First time buat review. Idk how this post will turn out at the end, is it going to be short/long. Mixture of english/malay. Short forms/formal way of writting. Is it the 'review' that people do or just a rant. Idk.


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Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. Bila first time dengar yang John Green ada terbitkan lagi novel baru, I was excited. In Malaysia, there are not many of bookstores that sells this kind of books at suburban. Like you have to go to big mall (MPH, Popular, Kino) to buy this. Sebab aku pun tinggal kat bandar, I did went to MPH just to find this book. Bila tau novel ni ada hardcover je, aku dah agak mahal. Harga kat kedai adalah RM 70+. Tolak membership discount, jadi RM 65-69. And I did spend that kind of amount on Rupi Kaur's poem book, tapi masa tu tak sanggup nak beli lagi TAtWD jadi mampu tengok je lah. Sampai awal Ogos baru ni, I saw the secondhandbook igstore ada jual at RM 40. So apa lagi. Terus beli haha. The condition is 9/10. Not that bad. Tapi lepas baca ada sedikit penyesalan tak beli terus dari store sebab novel ni memang best.

Rating: 9/10

Aku letak novel ni no dua lepas TFiOS. I read  all novels by John Green. I bought/ read them online. Kurang satu mata sebab so far takde lagi paperback edition. But I like the book jacket. It has a smooth finish.

Plot:

This is a story about Aza Holmes, a girl (which I found out that she's a girl only at chapter four, because her bestfriend always call her Holmesy) who has lost her farther due to heart attack. She lives with her mother which is a teacher at her school. She drives Harold (her father's old car). She has a bestfriend named Daisy which reminds me of syafiqa izzati, idk why. Aza has this anxiety problems, panic attack and is on medication that she took on and off (because she thinks the medicine make her not her) She always dug in calus in her hand until it bleeds, wash her hand, put some hand sanitiser and reapply band-aids multiple times in a day because of fear of infection. She always think how people can live with all the bacteria in the world and how she would get infection if she did not change her band-aid. She also scared of getting infection of C.difficile which made her read journals on the infection and disease. She just can't stop think.

The story start with the dissappearance of a billionnaire, Mr Pickett. He was said to have some illegal act and that he was on run, and suddenly dissappear without any news. She and Daisy found out of the rewards 100thousand dollars for anyone that can tip to the police about anything regarding Mr.Pickett. It turns out that Aza knows Mr Pickett's sons, Davis and Noah from camp years before. She and Daisy met Davis after both of them tried to find some information at the billionnaire's compound. After that, they start to hang out together which eventually Davis and Aza fall in love. Davis know about the rewards and about the girls intial intention to find the information so he give 100thousand dolars to the girls (apparently Mr Pickett likes to hide money everywhere around the house) which they decide to divide.

Aza struggles with her endless thought, which she describe the feelings as being in the dark, you dont know where is the start and the end of a tunnel, so dark you can't even see your hand and how the thoughts keep coming and never stop. She and Davis kissed once, and the kiss made her think how the microbes from Davis transfers to her mouth and mix with her microbes in the body. She started to google things, gargle and even drink handsanitizer to sanitize her mouth and gut. She know thatit is wrong to drink handsanitizer but she couldn't help herself. She has to so she would be in peace.

As the story going, we learnt the existence of the Picketts' pet named Tuatara, a lizard that is not a lizard, some kind of unevolve dinosour which can live for a very long time. Mr Pickett has left all the fortune to the pet, which will be used for research purpose to find out the reasons and key to the evergreen life of Tuatara. None will be left for his sons, though Davis has mentiond that he and his brother have enough money for college and to live. Noah, a thirteen year old boy was so sad about his father dissappearance and Davis was there as 'a big brother' who take care of him. Aza felt bad for Noah and was trying to find something about Mr Pickett to help Noah. He found some note in his father's phone, including 'jogger's mouth' which Aza didnt have any clue about it. Davis loves to stargazing so sometime he and Aza would stargazing together and Davis would explain about stars to Aza.

