Book Talk: Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

I just finished Turtles All The Way Down by John Green and honestly...it left me thinking a lot. This is not your typical YA story. It dives deep into mental health, and it does it in a way that feels so raw and real.

The main character, Aza Holmes, lives with OCD and anxiety. And when I say "lives with it," I really mean it. John Green takes you inside her mind. You don't just see what she is doing, you feel what she is thinking. The spirals, the constant questioning, the fear of germs, the endless loop of intrusive thoughts...it's just exhausting reading it. And that's the point. Mental illness is exhausting, and this book doesn't shy away from that.

What hit me hardest was how Aza's thoughts weren't just "overthinking" or "worrying too much," they were consuming her. Even when she tried enjoying normal teenage things like hanging out with friends, thinking about love, trying to be there for her mom, her brain kept pulling her into a different reality, one she didn't choose.

The anxiety part is also so real. That feeling of needing control, but everything still slipping. The fear of being a "bad person," even when you've done nothing wrong and the constant checking, doubting, and the guilt that follows.

This book doesn't try to solve mental health illness with some magical happy ending. And I appreciated that. It shows that healing is a process, and sometimes it's just about surviving the day. It's messy, but it's honest.

Of course, there's also a murder mystery involving a missing a billionaire, and a boy named Davis who is kind and poetic in his own quiet way. But even those parts feel like background to the real story -what it means to live in your own head when your brain isn't always your friend.

The title Turtles All The Way Down comes from this old story about the world resting on the back of a turtle... and then that turtle is standing on another turtle... and so on. It's kind of a metaphor for how some thoughts just keep going in loops. This book made me think deeply about how we often underestimate what people are going through mentally. You can't always see mental illness, but that does not mean it isn't there.

So if you're someone who's struggled with anxiety or just wants to understand it better, this book is definitely worth reading. It's not heavy in a depressing way but it's heavy in a truthful way.