I finished John Green's "Turtles All the Way Down" this weekend (a full month after it's release date, I know, I'm behind), and like all of his books, it's one that will stick with me for quite a while. As a lifelong bibliophile, books tend to fall into one of two categories: they either exist solely for entertainment (to varying degrees of success) or they reach deeper and become not just entertaining, but important. This book is the latter.
"Turtles All the Way Down" follows Aza Holmes as she tries to live with the invasive thought spirals from severe OCD and anxiety. Like his other work, Green writes teenagers that are smarter and more capable than what teens are generally told they can be. This is why I would classify not just this novel but all of his work as the second category of important. Teenagers (and younger kids too) need to know that they are capable of deeper thought. They need to know that it's okay to have a life wider than a romantic interest, which is what 98 percent of YA [Young Adult books] seems to boil down to. While this book incorporates a romantic plot line, it is very much used to 1. underline how Aza's thought spirals are preventing her from having a "normal" high school relationship; and 2. show a teen relationship that is both healthy and based on emotional support. I'll say it again, this is so important for teenagers to see healthy (meaning not manipulative or abusive) and emotionally supportive romantic relationships.
The other, more specific, reason this novel falls into my important category is the way in which it portrays mental illness. As Green discusses in a video posted in July (which you can watch here), mental illness is both stigmatized and romanticized in American culture. In T.V. shows and movies, people with mental illnesses are often portrayed in a way that highlights some imagined benefit to their illness or how their illness somehow makes them more unique and interesting and "better," while completely ignoring the ways in which it makes people's lives very difficult and painful. It's important to portray characters with illnesses, but the ways in which their lives are portrayed are often unrealistic and problematic when it creates these expectations of grandeur.
"I have Obsessive thoughts and depression just like that murder detective. I too should be able to stop taking my medications and wield my illnesses to catch bad guys." -- "Turtles All the Way Down"
Green very successfully (at times so successfully that it is painful for the reader) shows the ways in which Aza's life is driven and sometimes consumed by her illness. It is debilitating and exhausting. But she carries on. As the novel progresses, she is seeking treatment with varying degrees of success, but she doesn't give up. And even when she wants to give up, she has a framework of support that holds her up until they find a treatment that does work. It is hopeful, yet realistic, in the assertion that there is no cure, there is no "un-having this," but there are effective treatments that make mental illness easier to live with and allow people to fully live their lives. I admire the way Aza is able to discuss her illness with her friends and family, almost startlingly easily. The ease of it may not be realistic (at least not in my experience), but it's something else that is important. People need to be encouraged to talk about the specific difficulties and pains associated with their illness with their loved ones. They need to be encouraged to ask for help and to seek treatment.
I wish that I had access to this book ten years ago because it would have changed my life at 16. This book will change the lives of a lot of 16-year-olds. Teens who don't yet understand why they can't feel "normal" in the way that their friends do (or the way they think that their friends do); who don't know why they think and feel the things that they do. The ones who feel alone and like they're not worth saving will find hope in this book. Even for those of us who are in different stages of life and experiences with mental illness, it is uplifting to have that knowledge reaffirmed; we are not alone.
