John Reads the First Chapter of Turtles All the Way Down

In which John Green reads the first chapter of his new novel, Turtles All the Way Down. In it, we meet Aza, a young woman whose obsessive thought spirals do not seem to make her a particularly good detective.

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[MichiContreras]

"I mean, anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see."

Preordered.

[marygliedelicano]

Am I the only one who thinks authors reading a chapter of their books out loud should be a thing?

[nehathejedi]

"Anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see."
This book shows a lot of promise!

[localbird]

John Green: the reason teenagers have been having existential crisis since 2005

[pietrocelano]

So, where are the turtles? I heard that there might be turtles.

[jordanrenae]

John, i am actually crying now. As someone who has suffered with OCD for all of my young adult life, it touches me to hear it all explained in the way you have written it. I am so grateful for this, and I honestly cannot wait until October 10th

[snowyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

On episode 45 of Dear Hank and John you said that you new novel would be composed entirely of emojis. How dare you lie to us.

[hazelpineapple]

i see a lot of people saying they relate to this too much...and i can't help but notice how lucky i am to not have thought spirals like this. i think this book will be very informative for me and may raise awareness for ocd and related disorders

[minty.bliss.]

Sometimes I actually believe I'm a character in a book. Not the star, just an extra. Just there.

[reealexasuerto]

"...anybody can look at you, its quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see"

[marysingssometimes]

Well call me turtle, because I'm all the way down for this.

(I love this, John. I'm a neuroscientist and have only come to know OCD through the stories of others and the less verbose microscope. Thank you so much for opening another invaluable window/insight into it! Best wishes from a long-time nerdfighter :))

[cutiepiglete]

When are you ever going to narrate your own audiobook? I could listen to your voice all day.

[TheSisicool]

"My boobs sweat"
–John Green, (2017)
Edit: To say that I loved the chapter would be an understatement, because this, put simply, was refreshing. It somehow seemed perfectly natural that John was narrating the story until he read the aforementioned line and I snapped back to the reality that the protagonist is Aza, not John.

[elizabethsmith]

I feel as though you just reached inside my mind, pulled out the brown sludge, and extremely poetically put it on paper. I don't know if I've ever felt this exposed and simultaneously understood in my whole life.

[jugarcia]

"Sometimes I wondered why she liked me, or at least tolerated me. Why any of them did. Even I found myself annoying."

I'm a very talkative person. Someone who always had trouble making friends, because I'd always be the person who put more effort into the friendship. The friendships were always mostly one sided. I was closer to that person than they were to me. They were my best friend, and I was nowhere near theirs.

And that thought, that quote, is one that has plagued me for the almost 11 and a half years I've been in school. That my presence, my personality, or my conversation annoyed them. That they simply pretended to be my friend out of politeness. That they only tolerated me. No matter how many times my friends have assured me that that was not the case, I've always doubted that. These are people I've known for 5 and a half years, and I still regularly think that I'm annoying to them.

Thank you John for expressing that thought, that constant fear in such a straightforward way. Hopefully, other people in a similar situation will see that and relate to it (I'm sure they will). And hopefully, the people on the other side of that friendship will see this and understand why the other person (like me) is constantly so worried about that statement being true.

Thank you.

[megannancy]

I came for turtles. I stayed for gut bacteria.

In all seriousness, though, this is an incredible first chapter and I am so excited to read it.

[zawadiwilliams]

This is my first John Green book cycle as a Nerdifghter, and I am extremely excited.

[Razbeariez]

Ah! It's so interesting to hear anxieties, and panic attacks, and and all that stuff from a different perspective than my own. I constantly found myself thinking, I know exactly what this feels like, but also this is completely different subject matter and manifestations than my own. (For anyone curious, I personally, deal with generalized anxiety and occasional bouts of depression.)

[anotherbloodyfeminist]

I have OCD and this is the first thing I've heard that accurately describes it.

[karaabelll]

"It's quite rare to find someone that sees the same world you see."

I love this. John Green your mind is beautiful.