Turtles All the Way Down

Written by John Green

Narrated by Kate Rudd

FEATURED ON 60 MINUTES and FRESH AIR

“So surprising and moving and true that I became completely unstrung.” – The New York Times

Named a best book of the year by: The New York Times, NPR, TIME, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Southern Living, Publishers Weekly, BookPage, A.V. Club, Bustle, BuzzFeed, Vulture, and many more!

JOHN GREEN, the acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, returns with a story of shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.

Aza Holmes never intended to pursue the disappearance of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Pickett’s son Davis. 

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9780525591030

John Green

John Green es el autor best seller de novelas como Bajo la misma estrella, Buscando a Alaska y Mil veces hasta siempre. Sus libros han recibido numerosos reconocimientos, entre los cuales destacan la medalla Printz, el Premio de Honor Printz y el Premio Edgard. Green ha sido finalista en dos ocasiones del Book Prize del LA Times y fue seleccionado por la revista Time como una de las 100 personas más influyentes del mundo. Es también guionista y presentador del podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed, que ha recibido excelentes críticas. Junto con su hermano, Hank, John Green ha creado muchos proyectos online de vídeo, incluyendo Vlogbrothers y el canal educativo Crash Course. Vive con su familia en Indianápolis, Indiana.

Reviews for Turtles All the Way Down

[greisn1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Oh I was really looking forward to reading this book! Unfortunately, I think my expectations were set too high. I really liked Aza as a character, and felt like I could relate to her and her internal struggles. But this story didn’t seem to have too clear a focus. Yes, in a broad way the focus is on the search for the billionaire. But really the whole book just kind of wanders around until it gets to the end.

[abiiharrisonn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

this was not what i expected at all, but i found it such an interesting approach to parts of mental health issues that aren’t talked about as much as some of the more common conditions. i thought the story itself got a little lost in some places, but it almost seemed part of the writing style.

[ofmiceandren · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

most faithful depiction of OCD i've ever read.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Aza Holmes and her friend Daisy Ramirez decide they want to get the $100,000 reward for giving information on the disappearance of a local billionaire to police. She becomes friendly with the man's son, Davis, whom she knew years ago from going to a camp for kids who had dealt with a death in the family ("Sad Camp"), and they start to become friendly. All of this is complicated by the fact that Aza's OCD and invasive thoughts are particularly difficult right now.

This is much more a story of friendship and first love (not, technically, a romance, I hasten to add) than it is a mystery. Though it starts with Aza and Daisy investigating, that becomes a subplot and the emphasis is more on the fact that, unlike some well-known detectives in popular culture, Aza's OCD is not a detective superpower but actually gets in the way of, well, everything. John Green himself has OCD, and the way he describes Aza's thought spirals and compulsions is extremely intense and at times hard to read. Aza is struggling to figure out who she is not just as a teenager but also as someone struggling with mental illness - who is she apart from her thoughts, that are sometimes destructive? And there are tensions in her friendship with Aza and her budding relationship with Davis. A realistic look at mental health, the struggle with something from which you never get "better", while still being hopeful.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Blech on the disgusting finger body theme woven throughout the plot =

Is this what YA audiences crave?

Nice cover.

[profh-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I appreciate the author's attempt at addressing an important subject to a younger audience. Sadly, the lack of sophistication, nuance, art, and craft makes for a cliche ridden tale. This is a missed opportunity because with better editing and more attention to detail, this could have been very good.

[foof2you · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A wealthy billionaire has become a fugitive, a huge reward of $100,000 dollars is announced for information on the whereabouts of the fugitive. Aza and her good friend Daisy decide to start looking for the billionaire. Friendships are tested, mental illness is discussed and this is one remarkable detective story.

[fmclellan-29530 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

John Green's best yet. Read it in one big gulp. Great characters, sympathetically drawn. Just loved it.

