Green, J. (2017). Turtles all the way down.

LSSL 5385: Required Authors

Green, J. (2017). Turtles all the way down. New York, NY: Dutton Books.

John Green’s latest novel, Turtles All the Way Down, takes a unique look at mental health and illness from the first person perspective of high schooler Aza Holmes, or “Holmesy” to her best friend Daisy. Aza suffers frequent bouts of anxiety brought on by intrusive thoughts she cannot dismiss, or “intrusives,” though she dubs them “invasives” because they maliciously invade and take over her consciousness. She also fears that she herself may be fictional--not a true, individual entity, but rather just a combination or colony of the many parts that make up her despised physical body. She is especially fixated on the aspect of microbes, how many microbes make up and control her body, and her extreme paranoia over infection, specifically C.diff. (“Clostridium difficile, a bacterium that can cause...life-threatening inflammation”). When seized by her invasives, she sweats uncontrollably, becomes detached from her surroundings, and gives in to trying to pacify the inner voice, however illogically, which she compares to being inside an ever-tightening spiral.

Through her daily invasives and ongoing cognitive behavioral therapy, Aza attends a public high school where her mother teaches, and tries to be present in her small circle of friends. She must contend with her mother being often worried for her, personally unable to bear the thought of losing her, since Aza’s father died eight years before--a burden which Aza internalizes while dealing with her own grief over her loss. Though “Holmesy” wonders at times just why Daisy puts up with her, they have been friends since childhood, and she tries to be agreeable when her friend proposes an exciting quest: to uncover the whereabouts of infamous billionaire and CEO Russell Pickett, who has disappeared to avoid arrest, leading to what Daisy hopes will be a one-hundred-thousand-dollar reward--college seed money that will allow her to quit her despised waitress job and alleviate financial concerns.

It happens that Aza formerly attended a grief camp with Pickett’s son, Davis, or “sad camp” as the two once-friends referred to it. However, upon reacquainting with him, she realizes that she is interested in Davis for reasons beyond just clues, and empathizes with the death of his mother and now loss of his father, while noting that no two losses are ever the same, as each is “unprecedented,” and “you can’t ever know someone else’s hurt...like touching someone else’s body isn’t the same as having someone else’s body” (174). The two begin a dating relationship of sorts, and when Davis asks her to drop her investigation she agrees, though she is conflicted over her sympathy toward his younger brother, Noah, who wishes to find his father no matter the consequences. Moreover, her mental state begins to worsen, possibly because of natural ebb and flow, or possibly because she is fretful over her certainty that Davis will discard her when he finally realizes she is not curable, and will always be disturbed by physical touch and intimacy.

Throughout her poignantly narrated descent into the tightening spiral, Aza deals with typical teenage turbulence such as her relationship with her mother, a first boyfriend, and best friend struggles over parents, dating, futures, and differing needs and circumstances. Green infuses his signature reflection on how people grieve, as well as how loyalty, human bonds, and perseverance are essential in dealing with all life’s differing details and challenges. Additionally, the story lends a timely look at mental illness, how one person lives with it, the expectations that she get “better,” and the necessary elements for such prospects of sustained management.