November 01, 2017

Book Review: Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

Title: Turtles All the Way Down
Author: John Green
Publisher: Penguin Random House
ISBN:  9780241335437
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 286
Source: Flipkart Review Program
Rating:  4.5/5

He’s trying to treat you like you’re normal and you’re trying to respond like you’re normal but everyone involved knows you are definitely not normal. Normal people can kiss if they want to kiss. Normal people don’t sweat like you. Normal people choose their thoughts like they choose what to watch on TV. Everyone in this conversation knows you’re a freak.

When it comes to YA genre, John Green hits the place. There are very few authors who could place themselves into that genre with such grace. I loved how John Green captured the emotions of teenagers; he doesn’t depict this Y-generation teens any less. They read. They Think. They Suffer. They question to themselves about their existence. John Green put them on journey and how they trying to cope up with various situations is so relatable to me. Love, Parting, illness, Loss are the key factors of Green’s novel, Still I like how he maintained the serenity amidst them.

Frankly speaking, I was so excited when I first heard about his latest, Turtles All the Way Down, and I’m glad, It didn’t disappoint me a bit. With Turtles All the Way Down, John Green presented a quaint character, 16-year-old girl, Aza who has been suffering from anxiety disorder. It leads her into many behavioral situations, for instance, she doesn’t like her own body, she obsessed with a finger’s wound, and she seems worried all the time about microbes present in her body. It is quite different to read how John Green depicts a new whole world, running inside Aza’s head. The way she thinks in repetitive mode, readers feel those indefinable emotions instantly.

To be honest, it is not a fun read, as John Green’s other novels were, yet I found the plot so absorbing that I finished it into two sittings.

Basically the story begins with some mystery, Russell Pickett, father of Davis, (Aza’s childhood friend) he has gone missing and big reward money drew attention of Daisy, Aza’s best friend. Daisy and Aza both decide to search Mr. Pickett, and how this decision has been changed their life eventually.

During this search, Aza begins to feel attraction towards Davis, who is already troubled with sudden disappearance of his father, John Green crafted that part beautifully, how Davis calculating the absence of his father was so consuming, On the other hand, Aza comes to know about the despair Davis feels in spite of being rich. There is so many secrets behind Davis’s Big mansion.

Although Plot of Turtles All the Way Down revolves around this mystery, Yet John Green didn’t forget to focus on his main interest that is Friendship, quirky moments between lovers, memorable pinches of words, and small life lessons, as Green writes “True terror is not being scared, it is not having a choice on that matter” and “I is the hardest word to define” I have underlined whole book, just to read them over and over.

And the cover of Turtles All the Way Down hides something; you get to know once you start exploring the book. Give your love to this novel, because John Green went deeper to decipher those unspoken emotions of teenagers and presented to us, I was not even sure about if they existed before. Recommended.      

READER’s MOMENT  

We never really talked much or even looked at each other, but it didn't matter because we were looking at the same sky together, which is maybe even more intimate than eye contact anyway. I mean, anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see.

The worst part of being truly alone is you think about all the times you wished that everyone would just leave you be. Then they do, and you are left being, and you turn out to be terrible company.

One of the challenges with pain--physical or psychic--is that we can really only approach it through metaphor. It can't be represented the way table or a body can. In some ways, pain is the opposite of language.

I thought, lying there, that I might love him for the rest of my life. We did love each other—maybe we never said it, and maybe love was never something we were in, but it was something I felt. I loved him, and I thought, maybe I will never see him again, and I'll be stuck missing him, and isn't that so terrible. 

You remember your first love because they show you, prove to you, that you can love and be loved, that nothing in this world is deserved except for love, that love is both how you become a person, and why

ABOUT AUTHOR  
John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns is a New York Times bestseller and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best YA Mystery. In January 2012, his most recent novel, The Fault In Our Stars, was met with wide critical acclaim, unprecedented in Green's career. The book also topped the New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. Green has also coauthored a book with David Levithan called, Will Grayson Will Grayson published in 2010. The film rights for all his books, with the exception of Will Grayson Will Grayson, have been optioned to major Hollywood Studios.

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