I am completely unashamed to say that I am a severe and chronic bookworm, and always have been. There are several authors who I have found to be reliably wonderful, both with their imaginative stories and their engaging writing styles. One such author has been John Green. I first read “The Fault in Our Stars” as a freshman in highschool, and absolutely loved it.

I quickly followed that book by crying and laughing over the humor, tragedies, soul searching, and rawness of books such as “Paper Towns” and “Looking for Alaska”. I was therefore ecstatic when I learned about the upcoming new novel, “Turtles All the Way Down”, but also nervous. Would this new book be as good as the others? Would it live up to the standards that John Green had set for himself? Was it really as amazing as the critics were exclaiming?

I had little reason to fear. Five years after the massive success of “The Fault in Our Stars”, John Green’s newest novel is a beautiful tribute to the resiliency of friendship and a heart-wrenching look into mental illness. The book, however, starts off with main character Aza Holmes and her “Best and Most Fearless Friends” Daisy Ramirez learning about the disappearance of a local billionaire and the $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

The story, in fact, appears to have all of the ingredients for your classic (dare I say, cliche?) mystery story, with the reserved but intelligent main character, spunky sidekick best friend, and long lost friend-turned-love-interest who happens to be connected to the bad guy. The Mystery aspect of the novel slowly begins to fall apart, however, much the way that a New Year’s Resolution might; at first, Aza and especially Daisy are all in, but then they just… aren’t.

The story moves on to embrace become exactly what readers have come to expect from John Green, from teenagers clumsily falling in and out of love to friendships being tried and tested because of misunderstandings in fanfiction to intense introspection that isn’t always beneficial. The familiarity that the audience feels while reading this novel has just as much to do with the consistent pop culture references - including “Iron Man”, “Jupiter Ascending”, and “Star Wars” - as it does with Green’s masterful depiction of the everyday happenstances of a teenage life; Green includes concerns about balancing education, social life, and work, the uncertainty of the in between state of being not quite a child and not quite an adult, and even phrases like “IRL” being used in casual conversation - and not in the way a grandparent would try to say it.

Despite the fact that “Turtles All the Way Down” does fall into some cliches, it remains incredibly poignant and original. The characters themselves are well rounded and relatable, none of them perfectly fitting their tropes of stereotypes, yet each fitting into a slot in the readers’ minds where one can say, “Yeah, I’ve been there, I know that person.” The story follows a known formula in much the same way that classic novels and epic poems do; the story resonates with the readers. John Green, however, breaks the story wide open and interrupts the familiarity by showing mostly the more awkward moments of a teenage lovelife, having the characters stumble inarticulately while trying to talk to each other, and writing his main character as being mentally ill, struggling to manage her obsessive compulsive disorder and severe anxiety as she moves through high school.

As the reader gets further into the chapters of the book, the real focus of the story becomes apparent as Aza finds it more and more difficult to handle her intrusive thoughts. Green does an incredible job of depicting mental illness, drawing from his own experiences with OCD. Readers spend a lot of time in the mind of Aza as she withdraws into her thoughts over and over again. There are entire pages of the books dedicated to Aza battling her own mind, and while some critics have complained about it getting repetitive, the repetition is most certainly an intentional decision on the part of Green’s part. He uses the reiteration of ideas, fears, and thoughts and the intensity of these paragraphs to illustrate the struggles that Aza herself goes through every day; if Aza doesn’t get a break from her thoughts, neither do we.

When asked about his decision to highlight the darker aspects of mental illness, Green stated that “...it’s [mental illness] not something I expect to defeat in my life. It’s not like a battle I expect to win.” Green wanted to emphasize that mental illness isn’t something with a magic cure. In Aza’s own words, “I’m not gonna un-have this.” “Turtles All the Way Down” gives a raw and honest depiction of the rougher aspects of mental illnesses that are often ignored or minimized, and it is this honesty which makes this book so special.

In such a story, one can only expect a very specific ending to occur, and only that ending to feel right. John Green, however, manages to not only create an unexpected ending that is both stirring and fitting, but also to create an ending that is more raw, emotional, and unhinging than any of his books to date. “Turtles All the Way Down” contains all of the things that have made John Green’s works so amazing - the powerful friendships, the unlikely humor, the dripping poetry of the digression. And just like his other novels, “Turtles All the Way Down” manages to rend apart the readers’ hearts with just a few sentences while mending them in the next paragraph. This novel, however, does not exactly end happily, nor can it be said to even be a clean ending. The ending is, to put it simply, affecting. It affects the reader in such a way that is emotionally draining, in a way that requires contemplation, in a way that throws the readers back to a time where their understanding of the world was truly shaken.

Filled with quotes such as “You are as real as anyone, and your doubts make you more real, not less,” “Turtles All the Way Down” is the next step for John Green. Yes, there is an impossible task (finding a missing billionaire) presented to these seemingly larger than life characters, but the fact is, “Turtles All the Way Down” sets aside the fantastical mystery genre aspect in favor of showing the readers the intricate details of the inner lives of these very real characters, and still manages to be engaging throughout. John Green introduces a story that is more mature in its themes than his other novels, and invites his readers to mature with the writing and ask the same questions. This book is dark. This books is tragic. This book made me take pauses in which I was forced to take calming breaths to stabilize myself before moving forward. But it is also charming. It is funny. It encompasses the tenderness and fragility that comes from being surrounded by people you love and still feeling like you are crumbling. This book is beautiful in the way it is both viscerally heartrending and undeniably true. “Turtles All the Way Down” offers readers the comfort that comes from seeing others in a rough position, and being told that it is ok to be less than ok, and it does all of this with the same charisma and self-awareness that John Green has come to be known for.

So welcome back, John Green. We’ve missed you.