Written by Sarah Burgener. Media by Yecheng Wang.
Although the world is not a wish-granting factory, John Green has made the wishes of fangirls everywhere come true with the announcement of his new book, “Turtles All the Way Down.”
John Michael Green is an American author, vlogger, writer, producer, actor and editor. He is known for writing “Looking for Alaska,” “Paper Towns,” and “The Fault in Our Stars,” and was even included in Time Magazine’s list of Most Influential People in 2014. Although he is typically known for being a novelist, he is also very popular on his YouTube channel, VlogBrothers, that he does alongside his brother, Hank Green. John Green uses his knowledge to inform readers on subjects such as history, mythology and literature.
This new book will be his first novel since the release of “The Fault in our Stars” in 2012, which has sold 23 million copies worldwide and is even a major motion picture. After announcing the plan to release this novel, Dutton, the company behind Penguin Books, printed 1.5 million copies on the first print run. John Green is a very popular author and the reaction to the announcement from fans has the company planning for very positive reviews and purchases. Fans went wild once they heard that John Green was releasing a new book for readers to obsess over once again. He has given readers everywhere the beauty that is “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Looking for Alaska.” Since these books were so popular with fans all over the world, readers are only expecting the best of the best with his new book.
“Turtles All the Way Down” is about Aza, a sixteen-year-old girl who starts to investigate the disappearance of a fugitive billionaire along with the help of her friend, Daisy. During this time, Aza battles her own thoughts with a mental illness. In a statement, Green says, “I’ve been working on ‘Turtles All the Way Down’ for years and I am so excited to share it with readers this October. This is my first attempt to write directly about the kind of mental illness that has affected my life since childhood, so while the story is fictional, it is also quite personal.”
In “Turtles All the Way Down,” Green intensifies the question of what it is like to be struggling with an anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder as a young teenage girl. The answer to this question is deeply compelling, but not romanticizing of mental illness, even describing it as “scary, boring, and annoying to her friends.” After the success of “The Fault in Our Stars,” Green found it so difficult to write a follow-up book that he went into a spiral of anxiety because he decided to stop taking his medication. Since he has struggled with anxiety and mental illness for most of his life, he is able to accurately write about it. Green’s goal is to be authentic in the story of Aza and to let everyone reading see how she makes her way through life regardless of what she goes through during it.
As of October 10, 2017, the story of Aza Holmes has come to life in print. We will see her trying to be a good daughter, friend, and student while battling with her own thoughts, which is something we all can relate to. Let us know in the comments your reactions to the long-awaited new John Green novel, “Turtles All the Way Down.”
