HARD TO FIND FAULT IN JOHN GREEN’S LATEST

John Green’s latest book, “Turtles All the Way Down,” is a journey through grief, mystery, and young romance, but most importantly, mental health.

Green became especially well-known after the release of his “The Fault In Our Stars,” but if that story was too cliché for you, then “Turtles” will likely be a better fit. While he seemed to romanticize physical health issues in “Fault,” he does a stellar job of tackling mental health in his latest work.

The narrator of “Turtles” is 16-year-old Aza Holmes who lives with obsessive compulsive disorder. She lets readers into her mind, which she feels she may never be able to control. Her intrusive thoughts typically come from a fear of the microbes living within the human body: If we’re made of endless amounts of cells, then are we really in control of ourselves?

Her mental health worry is a constant throughout the book and follows a journey of its own while she’s still having to attend school and find her own way to get through the standard teenage experience. When she attends her therapy appointments, readers get an insight on how her mind works as she’s still trying to figure it out for herself.

Green does a great job showing how people living with mental illnesses are still just people, but certain moments in life can be significantly more challenging for them to get through. In Aza’s case, she has a coping mechanism that resurfaces every few pages in the book. It might make readers think, “Here we go again,” but that’s because media has conditioned us to think that she should be magically better at some point. Reality is, mental illness can be a lifelong condition.

Another huge piece of this book is the mystery element that Green includes. Aza met Davis Pickett when they were younger, at a summer camp for kids who have lost a parent – for Davis, his mom, and for Aza, her dad. The two haven’t spoken in years, but she and her best friend, Daisy Ramirez, take a sudden interest in Davis when his dad goes missing and a $100,000 reward is offered for helpful information.

Reconnecting with Davis brings a romantic element into the story, but instead of being the focus, it’s used to show how various people in Aza’s life react to her OCD. Her mom, best friends, and Pickett all treat her very differently, and throughout the book, she subconsciously works to de-stigmatize the idea that she’s “crazy” and help the people in her life understand how scary her mind can be.

The end of “Turtles All the Way Down” is a satisfying conclusion that ties up any loose ends readers may have been wondering about, and gives a quick glimpse into Aza’s future. It also offers a light bulb moment when the title of the book finally becomes relevant.

Advocate Staff