Turtles All the Way Down

This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets

Turtles All The Way Down is the latest YA Contemporary from best selling author, John Green. While John has written many critically acclaimed books, from Paper Towns to The Fault in Our Stars, this is the first opportunity I've personally had to dive into one, and wasn't totally sure what to expect.

All I knew going into Turtles was that it followed a young girl and her friend pursuing the mystery of a fugitive billionaire. While that is a subplot of the book, a more accurate description would be a young girl pursuing the mystery of herself.

Turtles All the Way Down is the story of Aza, a sixteen year old girl struggling to cope with her anxiety and learning to live with mental illness. It's a very real depiction of what it's like to live with anxiety, or at least, I imagine it's a very real depiction. While I'm fortunate enough to not have anxiety or mental illness, I'm happy that this representation exists for those that do, and am also happy that it will help many others like myself, to understand it better.

I'm glad I was able to experience this book, it's something I'll take with me through life and learn from. It was incredibly eye opening to see into the mind of someone living with anxiety and the daily struggles they face while trying to live a “normal” life, do “normal people” things and just be happy.

I may give out a lot of 5 star reviews, but never as there been an easier book to rate.

Turtles All The Way Down should be mandatory reading for anyone dealing with mental illness themselves, who may have a loved one who's struggling, or are just human being. Buy this book.