In his latest novel, Turtles All The Way Down, John Green, well-known author of Looking For Alaska and The Fault In Our Stars, strays away from his traditional teenage love story, focusing on main character Aza Holmes and her struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder. Green instead opts for using the relationships in this story to express the debilitating aspects of this disease.

The novel opens to our protagonist and her two best friends, Mychal and Daisy, eating lunch in the cafeteria at White River High School. Aza tries but struggles to maintain focus in the conversation between her friends because her mind is lost in a thought spiral, which is an unchecked, never ending trail of thoughts of the possibility of an infection in the cut she continuously reopens on her index finger.

During this lunch table conversation, Daisy discovers a $100,000 reward for any information on the whereabouts of Russell Davis Pickett, White River’s wealthiest billionaire who has run away to avoid arrest. Conveniently, Pickett’s son, Davis, is on old friend of Aza who she knew through a camp for children with a diseased parent.

Beginning their investigative work with strategic planning and a series of shenanigans, Davis discovers Aza and Daisy outside of the Pickett estate. Although there is a clear and immediate connection between Aza and Davis, their budding romance is less the purpose of the story rather than a means of expressing it.

There are a few variations from Green’s traditional character development in this novel. Although the first person, unfiltered perspective is consistent with his other works, the way in which Aza’s character is established is through much deeper, intimate thought in interactions with others than through dialogue.

Green captures Aza’s OCD through her and Davis’ relationship. When Aza and Davis are kissing, her mind is handicapped by the thought of the thousands of microbes of his bacteria being transferred into her mouth, ultimately resulting in her washing her mouth out with hand sanitizer. When Davis sits too closely next to Aza instead of across from her, she can’t think about anything but their touching hips until he moves by her request. Thought spirals like these seem to be much more common and apparent when Aza is around Davis. Green captures the true struggle and psychosis that riddles the human mind when altered by OCD.

John Green, personally struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder, there is a different kind of appreciation the reader can develop for this book and the courage it took to tell this story in the detail that he did. It is obvious after reading the acknowledgements that many of the specifics and events were inspired by experiences in his own life, which creates a connection for the reader to the author. In his acknowledgements, Green thanks his therapists and the medical professionals that helped him get to this point in his life. As the title expresses, the answer to solving one’s mental health is irrelevant because “it’s turtles all the way down.”    

Turtles All The Way Down was published October 10, and is accessible as an eBook. Hardcover copies of the novel are being sold by Amazon and Barnes & Noble for $11.99. The Smithtown  Library and our school’s library do not yet carry copies.