Book Summary
Turtles all the way down – John Green
About the Book
Title: Turtles all the way down
Author: John Green
Total Pages: 286
Date published: 2017
Language: English
Genre: Young adult novel | Coming of age story
Themes: Mental illness, young love, and friendship.
Summary:
Introducing Aza Holmes
Aza Holmes lives in Indianapolis in the State of Indiana, USA. The book does not say much
else, so she has probably lived there her whole life. In the story, Aza is sixteen years old and
goes to White River High School. Her mother is a math teacher at the same school.
On the outside Aza may look like a regular girl, but she struggles with mental illness. A mental
illness is when your thoughts and behavior have a pattern that is difficult to control. Aza suffers
from obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is also called OCD. This is a disorder in which people
have unwanted thoughts, ideas, or obsessions that keep repeating. These thoughts make them
feel driven to do something repetitively. Repetitive behaviors are also called compulsions.
These are things such as hand washing or cleaning. When the person cannot control their
thoughts or compulsions, it can interfere with a person’s daily activities and social interactions.
Aza worries about bacterial infections. She is very scared of one bacterial infection, called c-diff,
also known as Clostridioides difficile. This causes severe diarrhea or colitis, and it can be fatal if
not treated. Her mother knows that Aza struggles with OCD and tries to be there for her.
Aza has regular appointments with her psychiatrist, doctor Karen Singh, to see how she is doing
with her medication and mental illness. Aza has difficulty being honest about the medication.
She is not taking it every day. She is afraid the medication will change her somehow.
Aza’s father died and the story does not say why her father died. It mentions that he was
mowing the lawn at home and then he collapsed. Her mother tried CPR, but he was already
gone. Aza remembers that at the hospital, the doctors asked if he had a heart condition.
So, maybe the father died of a heart attack.
Aza misses her dad still. Her mother also misses her husband. When they talk together about
missing him, they are very supportive of each other and kind. Aza has her father’s old car. Her
father named the car Harold, so she still calls it Harold too. Harold is a sixteen-year-old Toyota
Corolla in the color Teal. Even though Harold is very old, Aza doesn’t mind. It reminds her of her
father. When Aza feels lonely and needs to talk to her father, she charges his old phone and
watches the pictures on the phone. She pretends she is talking to him on his last picture. Her
mother saved all the pictures on the computer but looking at the pictures on the phone brings
Aza comfort, and she keeps the phone in Harold.
Aza’s best friend is a girl named Daisy Ramirez and they occasionally talk to another classmate,
Mychal Turner. Daisy is cheerful and Aza admires her because she is fearless. Daisy is a fan of
the Star Wars movies. Even though Aza doesn't really like Star Wars, she listens to Daisy when
she talks about it. She also watches the movies with her. Daisy is so obsessed with Star Wars
that she writes stories of the Star Wars characters. She also posts them online. Daisy’s stories
are called fanfiction. Aza has read a few, but not all of them. Daisy calls Aza: Holmesy.
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, Introducing Davis Pickett
Davis Pickett is a childhood friend of Aza. They met at Camp Spero when they were in grade
five and six. Camp Spero was a camp for kids whose parents passed away. The program was
meant to help them work through their loss. Aza lost her father and Davis had lost his mother.
Apart from this, Aza and Davis would meet up sometimes. He lived not too far down the river
from Aza, on the opposite bank of the river. At her eleventh birthday, Aza had a little party on
one of the little islands in the river. Her mother had made it a pirate-themed-birthday. Daisy was
also there. Davis and his little brother Noah were there too.
Davis’s mom had an aneurism. A blood vessel in her brain ruptured and caused a stroke. She
was in the hospital for six months before she died. Davis says she was awake but could not
speak and didn’t react to anything. Davis tells Aza that Noah, his younger brother, was too little
to visit. But Davis visited every day. He would lay in bed with his mother and his ironman action
figure and hold her hand. Sometimes he could feel his mother squeezing his hand and it
brought him a little comfort. To this day, Davis has the ironman action figure, that reminds him of
his mother. It is a treasured artefact for him.
Davis’s father is Russel Pickett. He was always away and even when his wife died, he wasn’t
there for his sons. He is a billionaire and although Davis understands that business demanded
his attention, he feels angry. A real father would not act this way. The thing that makes Davis
feel worse is that his father is obsessed with a lizard called a Tuatara. His father decided that all
his fortune will go to the study of the lizard, when he dies. According to scientific research a
Tuatara can live up to 150 years. Its DNA may hold the answer to humans living longer.
The story
One day, Daisy is listening to the news. The billionaire, Russel Pickett, has disappeared. He is
wanted by police for an investigation of fraud. On the morning that police came to Russel
Pickett’s house, he was gone. Authorities are offering a hundred-thousand-dollar reward for
information on his whereabouts. Daisy is interested in the reward. Aza doesn’t care.
Daisy knows that Aza used to be close to the billionaire’s son, Davis, when they were kids.
Daisy insists that Aza should visit Davis, so they can try and find the father. In the end, Aza
agrees to please Daisy. If they find out where the billionaire is, they may get the reward.
They need an excuse to get close to Davis. So, Daisy and Aza take a kayak at Aza’s house and
go down the river. They stop the kayak next to the woods that leads into the Pickett’s estate.
Aza remembers that there is a camera system in the woods, and she wants to see if there is a
picture of the billionaire leaving the grounds. That may give them a clue where to look.
Aza and Daisy find the camera at a tree, and Aza can access the camera with her phone. They
find a picture of Russel Pickett of the same morning he disappeared. Aza downloads the picture
in her phone, but she and Daisy is spotted by Davis’s security.
As the security guard comes towards them, Daisy thinks fast and damages the kayak. They
quickly move away from the camera and tell the guard that their kayak was damaged when they
got there. The security guard tells them to meet Davis and talk about it. At the house, Aza and
Daisy meet Davis and Noah. Davis remembers Aza and they talk about when they were kids.
He offers to drop them at home and the next day the repaired kayak is delivered at Aza’s home.
The days that follow seem normal. Aza hesitates to give the picture to the police, because she
doesn’t want to get Davis and Noah in trouble. Perhaps the police will think that Davis withheld
information. But to Aza it looks like the boys really do not know anything.
Then, Mychal asks Daisy out on a date. Daisy is so nervous that she wants to make it a double
date. Aza asks Davis if he wants to meet up at the restaurant Applebee’s. Davis agrees to meet
them there. The four of them have a nice time and talk about movies. Davis invites them to his
house to hang out. Daisy and Mychal really seem to like each other, so Aza and Davis walk into
the garden to give them space.
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