Jumbled Thoughts on: Turtles All the Way Down

So I finished reading John Green’s new novel: Turtles All the Way Down. And it is now my personal book of the year for 2017 and my new favorite John Green novel. Though I’m incredibly biased as the book is essentially about anxiety and mental illness, of which I am terrifyingly familiar with.

I wonder what those that don’t have anxiety/high-functioning anxiety will think about this book, though. It’s probably not going to be a favorite for them. Or maybe it’ll just help them understand someone else?

And yet, I find myself unable to say anything about this story. There’s too much to like. I run into these kinds of problems for my favorite stories. Too much happened. I’d share more about why I like it, but then it reaches into areas about myself and my relationships that I’m way too embarrassed to share in the public, absolutely-permanent-for-all-time open internet.

So instead of writing about the deep-seated emotional part of the book that actually affected me, and drawing parallels with my own anxiety and apeirophobia, I’m just going to be skittish and talk about something else entirely: the way the book talks about Fanfiction.

I just gotta say how happy I am that Fanfic is showing up in a popular major novel—that it's accepted and appreciated.

The protagonist’s best friend in this novel is an accomplished Star Wars fanfiction author. It comes up several times in the story that Daisy, the best friend, is famous in the Star Wars fanfiction scene.

However, the main character never reads Daisy’s fanfics. And after several years of not reading Daisy’s stories, she finally does and realizes one of the OC characters is eerily similar to her. This causes a huge conflict in their relationship and a "Why didn't you read this sooner?" problem.

And just—it made me think about writing in general. Depending on what people write, they are being incredibly open with themselves. That’s what writing is. And it feels like the stories people write really represent the author that wrote them. (There are exceptions though)

I feel like I’ve been on both sides of the "please read my story" fence:
Me: “Please read my fanfic. It’s my soul, and now that I've unwittingly accomplished my life's purpose and destiny, I'll probably die soon.”

Also Me: “I’m sorry, I just don’t have time to read your fanfic right now. There’s just so much! “ D:

I think it just boils back to a blog I wrote a while ago that books are eerily like the people that write them.

Well anyway, I related to Turtles All the Way Down a lot. I highly recommend it to anxious people, or people that want to understand anxious people.

---
If I know you well and you wrote a story that is a must-read to understand you as a person, please PM me a link. I'll get to it eventually.

Comments

[Albert Manhattan]

I’m just going to be skittish and talk about 

For a second there, I thought you said skittles and thought you were a delicious candy treat.
I am disappoint.

:P
But in seriousness-ness, I need to get on reading that book.

[Equine Speed Runner]

I like the premise of this book.

"Turtles All the Way Down "
Will not lie, when I first saw this, I thought it meant if you dug away the earth, you'd find turtles. Green ones of course. Mantle turtles, and even turtles in the core.

In stacks. Hundreds of turtles stacked.