The dialogue that happens in a John Green book is unlikely to happen anywhere else-it’s snappy and intelligent in ways that normal conversation is occasionally, but not all the time.
As Preston Yancey noted on an early episode of the What Should I Read Next podcast, YA should be vibrant and intense-the colors are bright and the feelings are feelings. With that said, Turtles All the Way Down is still, 100% a John Green book. And yet, Turtles is the closest I’ve found Green to come back to TFIOS-I’d even go so far as to say that Aza Holmes, in all her flawed glory, feels more authentic than Hazel and Augustus. So it was with some hesitation that I even checked out Turtles All the Way Down from the library. My burning love for John Green ignited by TFIOS quickly fizzled and revealed itself as a mere flash-bang rather than an enduring fire. I then eagerly read Looking for Alaska and was disappointed and could never get into Paper Towns. I was that girl who googled “An Imperial Affliction” and was disappointed to learn it was not a real book. I was so into it that I even finished listening to the audiobook on the way to a wedding and arrived a mess-red faced and sobbing before the wedding ever started. I’m one of those cliché people that loved The Fault in Our Stars (and to be further cliché-that’s the book and most definitely not the movie). With a focus on Aza but eyes on Davis and Daisy as well, Turtles is ultimately a story of what it means to be resilient, even when everything - your family, your friends, life circumstances, and even your own brain chemistry– are fighting against you. Throughout Turtles, Aza vacillates between being defined and driven by her anxiety, OCD, and grief for her departed father and having moments of peace, during which she watches stars and eats Applebees with Davis Pickett, son of an eccentric billionaire who’s gone missing, and her best friend Daisy Ramirez, internet-famous author of Star Wars fanfic. Turtles All the Way Down is the story of Aza Holmes, a sixteen year old Indianapolis high school student with a crazy best friend and a raging complex of anxiety disorders. You get the pick the frame, you know? Maybe you don’t choose what’s in the picture, but you decide the frame.” You pick your endings, and your beginnings. “I was beginning to learn that your life is a story told about you, not one that you tell.”
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