[raschneid_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5. This was a quick read and a really excellent and nuanced, if gut-wrenching portrayal of mental illness. Folks who experience anxiety or OCD, please look after yourself while reading this book; I am prone to anxious thought patterns and found this book a distressing read at times.

John Green is such a cerebral storyteller that the text of his novels spend a lot of time commenting on the themes of previous novels, and Turtles All the Way Down is definitely a Green novel in that regard, with a lot to say about previous books such as Paper Towns and about YA storytelling in general. I'd like to see him move on (as he did, sort of, with The Fault in our Stars), but the result here was still a solid book. The book also features trademark Green-ian characters, like Aza's self-assured, fan fiction-writing best friend Daisy (who I adored) and philosophical maybe-love interest Davis (who I found dull as nails).

As always, Green's strengths are his boundless curiosity about everything and his boosterism of teens and youth culture. As an advocate and mentor for this age group, he is perhaps without equal. And as a crossover writer with an adult fanbase, writing during a time when youth culture is particularly demonized, I applaud him for spreading the word that the kids these days are alright, even when they're struggling.

ETA: I will defend to the death Green's characters' right to have super philosophical conversations, because that was my lived high school experience, even without 2017 Wikipedia at our fingertips.

[ellenh_28 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A novel of teen friendship, mental health and a cumbersome mystery. I struggled with the teen angst and philosophical meandering throughout. All in all it was a great introduction to what anxiety can be like in one's life. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to someone struggling though.

[amcheri-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

While it didn't rip my heart out entirely, the way I expected it to, I spent the majority of the book riveted. Green does such an incredible job of putting Aza's thoughts on display for us that I couldn't get away. A wonderfully emotional journey.

[knerd.knitter · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

 Maybe my problem with this book was that the character's struggles with anxiety just hit too close to home...

[castlelass · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Young adult novel set in Indiana about teens who get involved in trying to figure out what happened to a missing billionaire accused of fraud. Sixteen-year-old Aza knows Davis, the billionaire’s son, from a camp she attended nine years ago. Her best friend Daisy is interested in the monetary reward and convinces Aza to contact Davis. Aza suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and germaphobia. Aza’s anxiety is worsened when she and Davis begin seeing each other.

The characters are involved in the usual concerns of teens. The mental health angle is realistic, especially given Aza’s traumatic past. It portrays what it is like to experience an intrusive voice that leads to OCD behavior. However, the whole billionaire business did not appeal to me at all. It is far-fetched and relies heavily on multiple coincidences. The plot also includes an at-fault accident where the legal ramifications are entirely ignored.

This is a book where the reader needs to accept the implausible plot and just go with the flow. I might have appreciated it more if I were in the target audience. It pales in comparison to The Fault in Our Stars.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not a realistic catalyst, but so many realistic relationships and characters.

[dairyqueen84 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this much more than I thought I would. You can feel Aza's thought spirals and torment. Daisy's reaction was unduly harsh, I thought. Anyone who knows someone who struggles with any sort of mental illness but especially obsessive compulsive disorder should read this book.

[mutantpudding · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A good book and happy to see anxiety and OCD portrayed well in a YA fiction, even though I don't think it was particularly beneficial for me personally to read about since my own intrusive thoughts are already working hard to make my life weird.

[fromthecomfychair · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've read most of John Green's YA novels, and liked them. My daughter wasn't too keen on this one, and I put off reading it until I started reading his new book, The Anthropocene Reviewed. There I learned about his own battle with anxiety and OCD, so decided to read Turtles.

First thing I noticed was that his female protagonist, Aza, talks like a guy. And so does her best friend, Daisy. They do not talk about things the way any females I've ever known talk about them. They sound like John Green, and his male protagonists from other novels. This is a problem for me because Aza is the narrator. I just could never picture her and Daisy as females. I'm wondering why he created a female main character. Was it to distance himself from what he was writing about? I think it would have been better if the main character had been male. Has anyone else noticed this in the, what, five years since it was published?

