It’s an open ending once again reminding us that life may not necessarily be the Disney fairytales we aspire it to be. The mention of appropriate slang and technologies makes it interesting for the current generation too. On the whole, reading this was a different experience and I feel everyone should pick up this book and just dive into the world of Aza. It is a rollercoaster journey.
We never really talked much or even looked at each other, but it didn't matter because we were looking at the same sky together, which is maybe even more intimate than eye contact anyway. I mean, anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see.
Rating: ???
