Book Review : Turtles All The Way Down

August 29, 2020

 


Never talked much, or even looked at each other, but it didn't matter, because we were looking at the same sky together [...] Anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see.

 

Hello everyone! Today i'm gonna talk about John Green long awaited new book The Turtles All The Way Down. I know i know it was released years ago, but i just read it now which is late to the hype but well, it's never too late for a good book right?

Synopsis

This story follow Aza Holmes, a sixteen year old girl with severe anxiety, bestie of a fanfiction blog of Ray and Chewbacca romantic romance, Daisy Ramirez. It's all started with "human microbiome" and the news of the missing billionaire who disappeared the night before the raid in accusation of bribery. The A hundred thousand dollars as a reward for finding him and turns out Aza know his son, Davis Pickett who was her friends in summer camp and living across the river. 

Daisy is eager to investigate in order to get that reward for her college saving and living. Trying to be a good friend Aza is trying, but she also living in the overthinking slash super anxiety that she called as tightening spiral.

 

The thing about spiral is, if you follow it inward, it never actually ends. It just keep tightening, infinitely.

 

More About This Book 

This is a long waiting book from John Green after his successful release The Fault in Our Stars,  six years in progress for writing this book and it is a personal book to John Green because Aza got her severe anxiety mostly by his personal experience.  
 
It probably because i'm such a huge fan of him and his brother Hank Green, i watch their Vlogbrothers youtube and listen to their podcast, i can really compare Aza personality with John Green. How she loves Dr. Peppers, the most favorite beverage of John Green himself, he talked a lot about Diet Dr. Pepper and how he much he loves it in podcast more than enough for you to know it  already altho i never seen that famous drink in my country (which is a shame because of how highly praised this drink is by John Green himself).
 
Reading this book for few chapter just made me remember a lot of podcast episode, one that i think really memorable is the one that episode when they received a question about sell and they answered that yes our body is the grave of them, unfortunately.  I find it also in the book about it, although i know that he wrote it first, then potcasted it later not by choice but because of the question, but i still find it super familiar and happy to encounter it again, because that was a quite fun edisode.
 

By cell count, humans are something like a thousand times more microbes living in my particular biome than there are human beings on earth, and it often seems like i can feel them living and breeding and dying in and on me.

 

What's So Different About This Book?

By quite a quote there you know it already this book is a mental illness book. If you compare it with his previous book which about physical illness and love story, this one is more mental illness. But yeah this also included love story in it but that's not the main point.
 
The writing language also feel a bit different. I should call it more "mature" which you can translate it as a bit more hard to digest for some people by the words that he choose in some part. But personally i enjoy this book a lot.  I finish this book in 2 sitting, i swoon all over this book. 
 

What I love About This Book

I love how much because i can compare Aza to John himself, how he talked a lot about him searching about how world would be possibly ends, dead list and stuff, all his dark humor. I guess i'm being bias for liking it because of that, to prove i'm close to his personality or something? But i really do like how close Aza is to his personality. 
 
I also like Davis. He's such a smart boy, talking about constellations, meteor, planet, stars? Yes please! I think he's sort of my type. (Oh well, almost all main male characters are your type). Being raised by only his dad since he already lost her mom long time ago now his dad left him with his younger brother without a word or anything, he just bring a bit of dark in the story but he's also a poet! By the Spiral things of Aza we can know his social life in internet, how he post quotes, poems and small post of blog after it? i just love it. It's just a touch of John Green there, i always love when writer gives their skills to their characters. 
 
Just like the Fault in Our stars talking about fictional books by fictional author, this book is also has that fictional blog, which both worth a work on it you know? the plot to be work in on in that fictional book, the post to be post in that fictional blog! Do you get what i mean?
Or probably because i'm into blogging right now, so i kind of relate to Davis? i dunno, like i said, my review always kind of bias and subjective, because it's review right? it suppose to be by our point of view. 
 
Also, i gotta say, investigating a mystery of a missing man is always a good tropes. I always love a mystery to solve kind of book, this also reminds me of his Paper Towns book.

My Rating

I gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars to this one. I always love his work, realistic. it's part of his merit. Aza being super conscious about microbiome turns to be so scared to got C.diff infections, which made her thinks too much if she kissed someone some of their microbiomes will stays in her and stuff. And again, i love Davis, like a lot. 
 
 

I like us. For real. 

 
Simple, but i'm swooning. 

My Verdict

Read it guys, i just can't stress you out more. I'll end up this post with a blog post from Davis just because i love it  a lot of his posts. 

 "What's past is prologue" - William Shakespeare
Seeing your past -  or a person on your past - can for me be at least be physically painful. I'm overwhelmed by a melancholic ache - and i want the past back, no matter the cost. It doesn't matter that it won't come back, that it never even actually existed as i remember it - i want it back.  I want things to be like they were, or like i remember them having bee : Whole. But she doesn't remind me of the past, for some reason. She feels present tense 
 
 
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About Me

Hello! I'm Dee.

I'm a booknerd who loves mostly fantasy books and think that sci-fi is my jam although i haven't really read sci-fi much. I tend to read more other genre but i guess i'm kind of sucks at them. I love collecting beautiful books, and yes i do judge book by its cover. Fell free to leave a comment, let's talk! Or you can reach me out in my socials below.

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