Turtles all the way down by John Green is a novel about a girl named Aza who is struggling with 

anxiety. Aza lives a regular life as a student that goes to school. from the outside looking in, Aza 

seems to have it all. She's smart and sensitive, and she tries hard to be a good daughter, a 

good student, and a good friend. But life for Aza isn't what it appears: she struggles every day 

with intrusive thoughts, thoughts which at times leave her unable to focus on nothing but the 

fear and anxiety they cause. Her friend Daisy is a writer for fanfiction of Star Wars and struggles 

with money. They are really close best friends with a great friendship. They gother find Aza’s old 

friend named David whose father disappeared a few weeks ago. David lives in a huge mansion 

with his little brother. Together Aza and David build a stronger relationship. Aza and Daisy also 

go on the investigation in order to find David’s father.  
 
However David is against their involvement in this investigation. Aza and Daisy however, have secret footage of the day of when David’s father disappeared. But, David still insisted that they should not be involved and paid them a big amount of cash. Daisy spent her money on a new car and a laptop and Aza didn't like that. Both of them would get in the fight causing something really bad to happen. Aza has a disorder, anxiety. It's really hard to live with anxiety and constant worrying about literally anything. Daisy tries to be supportive however she snaps back at Aza for being “self centered”. Of course, Aza blames herself for being who she is and Daisy regrets that later. I do believe that Daisy was the self-centered person in this case. 

The main themes of this novel is mental illness and how its really hard to fit in, even when you 

try hard enough. I liked how John Green was able to show the reality of mental illness and how 

it is hard to live with it. 
 

I do enjoy John Green's work especially Looking For Alaska but this book was not it. Plot is 

repretive, the characters are bad, the book is kinda not good at all. Green used this weird 

writing style that just brings in cringe in the readers. He uses teenagers slang that no one is 

using anymore. Also, Daisy was just a horrible friend at the beginning. Her knowing that Aza is 

struggling with mental illness and not even caring at all makes her look bad. However, I really 

liked David’s character. He was patient with Aza and he understood that Just needs to accept 

Aza as she is. Also, the constant mentioning of Star Wars and Apllebes was the worst thing 

ever. I never watched Star Wars so I didn't get anything when they were talking about Star 

Wars. 
 

In conclusion, I would not recommend this book unless a person is really into YA books. But 

because of the strong theme and good amazon character I would give this book 3/10 

Check out Turtles All the Way Down from the Newport Beach Public Library.