Turtles All the Way Down

Starred review from October 16, 2017
Like many of Green's characters, Aza Holmes is whip smart, articulate, and tortured by worry. When she was eight, her father succumbed to a heart attack while mowing the lawn. Now 16, Aza takes meds (irregularly) to treat anxiety, which is manifesting in increasingly self-destructive ways. Her problems amplify when she reconnects with Davis, a boy she met years earlier at "Sad Camp," where both had gone to grieve their recently deceased parents. Now Davis's billionaire father is missing, running from a warrant for his arrest. Aza's best friend Daisy, in a classic sidekick role, pressures Aza to contact Davis, hoping they'll learn something about the disappearance—and maybe get a cut of the $100,000 reward. The reunion leads to romance, until Aza's anxiety won't allow it. Green's first novel since The Fault in Our Stars is another heartbreaker, full of intelligent questions. It's also a very writerly book, as Aza frames a lot of the questions she asks herself in literary terms. Am I a fiction? Who is in charge of my story? Why do we describe pain with the language of metaphor? Because of this, it's tempting to conflate Aza the character with her author, who has been open about his own mental illness. But readers need not know where the line is between the two to feel for someone trapped in an irrational, fear-driven spiral. In an age where troubling events happen almost weekly, this deeply empathetic novel about learning to live with demons and love one's imperfect self is timely and important. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.

October 15, 2017
Nerdfighter Green's latest takes readers through Indianapolis and the human biome. Aza Holmes doesn't feel like herself. But "if half the cells inside of you are not you, doesn't that challenge the whole notion of me as a singular pronoun...?" When a local billionaire--and the father of her childhood friend, a white boy named Davis--disappears, Aza (who seems to be white) and her BFF, Daisy Ramirez (who is cued as Latina), plot to find him and claim the reward, amid rumors of corruption and an underexplored side plot about semi-immortal reptiles. The story revolves around anxious Aza's dissociation from her body and life. Daisy chatters about Star Wars fan fiction (and calls Aza "Holmesy" ad nauseam), and Davis monologues about astronomy, while Aza obsesses over infection, the ever present, self-inflicted wound on her finger, and whether she's "just a deeply flawed line of reasoning." The thin but neatly constructed plot feels a bit like an excuse for Green to flex his philosophical muscles; teenagers questioning the mysteries of consciousness can identify with Aza, while others might wish that something--anything--really happens. The exploration of Aza's life-threatening compulsions will resonate deeply with some, titillate others, and possibly trigger those in between. Aza would claim that opinions about this book are unfairly influenced by "the gut-brain informational cycle," which makes it hard to say what anyone else will think--but this is the new John Green; people will read this, or not, regardless of someone else's gut flora. (Fiction. 14-18)

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Starred review from October 15, 2017
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* It's here: the eagerly awaited new novel by John Green, andnot to milk the suspenseit's superb. High-school junior Aza has an obsessive fear of being infected with the bacteria Clostridium difficile ( C. diff ), which can be fatal. Her fear has become obsession, plaguing her with intrusives, thoughts that take over her mind, making her feel that she is not the author of her own life. She does, however, have a life: her father is dead; her mother is a teacher; her best friends are Mychal, a gifted artist, and Daisy, a well-known Star Wars fan-fiction author. To their trio is added Davis, whom Aza had known when they were 11. Davis' billionaire father has decamped, pursued by the police, leaving Davis and his younger brother parentless (their mother is dead) and very much on their own. How will the friends cope with all this? And how will Aza cope with her own problems? Green, a master of deeply felt material, handles all of this with aplomb. With its attention to ideas and trademark introspection, it's a challenging but richly rewarding read. It is also the most mature of Green's work to date and deserving of all the accolades that are sure to come its way.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The only question is, how many shelves worth of copies can your library fit? You'll need all of them.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

Starred review from March 5, 2018
Voice actor Rudd sensitively portrays the protagonist of Green’s latest novel, Aza Holmes, a 16-year-old with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Aza’s mind is constantly crowded with anxiety and intrusive thoughts about germs and infection, which makes navigating the trials of high school no easy task. Luckily she has a best friend, Daisy, who helps keep her mind at ease. When the girls receive word that billionaire Russell Pickett left town to avoid arrest on criminal charges, and that there’s a $100,000 reward for information about his whereabouts, Daisy convinces Aza that finding Pickett is just the distraction she needs. Along the way, Aza strikes up a friendship with Pickett’s son, Davis, whom she had previously known at camp, and they form a bond despite their respective problems. Rudd speeds up the pace to show the overwhelming flood of thoughts that fill Aza’s mind. She also captures the panic Aza feels and her frustrations with her condition as she becomes attracted to Davis. Rudd tops off the performance with a slew of memorable voices for the other characters—Aza’s concerned mother, her coolly professional psychiatrist, and especially her chatterbox friend Daisy. Rudd’s excellent, empathetic narration adds to the appeal of this psychologically complex, character-driven novel. Ages 14–up. A Dutton hardcover.

January 1, 2018
Sixteen-year-old Aza Holmes suffers from obsessive compulsions, anxiety, and "invasive" thought-spirals. She's also investigating the whereabouts of missing local billionaire Russell Pickett, which leads her to Pickett's son Davis, Aza's childhood friend. The mystery and tentative romance give the story momentum and shape, but its epicenter is a clear-eyed exploration of mental illness and of the deep existential revelations that suffering can engender.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2018
Five years after The Fault in Our Stars (rev. 3/12), Green returns to chart a different kind of debilitating illness. When we meet sixteen-year-old Aza Holmes in the cafeteria, her thoughts are laser-focused on her body's microbiome: "Admittedly, I have some anxiety problems, but I would argue it isn't irrational to be concerned about the fact that you are a skin-encased bacterial colony." Aza's obsessive compulsions, anxiety, and "invasive" thought-spirals only grow from there. Note-perfect narration--which seamlessly switches from first- to second-person during panic attacks--makes what should be objectively irrational seem relatable, even logical; readers' empathy with Aza continues to grow throughout the story. But Turtles is also a mystery and a romance. Aza and her vivacious best friend, Daisy Ramirez, investigate the whereabouts of local billionaire Russell Pickett, who's running from criminal charges. Their sleuthing leads to Pickett's son Davis, Aza's childhood friend from "Sad Camp" (his mother had died, as had Aza's father). The stars don't seem aligned as Aza begins a tentative romance with kind, introspective Davis: her mental health deteriorates, and he struggles with being a guardian to his grief-stricken younger brother. These plot lines give the story momentum and shape, but its epicenter is a clear-eyed exploration of mental illness and of the deep existential revelations that suffering can engender. Green has proven himself a master manipulator of readers' feelings, but he is, as ever, benevolent in that role. What readers may shed in tears is repaid in hope, spiritual curiosity, and a deeper connection to the human experience. katrina Hedeen

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)