And though I have personally suffered from anxiety and depression, I was unable to understand the suffering of Aza. I mean, I got it, but I didn't feel it. It felt strange that Aza's Mom was so close, yet so far away. She clearly didn't get it at all, except that she could see her daughter was suffering, without being able to understand what the suffering was about.

Neal Shusterman's Challenger Deep, about his son's battle with schizophrenia, was far more understandable to me, though I have no personal experience with it and anyone close who has it.

So I'd have to say this was my least favorite John Green novel, and I agree with someone that the cover art doesn't help sell it.

[formerenglishteacher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the third John Green book I’ve read. Two of the three, this one and “The Fault in Our Stars,” are YA (young adult) books. In fact, that is really what John Green is known for. The audience for this book according to one of the review services is 14 to 18-year-olds, and I would agree with that. The third Green book I read was “The Anthropocene Reviewed.” This is a book of essays and is not considered a YA book, although that age read could certainly read the book. With all of that on the table, I must say my 3/5 star review is from my perspective. I am a 71-year-old retired high school English teacher. Since I retired I haven’t gravitated to YA literature, although while I taught I read a lot of it and recommended much of it to my students. I would certainly have recommended “Turtles All the Way Down” to a 15-year-old ninth grader. For my tastes, however, the book included far too much teenage drama and angst. The main character’s best friend, Daisy, seemed to me to be the caricature of the obnoxious high school female. I’ll give Green credit, though. He obviously knows teens. As I recall, his kids are in that age group or have been recently, so I’m sure that helps. For me, that drama and the super-helicopter mom of the main character, Aza Holmes, was almost more than I could stand. As many professional and reader reviews say, the mental health issues raised in the book are important ones, and that alone makes it worthy of the glowing reviews most have given it. It just isn’t my cup of tea.

[fionaanne · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My least favorite of Mr. Green's novels thus far. It feels unfinished and in need of more editing and time.

[wishanem · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is partly a mystery, but it is mostly a character study of a teenager with mental illness. The story is fast-paced enough to hold a reader's interest, but there are ruminations and charming, thoughtful insights too. There were a handful of implausibilities and factual errors that jumped out at me, but they're all easily explained by perspective of the narrator.

I generally feel uncomfortable reading about the experience of mental illness. It's weirdly intimate. There's something different about empathizing with a likeable and emotionally relatable character who is suffering mental anguish compared to someone suffering physical pain. I think a book which was any more focused on that would've been too much for me, but this book balanced the pain with enough other stuff that I could handle it.

I picked up this book thinking it would be an easy read, because it is intended for young adults. It wasn't, and I got more out of it than I was anticipating.

[thoroughlyme · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Turtles All The Way Down is definitely a John Green book, with all the pros and cons that statement comes with. That being said, I did like it. Quite a bit. Turtles All The Way Down is the latest novel written by John Green. The novel follows the story of Aza Holmes, a sixteen-year-old girl with a pretty severe anxiety disorder. Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis. Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. (Mild spoilers follow) 

So, I don't know if it was just me or if the marketing campaign really screwed up, but I was definitely under the impression that this book was more of a mystery novel. It is not a mystery novel. It is not a mystery novel. IT IS NOT A MYSTERY NOVEL. Everybody all clear on that? Good. I wish the advertising for the novel had been a bit more forthcoming about the fact that this book is really about a girl with a pretty severe anxiety disorder. I was not mentally prepared for a book like that, and the longer I read, the more anxious I became. That's not to say the book is bad or anything, it's genuinely really, really good. I just think that everybody needs to know what they're getting into when they start this book. If you find yourself in need of a trigger warning before consuming potentially triggering content, this is your trigger warning.

The vast majority of Turtles All The Way Down deals with Aza and her anxiety. It's handled in a really, really realistic and respectful way. Almost too realistic. If I had to bet money, I'd bet that much of this novel is autobiographical in one way or another. While I went into this expecting a mystery novel, I really liked that I ended up getting a novel that dealt so much with anxiety. As someone with anxiety, so much of this hit home so well for me. The way Green describes invasive thoughts and anxiety spirals as this thing that you can't escape that just gets tighter and tighter as it keeps winding its way down your brain really was amazing. I've never seen that concept explained in such an accurate way before and it was such a joy to read in this novel.

