The Run Down on Turtles All the Way Down

The most recent release by much loved young adult author John Green, Turtles All The Way Down continues Green’s authentic capturing of adolescence while breaking new ground. Officially published on October 10, 2017, Green has since then been signing books and touring all over the U.S. to respond to the excitement.

 Green has always been acclaimed for his ability to capture all the elements of being a young adult: the highs, the lows, and the feels.

His characters are real, his stories are compelling, and his writing is at the same time thought-provoking and heartfelt. Turtles All The Way Down mixes the successful formula of a John Green novel while exploring a darker subject than even The Fault in Our Stars.

Turtles All The Way Down quickly introduces us to a small cast, a mystery to solve, and relationships to explore. There’s a mansion with secrets, a missing billionaire, and the rush of adrenaline that comes with trying to get that $100,000 for finding him.

 While the beginning seems to take a bit, readers quickly get to know Asa Holmes, a rather nerdy, troubled 16-year-old and her excitable, demanding best friend, Daisy. When Daisy hears about the reward for finding the missing billionaire, she quickly runs to Asa who knows the guy’s son. He must know something right? 

From there ensues a tangle of plot twists, heartfelt conversations, and perhaps a realization that this billionaire is only a backdrop for what’s really going on.

I realized while reading that Green’s focus perhaps wasn’t so much on the mystery, but what’s going on around it. Particularly what is happening in the mind of Asa, and it impacts the writing, the story, and her relationships with everyone else.

Even with its lighter and heartfelt moments, Green manages to explore something darker in Turtles All The Way Down than he did even in The Fault in Our Stars, a story about two teenage cancer patients. It’s less the subject that’s dark- though it is- but far more how Green chose to write about. 

Asa Holmes struggles with crippling anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. While she struggles with repetitive behaviors, her worst enemy is the swirling, continuous swarm of thoughts inside her head. She’s horrified of the microorganisms inside her gut, her mouth, and a wound in her hand. She’ll re-open wounds to “clean” them and sometimes swallow hand sanitizer in a desperate attempt to get her fear of bacteria to go away. 

Long stretches of the book are spent in the midst of Asa’s mental civil war and they are painful.

Incredibly painful. Unlike John Green’s usual tendency to add in some humor to these hard moments, he refuses to in the case of Asa Holme’s “light-swallowing wormholes”. If Asa can’t find relief, neither can we as the reader. 

Turtles All The Way Down was directly inspired by a long period of mental turmoil for John Green. His personal anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder were consuming him. In an interview with The New York Times, Green said, “Coming out of that, it was difficult to write about anything else. The topic demanded itself.” 

The work was the best capturing Green could fathom of what it was like to suffer from such a debilitating fear of your own mind. Even Hank Green, his brother, found the book to be a clearer picture of what his own brother has suffered with all of his life. 

John Green’s latest novel is certain to have an impact on readers.

Like his previous works, it’s honest, genuine, and heartfelt, but it’s also far more personal than some of his other novels have been. If you’ve enjoyed his other works, you’re sure to enjoy Turtles All The Way Down, but know that you’re going into something a bit different.

 Also, it’s a novel worth reading if you want to broaden your perspective. Turtles All The Way Down was certainly an eye-opener for me into the mind and life of someone struggling with mental illness. Whether you will relate or simply want to understand more, Green has done a brilliant job with calling attention to a struggle dear to his heart. And one that he wants people to know they can overcome.

First Seen In The Eagle’s Landing