Book Review - Turtles All the Way Down - John Green
I first encountered John Green the spring of 2009. Not literally, although that would be great. I had just graduated college and still wasn't through the young adult stage of books.
I grew up on The Baby Sitters Club, Sweet Valley High, and a few other serial teen books that released one new book a month (written by a ghost writer) for over a hundred months.
And I could eat one of those books in a day or two. Again, not literally.
The Young Adult books as we know them now didn't come out until my senior year of high school and college.
And I love them!
So I spent a fair amount of time going to the library and checking out books I didn't have to pay for past updating my definitely expired library card. (At least 5 years expired.)
And there I found An Abundance of Katherines, Looking for Alaska, and Paper Towns. Consumed one by one in a week.
And I waited for more. Finally came The Fault in Our Stars.
And Hank Green's YouTube webseries like The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. (Check it out on FB.)
And the Crash Course YouTube series that I shared with English and World History classes.
And now Turtles All the Way Down.
As with the other four I had to carry on with tradition and check it out from the library. That added to my wait.
The book itself isn't an easy read. It follows Aza and her mental health concerns, the best friend Daisy dealing with these issues and her family's poverty, and Davis and his corrupt, missing, millionaire father and heartbroken thirteen-year-old brother, Noah.
It, quite frankly, is probably better than The Fault in Our Stars. Yes, I said it.
John Green masterfully pulls us into Aza's mental gauntlet that she faces daily. Those voices second guessing everything and her struggle to fight them off. Her struggle to take meds in order to help her be herself.
It is a heavy read that pulls you in and under, leaving you worn out from the emotional and mental pathways that you travelled with Aza and Davis and Daisy.
John Green left himself on those pages.
So, yes, you should read this. You should discover how the book got its title and cover art.
You should find out if a tuatara inherits Davis and Noah's family estate. You should find out what a tuatara is.
Be prepared for a late night read as you are drawn into Aza's spiral. (It took me 2 nights including one 1:30 am I-must-finish-this-book late night read.)
If it wasn't 1:32 am (yes, I'm writing this right after reading it - even though this won't be posted until later) I'd also be starting my fluffy, don't-need-to-think book.
Granted, I did edit over a hundred pages AND read an over two hundred page book in two days....
Regardless, Mr. John Green, if you are reading this blog post, this is probably, in this reader's opinion, your best book yet.
Rating - 5 stars
Alicia
I grew up on The Baby Sitters Club, Sweet Valley High, and a few other serial teen books that released one new book a month (written by a ghost writer) for over a hundred months.
And I could eat one of those books in a day or two. Again, not literally.
The Young Adult books as we know them now didn't come out until my senior year of high school and college.
And I love them!
So I spent a fair amount of time going to the library and checking out books I didn't have to pay for past updating my definitely expired library card. (At least 5 years expired.)
And there I found An Abundance of Katherines, Looking for Alaska, and Paper Towns. Consumed one by one in a week.
And I waited for more. Finally came The Fault in Our Stars.
And Hank Green's YouTube webseries like The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. (Check it out on FB.)
And the Crash Course YouTube series that I shared with English and World History classes.
And now Turtles All the Way Down.
As with the other four I had to carry on with tradition and check it out from the library. That added to my wait.
The book itself isn't an easy read. It follows Aza and her mental health concerns, the best friend Daisy dealing with these issues and her family's poverty, and Davis and his corrupt, missing, millionaire father and heartbroken thirteen-year-old brother, Noah.
It, quite frankly, is probably better than The Fault in Our Stars. Yes, I said it.
John Green masterfully pulls us into Aza's mental gauntlet that she faces daily. Those voices second guessing everything and her struggle to fight them off. Her struggle to take meds in order to help her be herself.
It is a heavy read that pulls you in and under, leaving you worn out from the emotional and mental pathways that you travelled with Aza and Davis and Daisy.
John Green left himself on those pages.
So, yes, you should read this. You should discover how the book got its title and cover art.
You should find out if a tuatara inherits Davis and Noah's family estate. You should find out what a tuatara is.
Be prepared for a late night read as you are drawn into Aza's spiral. (It took me 2 nights including one 1:30 am I-must-finish-this-book late night read.)
If it wasn't 1:32 am (yes, I'm writing this right after reading it - even though this won't be posted until later) I'd also be starting my fluffy, don't-need-to-think book.
Granted, I did edit over a hundred pages AND read an over two hundred page book in two days....
Regardless, Mr. John Green, if you are reading this blog post, this is probably, in this reader's opinion, your best book yet.
Rating - 5 stars
Alicia
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