Daisy has a relationship with Mychal (also Aza's friend). Daisy did all the talking when she hang out together with Aza. Daisy also write fan fiction about some characters of Star Wars and is incredibly famous online. Davis mentioned about how Ayala, a character in the fan fic resembles Aza alot. Aza read the fan fic and feels bad because to her point of view, Ayala is the source of problems in all of the story, and she think about how Daisy think of her. In a driving scene, both of them gets into an argument and they involved in an accident which bring Aza to the hospital. At the hospital, Aza was diagnosed with liver laceration. Her mom caught Aza drinking handsanitizers due to her thoughts that told her to do so. They review back her medication and her therapist visits her regularly until she recovers. Aza made up with Daisy. Aza met Davis only after a few months of the accident. One night, Aza, Daisy and Mychal went to an underground art gallery located at unfinished tunnel project of Mr.Pickett's where she and Daisy walk til the end of the tunnel and they found a beautiful view of the city (with uncomfortable smell) and they figured out that the 'jogger's mouth maybe the end of the tunnel. Coming back home, Aza told Davis that she felt maybe the lost Mr Pickett was down there, dead. A month later, the news about Mr Pickett has been dead was on tv, and Davis told Aza that he and Noah decided to tell the cops about it. One day Davis came to Aza's house to tell her that he and Noah are moving to another smaller house and they say goodbye to each other.

My favorite quotes:

1. "Is he your boyfriend?" She asked. "I guess so," I said. "He respects you as an equal?" "Yeah" "He listen to you as much as you listen to him?"

2. Your now is not your forever

3. I guess at some point, you realize that whoever else care of you is just a person, and that they have no superpowers and can't actually protect you from getting hurt.

4. The worst part of being truly alone is you think about all the times you wished that everyone would just leave you be. Then they do, and you are left being, and you turn out to be terrible company.

5. What I love about science is that as you learn, you don't really get answers. You just get better questions. *You don't want to know what is happening in a head of a scientist*

6. I was so good at being a kid, and so terrible at whatever I was now. *Bcs, same*

7. There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn't. *Always, always believe in this*


My thoughts on this novel:

Another briliant piece by John Green. TFiOS made me cried hard, but this novel made me think like alot. All John Green novels shows different perspective of view and different issue. For example, in TFiOS he shows how a cancer patient struggles to live, and in this novel, he made me understand, maybe a little bit just how it may goes inside the head of people with mental problem. How Aza was trying so hard to make the thought stop but she couldn't and at the end, she just follow the thought. It makes me realize that there are people out there that think small things such as microbes a big deal. And how cool it is to have a friend that write fan fic, like how can you come up with such storyline? also applies to all fan fic authors of every fandom out there I guess they feed the readers with all the things they wanted. And and how cool it is to have a friend to stargazing with, and he tells you the name of the stars which basically what I see just the same. Girl, I want a friend like that. In this story, Davis is not the cliche typical kind of billionnaire's son. He is responsible, kind hearted, take a good care of his brother and even kind to Aza. He did not judge her for what Aza is. He is not materialistic, love to write and love to put quote at each of his entry. Which will take me forever to start an entry if I do it like that

The thing when Aza's mother asked her, I quoted here 'He listen to you as much as you listen to him?' Seriously, I've never think to find someone like that. I know how communication is a vital component for a healthy relationships, but listening? Well, do you ever listen carefully to what other people trying to say? To be honest, I've fake listening to the kids because they talk too much and I'm not interested in them. I just pretend to listen and say yes to everything they say. Even some of my friends, they make me listen to them and left after they have said everything they wanted, without listening to me. So, I've put 'someone who listens to me as much as I listen to him' as the criteria XD

#1. All in all, worth my RM 40!
#2. I really hope my first review is not boring. Tapi kalau syok sendiri pun apa salahnya kan? I enjoy writing this and I'm looking forward to write more. Ni first draft pun and I don't really edit back what I've wrote. Maybe ada grammatical errors here and there, you can always correct me. :)
#3. Wow, I do take a lot of time to finish this. Asyik teringat je selagi tak post. Najmi memanggil2 gitu haha.

Labels: Her Book Review, Her Books, Her Feelings, Her Open Letter, Her Quotes, Her Thought