 Hey everyone, it's Michelle here, and I want to talk to you about Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. I recently finished the book, and let me just say how excited I was to begin off October with another John Green book to read. I was one of those people, as I'm sure all of you were at some point, who was absolutely obsessed with John Green, to the point that I remember going to bring my sister to the next town over, which is like an hour and a half away, to go see this VIP, you get to see the Faulkner Stars in theaters before the Faulkner Stars actually came out literally like 24 hours later. There was no reason I needed to drive that length of time just to go see that movie. But either way, I absolutely loved John Green, so even just hearing that a new book was coming out, I was freaking out a little bit, obviously, because it's just like it's John Green. He shaped my childhood, he wrote books that I can relate to so well, and yeah, let me just get into this talk because I only have 15 minutes before I need to get to class. So to start things off, I'll say that this was not my favorite John Green book. I really, obviously I want it to be. Obviously every time you read a new book, you want that book to be your next favorite one. But of course, to say in that I did not hate it, I would describe this book as fine. Like if someone came up to me on the street and was like, hey, like, how do you enjoy like the new John Green book? I'd be like, you know what? It was good. I like, I would recommend it because it is a good book, but it wasn't my favorite. It was just okay. It was just another book that I read, but it did have its goods and it did have maybe it's like where it was lacking. So I will get into that in this video. One of the things I would say it did really well obviously was capturing Asa's anxiety. They, John Green did that so well to the point that like you would almost get anxiety while you read it. So there is a big trigger warning on this. If you do have anxiety, maybe reading it really wouldn't put you in a good mind space. There was chapters that left me not in a good mind space afterwards. So if I do recommend reading this to some people, I would recommend maybe being in a good place while you're reading it and maybe being able to like detach yourself when you do because John Green does write it really well. He captures anxiety really vividly and everything like that. And it is to the point that anxiety is the villain almost in the... No, anxiety is 100% the villain in this book. And he captures that so well to the point that like the climax is because of anxiety. The everything in the end all has to do with this and like to see a young adult novel that has to do with mental illness instead of falling in love with someone was like really, really amazing. And of course you did throw in love there. It's a John Green book. But to say that the left side is I guess where it really falls flat. There's kind of like two separate plots. One plot is in Aisa's head and the other plot is like internal, external, or like surroundings. And the other plot is about her old childhood crush named Davis is like a billionaire and his dad goes missing. And his dad goes missing and everyone's looking for him. And so because of that Aisa and her friend are like, we should probably reconnect with the old childhood crush because we want this like reward to go see him. So because of that, they do reconnect with Davies and there is a separate plot that is Aisa and Davies kind of like kind of falling in love, kind of just connecting with each other, being able to like help each other through their problems. It wouldn't be I would say like the most captivating plot line that could be there. But saying that we all have read John Green before and we all know that sometimes the plot of John Green is not what a John Green book is about. Sometimes it is just simply about the quotes and the concepts that John Green comes up with such as the great perhaps behind looking for Alaska or in this book, it would be the turtles all the way down or the spiral of anxiety that you really like that is the main theme of it. When I read a John Green book, I like to give like I see two sides of it. I see the plot side, which might be a little lacking. And then I see the deeper meaning of it, which held really well in this book wasn't something I related to entirely, but it was really beautifully done. And there was the whole plot side, which the plot side really like I didn't feel emotionally connected to any character besides Aisa. Aisa I didn't care for her best friend who I forget her name. Davies was just kind of like you cared for him, but nothing like really like a lot of things just really fell flat with him. And especially because his storyline just wasn't something that I was interested in like his lost dad that I just kind of like didn't have my whole heart in it. I would argue that the storyline itself just wasn't explained that well. I could say that maybe if they like beefed up the love part of it that it might be a better thing. And then to lead into that, the ending really fell flat for me too. Especially because it felt like the entire book was leading up to a really like dramatic ending, which like it always does in like every book you read, but like this book for some weird reason. I was like, no, like their dad's missing. He ran away. He's a fugitive. Something's going to happen and something big is going to happen. And don't get me wrong, it like something big didn't happen, but it wasn't super satisfying. And the ending, I'm going to give you a spoiler or a free review. I just decided that. But the ending just sort of like hit the mark that I wanted. So saying that just go into the book expecting it not to be satisfied in the end, but go in knowing that it will be a good book overall. And it was a fast read. It was a book that I like opened and within like a week or two I was finished, and which is pretty impressive because it was midterms. So saying that do it, but do it in a critical way. Also, I'm reading the Goodreads Reviews as you can tell over here. And you know what? Everyone's else seems to really love it. I think there was a few reviews that really agreed to me, but there was some people who'd like say it's the book of the year. So do go and read it. Do get your own opinion on it. No matter what, you're not going to hate this book. You can't hate this book. You can't hate this book because this book is about a girl and you can't hate this girl because this girl is though supposed to be annoying to her friends. She's like just a girl who's going through problems and you sympathize with her. So overall, if I had to get it a rating I believe I gave it, well check how much I gave it. I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars. Maybe I would give it a 3 out of 5 stars if I had to like rate it again just based on what I said plot-wise and how it was lacking. But I do think it was a good book overall. Go and read it. It's John Green. You can't go wrong with John Green. Oh, another thing I'll mention though is that John Green books always have really, really good quotes and I found it hard to find a good quote to put on like my Instagram caption when I took a picture of the book. And I like, John Green quotes are the shit that gets me through life. Like I can still quote so much of like looking for Alaska and the Fault in Our Stars. And like I just really wanted more good quotes. There are some just not like relatable enough. Oh, also I'll say this. The reading books where they're talking about like 16 year old people I find I just don't relate as much anymore. And I think it's getting to the point that like I'm looking at a 16 year old girl and she's like talking about love and I'm like, oh, but like that's not your real love. Like if I reread Twilight right now would I like not enjoy Twilight as much because I'm like, no, like Bella, please, this is not like your forever kind of thing. I don't know. Okay guys. Well, that was a really short review, but I do need to get to class. Thank you for watching. Thank you for being patient with me and thank you for not noticing that my hair hasn't fully dried since I got out of the shower. Have a good one guys. Bye.