“Thoughts are only thoughts. They are not you. You do belong to yourself, even when your thoughts don’t.”
John Green released his 5th young adult novel, Turtles All the Way Down, another masterpiece on love, friendship, resilience and mental health.
The story revolves around Aza Holmes and her inner struggles with her own thoughts.
John Green is known for writing his characters to be intelligent, quirky, and genuine, and with Turtles All the Way Down, he really doesn’t disappoint. As what another bookworm online had mentioned, he writes and treats his characters like adults since young adults really are adults, which I totally agree with. Here, he gives us Aza, not the usual feisty, strong-independent one, but rather silent and intelligent who’s always inside her head. Through her character, Green shows us how anxiety feels like inside someone’s head. Regardless of the female lead character, he wrote her and the other characters genuinely regardless of the gender itself.
Aza experiences these different kinds of episodes where some readers might feel like “geez what the hell?” that might sound funny or out of this world, yet slaps you the reality that this is how it feels like for someone who deals and copes with anxiety on a daily basis. Some readers might be triggered at some point, especially those who are still going through something. However, in my own perspective, it didn’t feel that heavy reading from start to finish.
Yet, if I were to compare Turtles All the Way Down to Jennifer Niven’s ATBP *don’t get me wrong both books are really good* in terms of how emotions are being conveyed, ATBP can be quite more triggering and heavier compared to John Green’s. Rather, he wrote the book in a way of describing how it feels instead of making you feel its whole weight through his metaphors.
Somehow I was really expecting Green would use OCD in terms of Aza’s behavior since she did show the symptoms of OCD. However, we cannot really say why he didn’t use it or maybe he was just being careful, we can never be so sure. Also, he didn’t just describe how it feels, he showed how it could affect one’s relationship not only with the people around him/her, but also the relationship with himself/herself.
I love how realistic this story is written and how it hits home to many without romanticizing mental health. The cover also looks intriguing and there are some chapters that really explain why the book’s title is the way it is, most of them metaphorical, as expected of John Green. I guess what makes this novel worth reading despite it being on the young adult genre, is he didn’t write the characters as a bunch of kids trying to get over their teenage angsts. He wrote them as a representation of people who go through these struggles, may it be the one experiencing anxiety or not.
There’s also a part in this book that is quite similar with Dr. Bird’s Advice for Poets, which is implying that having anxiety is not a choice, and that privileged or not, no one is exempted in experiencing mental health disorders.
I think what Green actually wants to convey, is that anxiety/disorders is/are just like any other sickness that is/are not seen by the naked eye. And that it is totally okay to feel that way and ask for help. Though people might think that someone who goes through it might seem selfish, it’s also not one’s choice to go through it and that they still need understanding and support with it.
This is the 2nd book that I’ve read after Paper towns and he still gave me the feeling of being intelligent because of the way he writes, that at some point I feel dumb because the character is too intelligent for my own good lol. Kidding aside, even when I’ve only read Paper towns in college, I still love how John Green writes, especially with how he ends this story with hope. And now with this book, it is such a masterpiece that no one should pass up reading.
Total rating for this, totally 5 stars.
Writer,
Thin Girl
The story revolves around Aza Holmes and her inner struggles with her own thoughts.
John Green is known for writing his characters to be intelligent, quirky, and genuine, and with Turtles All the Way Down, he really doesn’t disappoint. As what another bookworm online had mentioned, he writes and treats his characters like adults since young adults really are adults, which I totally agree with. Here, he gives us Aza, not the usual feisty, strong-independent one, but rather silent and intelligent who’s always inside her head. Through her character, Green shows us how anxiety feels like inside someone’s head. Regardless of the female lead character, he wrote her and the other characters genuinely regardless of the gender itself.
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| pinterest.com |
Yet, if I were to compare Turtles All the Way Down to Jennifer Niven’s ATBP *don’t get me wrong both books are really good* in terms of how emotions are being conveyed, ATBP can be quite more triggering and heavier compared to John Green’s. Rather, he wrote the book in a way of describing how it feels instead of making you feel its whole weight through his metaphors.
Somehow I was really expecting Green would use OCD in terms of Aza’s behavior since she did show the symptoms of OCD. However, we cannot really say why he didn’t use it or maybe he was just being careful, we can never be so sure. Also, he didn’t just describe how it feels, he showed how it could affect one’s relationship not only with the people around him/her, but also the relationship with himself/herself.
“Thoughts are just a different kind of bacteria, colonizing you.”
 |
| pinterest.com |
I think what Green actually wants to convey, is that anxiety/disorders is/are just like any other sickness that is/are not seen by the naked eye. And that it is totally okay to feel that way and ask for help. Though people might think that someone who goes through it might seem selfish, it’s also not one’s choice to go through it and that they still need understanding and support with it.
This is the 2nd book that I’ve read after Paper towns and he still gave me the feeling of being intelligent because of the way he writes, that at some point I feel dumb because the character is too intelligent for my own good lol. Kidding aside, even when I’ve only read Paper towns in college, I still love how John Green writes, especially with how he ends this story with hope. And now with this book, it is such a masterpiece that no one should pass up reading.
“It’s so weird, to know you’re crazy and not be able to do anything about it, you know?”
This book is a reminder of how anxiety and other mental disorders are real and that they don’t make you a crazy person. It does not define who you are and that help is always available. You just have to keep going and survive even if healing is not instant. This is not only for those who are struggling but also for those people who know someone who is going through it, may it be a family or a friend, even a stranger.
Total rating for this, totally 5 stars.
“I, a singular proper noun, would go on, if always in a conditional tense.”
Writer,
Thin Girl
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