Turtles all the Way Down

I finished reading Turtles All the Way Down. John Green's new book.


One of the things I like about his writing is the dialogue. Sure, it's not really realistic how the characters talk. But I still like it. How it's often poetic or philosophical or both.
I also love some of the ideas he uses.
(Though The Fault in Our Stars is still my favorite of his books - other than that one, his stories aren't usually to my taste even if I do love moments of them).



It probably wasn't the best timing for me to read this book though. This year has been the most anxiety-filled year of my life. Every time I think it's getting better, something new pops up.
It's not because I've finished school. And all the summer craze only caused a fraction of the stress, though there were some pretty crazy times. Like getting evacuated. And when I was leading one ride along, and helicopters flew right toward us and freaked the horses out. And when one guy was nearly crushed when his mule fell down a hill - and another horse got spooked and ran straight toward the highway. Luckily no one got hurt though it was really really close (I actually didn't see any of that. I was leading the ride, and we were around a corner. I heard screams behind me, but I couldn't go back to see what was happening because I had to take care of the people in front).

Anyway, Turtles kind of gave words to some of my anxiety. Not that I can to compare my stupid problems to Aza's (Or John's).

The book also made me sad, because I might know a couple people going through something similar (if not as bad) that Aza is going through.
When I went to that young adult fiction workshop earlier this yeas, one of the authors said something that links really well to this.
The parents of kids who have mental health problems are often shown as incompetent in media. But it's not that they're incompetent. It's that they're helpless.
Turtles made me feel really helpless in regards to people I care about.

I'll be some people would consider this self centered. But I want so much to help my friends/family feel better if they're stressed or anxious or sad or anything. I want to do something, anything, to brighten their day.
I can't stand it when the people I care about are hurting.
It makes me feel useless to think that I can't help at all.
(Heheh, I guess it's pretty obvious through my blog posts how much anxiety I've had this year).