The fact that I didn't finish this book in one sitting has everything to do with having to adult and nothing to do with the book. IT WAS GREAT!!! I was moving and needed to be packing and since I just started my new job I had to work and I just had to hold off on reading time, and yes I know how sad that is!!!
Ok, the book....
Being me, with the life I have...as you know, or maybe not if you are new to my ramblings, I have a 16 year old who at 12 was diagnosed with a mental illness, Bipolar, and our lives, my entire family, we live a life where this is part of our daily existence. Some days are good, some are just ok, but some are really, really bad. So reading Aza's story felt very close to home. Her struggle, her mother just wanting to make it all better. Her best friend Daisy not being able to tell her how once sided their friendship is but how much she loves her anyway. Her not being able to be with the boy she really likes. It all felt so real. And that is a credit to John Green. He is incredibly talented. And this subject matter was close to his life too, he has talked about his OCD and mental health.
But even if it wasn't subject he was intimately familiar with, John Green does something rare in the world of YA, he writes books adults can read too because when he writes he respects his reader's intelligence and just because his books are YA he doesn't talk down to or assume stupidity or vapidness on the part of the teen age audience. His books are YA, his characters are young people, but his content is real and readable for adults too.
Read Turtles All The Way Down. Then talk about Mental Health because it is time to end the stigma and make it easier for those struggling to talk about their illness and the needs they have. You wouldn't ever judge or attach stigma to a teen with cancer so why would you judge and stigmatize a teen with a mental illness? No one can help having either one.
(Finished October 18, 2017)
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