John Green, I have waited 5 years for this masterpiece and finally I have it.
Turtles All The Way Down deals with a very serious topic, mental illness.
So Aza is 16 and struggles with anxiety.
She describes her anxiety as a thought spiral and I love that. In these thought spirals, she can't get out. Her thoughts keep spiraling and tightening and worrying her to the point where she becomes almost catatonic. But what I really love about it is that her best friend, Daisy, understands when she isn't talking. Aza at one point actually says, "Sorry, thought spiral" and Daisy is like 'Oh, girl. I get it."
I feel like that relationship is really, really needed especially in a teen book. Many teens don't understand mental illness and the seriousness of it, but Daisy gets it.
Now Aza, she's not the most relatable character because her issues are so specific. Her anxiety is strictly related to the human biome. She has an intense fear of germs and getting infected and being hospitalize, her irrational fear actually lands her in the hospital (in a round-a-bout way, but spoilers you know).
But the issues she has are definitely something that people CAN relate to. Everyone has a little anxiety from time to time, but some people truly can't escape it and this gives an amazing insight to this illness.
I am patiently waiting for my sister to finish the book because I want to see if her reaction was anything like mine. She also struggles with anxiety and I would love to know just how accurate and relatable it was to her.
When TATWD was announced, I shared a video of John Green reading the first chapter:
Looking for other books by John Green?
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