Hi everyone. I'm rincey and this is
rincey reads. Today i'm going to be doing
a book review on turtles all the way
down by john green. This is a young adult
book, contemporary young adult. I'm pretty
sure you guys all realize that by now.
So a quick synopsis: you are following this
girl named Aza who is sixteen years old
and she suffers from
obsessive-compulsive disorder.
There's also her best friend Daisy who is
fearless and you know sticks by her side
through anything. And there is this boy
named Davis who Aza knew from way back
in the day. I believe they said like they
went to camp together or something along
those lines.
Davis's father is extremely rich and one
day he goes missing. And so there is a
reward out to figure out what happened
to Davis's father. And so Daisy decides
that her and Aza should catch up with
Davis and try to figure out what
happened to the father so that way they
can get the reward so that way they
don't have to worry about things like
school and whatever because I think it's
like a hundred thousand dollar reward or
something along those lines. So first I
have to say that I really enjoyed the
story a lot but I did have some quibbles
with it, some problems with it.
The strongest part of this book far and away
is Aza and the way that she describes
her obsessive compulsive disorder. Now
I'm someone who hasn't read a ton of
books that have to do with OCD and
people with like anxiety and other sort
of mental illnesses. So I can't say from
experience that this is like the best
description but I feel like the way that
she describes her thoughts and her
actions and the way that she feels is so
clear that whether you have
obsessive-compulsive disorder or not or
you've experienced it with someone else
or like you know someone else who has it,
I feel like she does such a good job of
portraying the feelings that she has and
how the disorder affects her and how it
impacts her daily life. I feel like this
book is worth reading
for that alone. I've never sort of
experienced that before and I think that
there's a level of just vulnerability
that happens in this book. John Green
himself has admitted to having OCD and I
don't know if it's like exactly the same
as Aza's but I would assume that it's
similar to Aza's because the way that
he's able to describe it is so like
detailed and perfect that I can only
imagine that that's what he has to go
through as well. There's a lot that
Aza a sort of explorers in terms of her
own OCD but also just general teenage
anxiety and insecurities that happen as
well. You know, her relationships, she
questions her relationships with like
Daisy and Davis and is not completely
sure if she's like a good friend a lot
of the times and she's often worried
about how her OCD is impacting other
people. But then sometimes she gets stuck
in her own self that she also doesn't
always realize how her OCD is impacting
other people. And I think that Aza as a
character is just really, really
interesting and well drawn out and just
beautiful and so well done.
With that said, all of the other characters are so
flat in my opinion. I have this problem
with almost every john green book that
his side characters are always sound so
so interesting but they're never given
enough like time or room to develop unto
themselves. Like this book is relatively
short. And part of me wonders like what
it would have been like if he was given
another 50 to 100 pages to explore these
side characters. Now it's possible that
if he did that the story would have
fallen off the rails a little bit. But I
feel like Daisy has so much potential in
her and like you find out these little
glimpses of her life but you don't
actually get to see her fully fleshed
out. There's also like a fight that
happens between Daisy and Aza in this
story and it feels like that just
resolves so very quickly. But I think the
biggest like downfall to this book is
just the main plot itself of this
missing person. It feels kind of
unnecessary. Like this whole
quote-unquote mystery of this missing
person doesn't feel very mysterious at
all and it just feels like this sort of
side thing that's happening. And I feel
like this book just would have been
stronger without that. So yeah, is this
like the best John Green Book book ever?
I don't know. It's hard to say. Like I still
like The Fault in Our Stars more as an
overall book but I feel like this book
had such a stronger impact on me in
terms of like specific scenes and
specific lines and specific situations
that he explores. Like there were points 
in this book that made me want to cry.
And obviously The Fault in Our Stars had
points that made me want to cry but it's
the obvious points that made me want to cry.
In hear like there are certain ideas
that Aza expresses or certain like lines
that are written in here that are just
so beautiful but also so heartbreaking
that, yeah, it made me want to cry. And I
feel like this is probably his strongest
written book in terms of like the actual
writing itself. But he still struggles
like with plot things and like I
mentioned in my wrap-up like they still
sound like Dawson's Creek characters in
terms of like sounding significantly
older than they are. Like I forgot that Aza
was 16 years old. If you, if I had read
this book without knowing her age and
without the fact that knowing she was in
high school, I would have assumed she
was in college. And part of me
wonders like what would happen if John
Green started writing characters who
were in college because if you told me
that these characters were in college
like that seems plausible to me.
But saying that they're in high school, not
as much. So yeah, in the end I gave this a
three and a half out of five stars
because I really enjoyed it
but I just also had like those problems
with it that I always had with it. But
it's probably up there with The Fault in
Our Stars. I'm really, really glad I've
read it. I would say that if you like
John Green you should definitely pick
this up or if you just like contemporary
young adult in general you should
definitely pick this up. But I don't
think it's necessarily going to appeal
to every reader out there. If you have
problems with those sort of John Green
tropes then you're gonna have problems
with this book as well. But for me
personally like those things don't
really hinder my enjoyment of his books.
I'm able to still really enjoy those
beautifully crafted sentences and like
the way he creates this character to
explore this disease is just really
really well done. So yeah, those are my
quick thoughts on turtles all the way
down. Feel free to leave a comment down
below letting me know if you read this
book and what your thoughts are if you
did read it. Or if you have any questions
about the book, feel free to leave that
down in the comment section as well.
So yeah, that's all I have for now and
thanks for watching.
