Turtles All the Way Down

By John Green
Lexile = Not Yet!

A book by John Green is NOT an automatic buy in my library. If you have read my review of Paper Towns, you may recall that I used the word "crude". And it is. That is an apt description for much of Green's work. However, in Turtles All the Way Down, it isn't an overwhelming part of the plot OR any character. That means, Mr Green, the F-bomb and the reference to crude selfies could be removed from the book and the integrity of the story would NOT be jeopardized... anyway.....

Aza and Daisy, best friends for life, get caught up in attempting to solve a mystery when a local billionaire goes missing, leaving behind two sons. The oldest son was kinda a friend of Aza's way back when and Daisy convinces Aza to pay a visit to her old friend in an attempt to earn the substantial reward.

The title comes from this concept..... (I stole this from Wikipedia)
The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

The significance here is that when Aza's thinking tends to spiral downward and she can't control her thoughts at stressful times.



So... this is my favorite John Green so far. I actually liked the characters and I thought that Aza particularly was a pretty sympathetic character. Although there is some romance here, this is mostly a story of a friendship and what that friendship can survive.