I think that the other reason that I like this narrative so much is because, despite it being fiction, there is such truth to it. Trying to reason the thoughts OCD produces is futile whatever objections she may invent, the disorder will continue to insist that there are more turtles. It’s an interesting idea, and one of the reasons that I love this novel. Such is an issue Aza constantly struggles with: if she can’t control the thoughts that debilitate her, if she can’t control her mind or her body, then what is left? Is she even in control of herself? When Daisy (Aza’s best friend) tells her the story of the scientist and the old lady who insists on the infinite regress of turtles, she is trying to tell her that she needs to simply try to accept what is. So, how does this relate to Aza? Well, the epigraph of the novel, a quote from philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, eloquently sets the tone of the narrative: ‘Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills’. 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. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: ‘What you have told us is rubbish. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. In his book A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking describes its origin:Ī well-known scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. So where did the title spring from? ‘Turtles all the way down’ is an old phrase that was used as a rebuttal for the existence of God. The scenes in which Aza descends into the madness of her disorder, a turbulent chaos, this ever-tightening spiral in which she is trapped, are incredibly difficult to read, yet something you can’t tear your eyes away from.

He is able to sensitively unveil the stark reality of these often stereotyped illnesses,whilst also constructing a compelling story. This novel, from the author of The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns, follows Aza Holmes, a 16-year old girl who attempts to solve the mystery of a missing local billionaire, all whilst struggling with severe Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Green himself struggles with mental illness, something which you can read through the heartbreakingly accurate portrayal of the mental illness from which Aza suffers. There are some books that I can read and re-read for years John Green’s Turtles all the Way Down is one of them.

Aza turtles all the way down