His characters, as always, feel a bit... fake in that no teenager talks the way he has them talk and they always think in these pretentious philosophical ways and it always feels just a little bit off. They're well written and developed characters, but they still suffer from that factor that John Green has always been known for suffering from. One thing that's worth noting, though, is that this book very much doesn't glorify or romanticize mental illness (or any illness). That's an accusation that's been lobbed at John Green for pretty much his entire career, and I'm happy to say that it's not a problem that's in this book. Anxiety is painted in a sympathetic but ugly light. A lot of detail goes into explaining just how awful mental illness can be. Green is careful not to stigmatize or demonize mental illnesses, but he also makes sure to properly show just how awful and unappealing it is. It's definite growth in his depiction of mental illness and it's a welcome growth.

It's hard to talk about the "plot" of the novel as it really revolves around Aza coming to grips with her anxiety and how it impacts the people around her and how her life and Davis Pickett's life interacts and weaves with each other's. I thought it was paced really well. It never dragged nor did it move unrealistically quickly. Things happened at the speed they needed to happen and plenty of time was spent on things that needed time spent on them. It's a quick read; it's not a particularly long book nor is it a particularly challenging read. But it's a well-paced read. You feel satisfied with how things went by the end of the novel.

Honestly, this is probably my favorite of John Green's books. I loved The Fault in Our Stars, but he ran awfully close to romanticizing illness there and I enjoyed Paper Towns (and never understood the criticism it got for the fact that Margot was a "manic-pixie dream girl"; that was sorta the point of the book. Q had to learn to stop viewing her like that and understand that she was an actual person and not an idealized construct), while I never managed to finish Looking For Alaska and haven't looked at An Abundance of Katherines or Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Turtles All The Way Down is a surprising book. It's not a mystery novel; it's a genuinely moving look at how anxiety can impact the life of the sufferer and those who care for them. It's a sweet story about friendship and young love. It's heartbreaking and funny and entertaining and it's worth reading, especially if you or anyone you know has ever suffered from an anxiety disorder.

(4 out of 5 wands)

[sara_cat-107388 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Putting a star rating on a book that is the exact thing you didn’t know you needed feels... uncomfortable. If you feel alone with what you’re going through, if you have struggles with mental illness, this book might just be what you need, too. I don’t know if there’s anymore to say about a book that has touched me so deeply and that I imagine I’ll be returning to many times in the future.
To all who read this review, I wish you the best. DFTBA

[tonifgmamtc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a story of a mystery, romance, and friendship that would be interesting as is, but it also includes issues about mental health. All the bits were good, and it goes a long way to showing what it feels like in someone's head with a difference they cannot control.

[sarah220-732610 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is another fabulous book from John Green. It is the story of a teenage girl struggling with anxiety/ OCD issues while trying to balance relationships and solve a mystery. The novel is at times heartbreaking and hilarious. Aza is a beautiful and flawed character that is incredibly believable and relatable. The descriptions of Aza's instrusive thoughts and compulsive actions are insightful and painful to read. "The ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts" constricted my own heart and breath as I was reading about her suffering. Green's writing, per usual, is brilliant and made all the more powerful when combined with his intense personal experiences.

[evelyn.b · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

John Green always impresses me. He was the author I read the most of in Highschool and this book brings me back to that time. A great novel that gives the reader an inside look into the struggle of OCD/Anxiety. I really enjoyed this book.

I don't think it's my favorite John Green book for the following reasons: It isn't the type of book that puts you on the edge of your seat to hear what is next. While I know typically that isn't how John Green writes, I felt like I could never get enough of The Fault in our Stars. This book was fun to read, took a little bit to get going, and ended sort of abruptly, but it still ended the best way it should have.

