By Megan Thomas
Full disclosure: it’s not about turtles. Or at least, not real ones – the turtles are a metaphor. Ah, I do love a day that involves me using the phrase “the turtles are a metaphor”.
It’s about two young girls, Aza and Daisy, who decide to attempt to find the local billionaire who’s on the run. Except it’s not really about that at all. It’s about Aza’s mental illness, and her struggle to live day to day without allowing her thoughts to spiral out of control. She’s obsessed with this idea of selfhood and whether she can ever actually be herself when she has no control over her thoughts, or needs medication to make her herself.
I admit I struggled a little with the book, as it’s definitely not aimed for an adult reader. However, John Green has an impressive knack (like in The Fault In Our Stars) for making young adult fiction consumable for everyone. So while I thought it was a little void of development and a bit surface-level-deep at times, I definitely felt compelled to turn each page. And that’s saying a lot considering there weren’t any turtles in it. 🐢
