John Green’s New Novel is a Story of Mental Illness - Unromanticized

John Green’s newest release- Turtles All The Way Down- is a realistic portrayal of mental illness that has been sorely lacking from Young Adult Literature in recent years. Aza, the book’s protagonist, is a sixteen year old high schooler living with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She’s also the best friend and self-described side-kick of Daisy, a girl who’s always talking (probably about Star Wars). Together, these two stumble upon the mysterious disappearance for their billionaire neighbor, mostly for the 100,000 reward (and because Daisy wants to set Aza up with the billionaire's son, who Aza was friends with at Sad Camp-a camp for kids who lost a parent).

Turtles is a story of first love and of friendship, but it’s also a deeply-personal novel for John Green, who also suffers from anxiety and OCD. In many past interviews and video blogs, Green has been open with his struggles with mental illness and the effect his last novel- The Fault in Our Stars- had on his health. Turtles is a response to that, not just a method of control for Green, but also a way to put into words what hurts.

In the end, what makes this book special is not the mystery plot: it’s Aza and the author’s depiction of living life with a mental illness. Aza isn’t okay for a large part of the novel, but that’s the point. There are moments where Aza doesn’t have intrusive, spiraling thoughts and there are moments she does. Therapy, support, medication, or love doesn’t magically fix that. But it's a foundation that she falls back on to recover when she slips into a spiral; and this portrayal is new in YA, a genre that loves to write mentally ill characters as characters who “get better” or who “need love” to fix them. Living with mental illness is a constant struggle regardless of progress and John Green doesn’t just convey that- he creates a character who continues to live and have fun with her friends and grow up the same as everyone else without diminishing or romanticizing her struggle.

Works Cited

Miller, L. (2017, October 13). Turtles all the way down. Retrieved from Slate website: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2017/10/john_green_s_turtles_all_the_way_down_reviewed.htm

Senior, J. (2017, October 10). In john green’s ‘Turtles all the way down,’ A teenager’s mind is at war with itself. Retrieved from New York Times website: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/books/review-john-green-turtles-all-the-way-down.html

Turtles all the way down. (n.d.). Retrieved from John Green Books website: http://www.johngreenbooks.com/turtles-all-the-way-down-book

Turtles all the way down by john green review – A new modern classic. (2017, October 10). Retrieved from The Guardian website: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/10/john-green-turtles-all-way-down-review

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