[drfuriosa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

That was...really good. Really really good. John Green really pulls you inside Aza's head to show how mental illness works. It feels like a fictionalized version of Roxane Gay's Hunger, in that you see someone for their raw, unpolished self. The love story was secondary to the real love between Aza and her best friend Daisy, which is really the great love we feel in our lives.

[ldvoorberg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fairly typical good teen fiction. Minimal parental figures but not caricatures. Teens who are more philosophical and poetical and interesting than most. Drama and intrigue, a harrowing adventure and a neat ending that is not wholly Hollywood. Og, and some mental health anxiety to make the story very trendy for today's youth.
But decent for what it is.

[readingbeader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Aza has OCD. Real OCD. Not the kind many of us say when we say "I'm ocd about having all my book covers match, or a series must all be in the same format." When Aza's mind goes into a spiral, it's frightening. I do not have OCD, but I do have someone in my life who has dealt with it, in a milder version than Aza's. After reading this, I feel like I have a better understanding of what it must be like. It is very intense. Daisy, Aza's best friend, is me.

Favorite quote: (made me actually laugh out loud.)
"The whole problem with boys is that ninety-nine percent of them are, like, okay. If you could dress and hygiene them properly, and make them stand up straight and listen to you and not be dumbasses, they'd be totally acceptable." Daisy, page 41.

[sjgirl-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’ve had mixed results when it comes to John Green’s books, The Fault In Our Stars I loved, Looking For Alaska I struggled through, and Paper Towns fell somewhere in between, so I went into Turtles All The Way Down with some trepidation, and fortunately, it landed in the loved category.

When an extremely wealthy man runs away to elude arrest, seventeen year old Aza and her best friend Daisy think they have an inside track to earning the reward for his capture since Aza’s childhood friend, Davis, happens to be the missing man’s son. However, if you’re here for the mystery, it should be noted that the mystery doesn’t really play a huge role, it’s mostly in the background with the exception of how it emotionally affects Davis and his brother, which I thought was really well conveyed.

One of the chief complaints you tend to see with John Green’s writing is there’s a certain pretentiousness to it, an unreal quality to his characters in how they spout quotations and philosophy and things of that nature. I think what makes it more palatable and more believable here is that Davis is the only character like that and it’s mostly relegated to his blog. The author isn’t asking you to believe that the book is entirely populated with people who say things that aren’t common knowledge, things that wouldn’t come up naturally in most conversations, it’s just an occasional quirk found in Davis rather than in every character. Of the four John Green books I’ve read, this one has done the best job of making its characters feel like individuals who have their own way of talking and thinking.

It’s tricky for Aza to date given her mental health so pairing her with someone who responded to her with sensitivity as Davis does made for a sweet romance, I particularly liked the realistic way it was handled at the end of the book.

That said, the most important relationship here (aside from the relationship with her mom and her doctor) is the one Aza shares with her friend Daisy, I loved how perfectly imperfect it is, I loved that they saw each other as worth the struggle.

More than the mystery, the romance, the friendship, Turtles All The Way Down deals with Aza’s mental health, much of it, the spiraling thoughts, harming herself, it’s difficult to read because every bit of it feels so achingly authentic, the book doesn’t at all pretend that there are easy answers for Aza’s issues, it makes it clear she’ll be working through this and living with it for her entire life. It’s subject matter that might be too much for some readers, but it’s a story told with care and honesty and glimmers of hope.

[gakgakg-887519 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I love John Green's writing. I love his characters. This story was alright... probably going to become a movie and I think it will translate better to screen than paper. (Although it's going to be hard to get Aza's ruminating thoughts to show up on film so who knows?)

Also, why am I writing about a movie that doesn't even exist?

It's a John Green book; not going to make you cry but great writing; enjoyable; and oh hell, I just love reading about Indiana-- My kinda peeps! Read this if it's free (library anyone?) and you need a quick dose of "You're ok as you are!"