Young Adult Novel Annotation

Author: John Green
Title: Turtles All the Way Down
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: 2017
Number of Pages: 286
Geographical Setting: Indiana
Time Period: Modern-day

Plot Summary:
A local billionaire has gone missing and Aza’s friend, Daisy, wants herself and Aza to be the ones to claim the reward money for finding out where he is. Aza had been childhood friends with the billionaire’s son, Davis, but had lost touch with him over the years. However, she agrees to go along with Daisy’s plan, and this eventually leads to a rekindling of Aza and Davis’s friendship, which then becomes something possibly more than friendship. However, throughout all of this, Aza is struggling with a chronic mental illness that overtakes her thoughts and interferes severely with how she wants to live her life. Aza continually finds herself pushed and pulled between her own desires and forces she feels are completely outside of her control as she navigates her life and relationships.

Subject Headings:
Mental Illness
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Teenagers
Friendship

Appeal:
            The following appeal factors/characteristics were retrieved from The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (Third Edition) by Neal Wyatt and Joyce G. Saricks. Since this is a YA novel and not necessarily a part of one specific genre from this text, I have selected appeal factors/characteristics from different chapters that fit this particular novel.

1.     Characterization

In their chapter on Relationship Fiction, Wyatt and Saricks explain that in that genre, “…books are not full of characters to be observed but, rather, identified with…These are intimate and personal stories, and readers must feel an intimate tie to enjoy them” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 198). This description reflects the characterization in Turtles All the Way Down. Aza’s struggle with obsessive thoughts is very personal and the reader is made intimately aware of exactly what Aza’s thoughts are like through transcripts in the text (Green, 2017, pp. 45-47, 92, 227-229). For a reader who might be struggling with mental illness themselves, Aza could certainly be a character who could be identified with as well.

2.     Story Line

In their chapter on Literary Fiction, Wyatt and Saricks explain that in that genre, “…authors tend to stay focused on real-life topics and aim to offer observant, even provocative, commentary…In keeping with the focus on reality, endings in Literary Fiction do not have to be happy and are often inconclusive” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 77). This description characterizes the story line of Turtles All the Way Down. The story is realistic and focuses on a difficult subject matter. The author of this novel, John Green, has stated publicly that he suffers from the same mental illness that the protagonist does and has said of Turtles All the Way Down,“I wanted to try to give people a glimpse of what it is. I wanted to try to put them, you know, at least a little bit inside of that experience” (Wertheim, 2020). Based on this insight from the author, it can be concluded that he wanted to provide a realistic portrayal of this subject matter. Additionally, the ending of the novel is not necessarily a neat and tidy happy ending; it is more realistic and has elements of both happiness and adversity.

3.     Frame/Setting

In their chapter on Relationship Fiction, Wyatt and Saricks explain that in that genre, “[f]raming details are also abundant and add equal pleasure (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 197). There are a lot of framing details provided in Turtles All the Way Down. This appeal factor might be more noticeable/enjoyable if you live in central Indiana or are familiar with the area. For example, things like Pogue’s Run, I-465, and Carmel, Indiana (Green, 2017, pp. 49, 224, 255) will be familiar framing details to many people who live in central Indiana. For a person who is not familiar with central Indiana, these framing details will probably not be as noticeable or fun.

3 Relevant Fiction Works
The following three read-alikes were retrieved from NoveList Plus and were found in the Read-alikes section of the record for this book, Turtles All the Way Down (EBSCO Industries, Inc., 2020).
 

1.     Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

2.     The Edge of Anything by Nora Carpenter

3.     All Our Broken Pieces by L.D. Crichton

*All information about Turtles All the Way Down in this annotation came from this edition of the novel:

Green, J. (2017). Turtles All the Way Down. New York: Dutton Books.

*The format for this annotation was adapted from Appendix A of the syllabus, which was from Saricks (Cataldi, n.d.).

Works Cited

Cataldi, E. (n.d.). SP20-IN-LIS-S524-22855 Syllabus. Retrieved from Canvas: https://iu.instructure.com/courses/1873760

EBSCO Industries, Inc. (2020). Turtles all the way down (Oct 2017). Retrieved from NoveList Plus: http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.ilibrary.org/novp/detail?vid=2&sid=0cea8a6c-3862-49bb-b1d7-0be7b0e44b73%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JnNpdGU9bm92cC1saXZl#UI=10576061&db=neh

Green, J. (2017). Turtles All the Way Down. New York: Dutton Books.

Wertheim, J. (2020, February 2). Author John Green: Reaching young adults and dealing with mental illness. Retrieved from CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-fault-in-our-stars-author-john-green-reaching-young-adults-and-dealing-with-mental-illness-60-minutes-2020-02-02/

Wyatt, N., & Saricks, J. G. (2019). The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (3rd ed.). Chicago: ALA Editions, An imprint of the American Library Association.