Turtles All the Way Down - John Green

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. 

In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza’s story with shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship."

This book is wonderful in so many ways. A few of those ways: 

First, Aza and Daisy's relationship is so interesting...both the way they balanced each other out and the way they handled conflict. It's always refreshing when I read a book like this, with best friends who genuinely love and want the best for each other, even when they clash with each other. They got upset with each other, for valid reasons, but they never lost sight of how much they cared about each other, and they did their best to show that even when they were fighting.

Second, it was touching to see the relationship between Aza and Davis develop. The two of them were so unique and had been through so much, I was worried that their burgeoning relationship would end up being just like every other realistic fiction romance. Now, this is John Green we're dealing with here, so I'm not sure why I was worried, but of course I didn't need to be. The two of them together were just as one-of-a-kind as they are individually, and as bittersweet as it was to watch them struggle to find a balance as they grew closer to each other, I loved every minute of it. 

Finally, Aza's struggle with her mental health felt so real that at times it was difficult to read about. As hard as it was, though, we need more books like this. We need books that dig into what it's like to struggle with things like OCD, depression, anxiety...more books that help us realize that, while we may feel like everything is wrong with us and nothing about us is normal, there are people all around us going through that same struggle. The thing that particularly resonated with me was Aza's worry that if you need a pill to make you feel like yourself, then the self you are while taking that pill is not actually you. I know people who have struggled with this very thing, so to read a book with a character going through that hit me hard. Give me more books that help me understand what struggles like this feel like. I want them all.