Read+Review: Turtles All the Way Down by John Greene

Aza Holmes suffers from mental issues that complicate her life. She perpetually opens and cleans a cut on her finger, but the bigger problem is her thoughts. She has a lot of trouble controlling them. Then, she meets Davis. Davis is the son of a billionaire, and has lost both of his parents, so he deals with mental issues of his own. Although meeting Davis doesn’t solve Aza’s problems, she has someone to relate to. But her troubles hold her back. They create problems for her, Davis, and her best friend Daisy, and end up putting Aza in grave danger. This is a touching story that brings mental health issues to light.

This book was very good. The plot started slow, but definitely picked up throughout the book. John Greene is an excellent author, and his style of writing really fits the book well. The way that he writes about the thoughts in Aza’s mind sheds light on what mentally troubled people go through on a day to day basis. And something about the way that it was written sucked me in. I was absorbed in the book and had a hard time putting it down.

The type of thoughts that always came to Aza’s mind was a part of the book that really stood out to me. It felt like obsessive commands were entering her head from somewhere else. That along with descriptions of Aza’s troubles really made it seem like you were inside the mind of a mentally troubled person.

Jacob Mandelbaum, 11th grade – Atlee High School, Glen Allen Library