"Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.
In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza’s story with shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35504431-turtles-all-the-way-down?ac=1&from_search=true
Permeating Anxiety
When we are first introduced to Aza’s life, and her way of living it, nothing is hidden. We as readers, are thrown straight into Aza's thoughts and spirals of c. diff, a potentially life threatening inflammation of the colon. As an atypical teenage girl, Aza questions whether she is real, developing a habit that allows her psche to know that she is in fact a real human being.
We as humans are wired to question a lot of things, but one thing that Aza worries in particular about is "how part of yourself can be in a place while at the same time the most important parts are in a different place." As a teenage girl myself, I feel like this statement alone describes the last 5 years of my life. I feel as if when I'm at college or away from an important family event that I'm split. I can empathize with the crazy feeling that Aza is so determined that she is. In my own opinion I do not think she is textbook looney. Aza is a teenage girl attempting to understand the emotion changes one goes through while battling some mental disorders.
John Green places heavy content in all his novels, even though they are geared towards young adults. He treats teenagers as if they are adults in his reading and that in my own personal opinion is astounding. As an author he has revolutionized not only my generations vocabulary, but the rigger that we can read at. He does not baby us or dumb it down but holds the reader to a high standard.
This high standard is pretty event in the rhetorical questions presented in the text. One that particularly stands out to me is the definition of I, the response being "I is the hardest word to define." This ties back to not only Aza's issue of if she is real but humans intuitive question of who am I? One is not simply one thing, but composed of many things and is evolved daily to make up the present tense of I. Basically tying in to the fact that we are all a metaphor of our lives. Your now is not your forever though. No matter what the situation you are currently going through, whether that be a convict father on the run or dealing with mental disorders, things change in an instant. Whatever is happening right now will not be happening a year from now. John Green evolves Aza and Davis throughout this heartwrenching, anxiety ridden rollercoaster that I highly recommend you buckle up for.
