At the time I first realized I might be fictional, my weekdays were spent at a publicly funded institution on the north side of Indianapolis called White River High School, where I was required to eat lunch at a particular time- between 12:37 P.M. and 1:14 P.M.- by forces so much larger than myself that I couldn’t even begin to identify them.

John Green’s “Turtles all the Way Down” Page 1

Wow. There is a lot to unpack there. “realized that I might be fictional” is fun because it hints at potential fourth wall breakage which is always welcome in my book. We know that the main character is a high school student (I mean, it is YA fiction, so I guess that is a given without opening the book) and we know their high school, “White River”. We know their lunch time and we know that they maybe don’t trust administration. Is a a weird thought though, “required… by forces so much larger than myself…” I mean, who really thinks about who sets the schedule in a school? At least, what high school student is thinking of that?

And that and the whole first sentence really gives us a glimpse, another possible fact about out main character; she has OCD. The reason the first sentence is so long and packed with odd information and distrust is because because that is sort of her mind at work, that’s how she thinks. The whole book isn’t a state of stream of conscious, but there are moments particularly when Aza (that’s the MC’s name) becomes stressed out that her thoughts begin to unravel. An example of one of those moments, picked for no particular reason, is in chapter five:

The river was filthy, after all. Had you gotten some river water on your hand? It wouldn’t take much. Time to unwrap the Band-Aid. You tell yourself that you were careful not to touch the water, but your self replies But what if you touched something that touched the water?

John Green’s “Turtles all the Way Down” Page 46

The italicized lines aren’t my doing, that is how they appear in the book. Aza is arguing with her self, her doubt shown in italics. The first sentence makes more sense as you continue to read and learn about Aza. She can’t disconnect from her surroundings and just accept things are the way they are such as lunch time being when it is because she needs to know why they are the way they are. We don’t get long breaks from these intrusive, spiraling thoughts because Aza doesn’t either. We get to share her pain and frustration.