Plot Summary Of Turtles All The Way Down By John Green

Aza Holmes is a normal young adult in White River High School, Indianapolis, Indiana, or WRHS. Except the fact that she has a continuous spiral of thoughts going on in her head, called intrusives, including her constantly worrying that she has C. Diff, a fatal bacterial disease. She also never intended to face a mystery that would leave her stuck in a place of whereabouts. That mystery is Russell Pickett. The escapee billionaire is wanted for fraud and bribery, and fled before an investigation on his house. Aza’s “Best and Most Fearless Friend” Daisy Ramirez drags her into the investigation for the reward of one hundred thousand dollars. Daisy and Aza crash a canoe on to the Pickett estate in order to get film from an unknown motion capture camera on the property. Daisy and Aza get caught after receiving the film and Daisy reports to the estate security that they are friends with Davis Pickett, Russell Pickett’s son. Davis is surprised to see Aza, since they used to be friends when they were younger. Davis believes that Aza is after the reward for his father. Daisy eventually comes back, after leaving for a short amount of time, with Malik Moore, the Pickett’s zoologist. Malik explains that he cares for Tua, the tuatara, which is pretty much a dinosaur living in the twenty-first century. Aza, Daisy and Davis walked into the Pickett’s house which there they see that the Pickett’s have an actual Picasso painting, and a Rauschenberg too. Aza wonders into Davis’s room, which is very clean. He has concert posters in frame on a wall, a bookshelf with tons of hardcover books packed into it, and on his table next to some books, the Iron Man toy. Davis drives both Aza and Daisy to Aza’s house that night. In which Aza then drives Daisy home. During which, Daisy tells Aza that when Mr. Pickett dies, Tua the tuatara will inherit the entire estate.

On the next day after school finishes, Aza goes for a ride on the highway in Harold, her car who used to belong to her dad. Aza goes home for a while before Daisy gets off of her work at Chuck E. Cheese and the two meet at Applebee’s, their usual studying place. The pair begin to look into Russell Pickett’s disappearance. While searching, Aza checks Davis’s social media profiles and notices that he hasn’t posted since the day of his father’s stunt. On Daisy’s side of her investigation, she phishes a junior reporter into giving her the details of the missing person report for Russell Pickett. The next day at school, Aza reads the report and becomes aware that she and Daisy now know more than the police do with the evidence of the motion capture camera picture. Though Aza demands that she asks Davis if it’s okay that she and Daisy take it to the police before they do so. Aza and Davis text that night with Aza hypothetically asking that if she knew something about his father, would it make it better or worse, with him responding that it would indeed make it worse, and Aza coming to her own conclusion that it was best not to share the vital information with the police that could make everything worse. The next morning Daisy comes to Aza that she agreed to go on a date with Mychal, Aza and Daisy’s friend, but Daisy suggested that it should be a double-date with Aza and Davis. Aza then asks Davis if he wishes to come and he agreed, though she made it seem as a small dinner with friends. After school Aza has a meeting with Dr. Singh, her therapist. Aza admits that she feels that she’s not “‘driving the bus of my own consciousness’”. Though she lies about taking her prescription regularly. T

hroughout the session, Aza’s stomach aches and still fears of having C. Diff. When date night arrives, Aza’s mother warns her to be careful with Davis, saying that money makes people nonchalant, though Aza ignores her. During the dinner at Applebee’s, Aza zones in and out of the conversation about Star Wars and about Daisy’s Star Wars fanfiction. Afterwards, Davis suggests that the four of them go to his house to watch a movie in their theatre room. When they arrive, Davis takes Aza to the theatre room, while Daisy and Mychal go to look at the various art pieces in the house. However, Davis then takes Aza outside to look at the stars, and Aza then admits she doesn’t like the fact that she is living inside a body; and that she slices her finger open wide to confirm that she is indeed real. Davis then tells Aza that he can’t trust her and Daisy to keep quiet about the information about his father. He takes Aza to the cottage on the estate where he pulls one hundred thousand dollars out of multiple cereal boxes and hands it over to Aza, who is shocked. Aza sprints back to the mansion, which interferes with Mychal and Daisy locking lips. Noah, who is Davis’s younger brother, gives Aza his father’s personal notes to help with her research on the case. Noah starts crying and Aza advises that he should go to bed. Aza arrives half an hour early in the afternoon when waiting for her meeting with Daisy. She decides to pull out her dad’s old phone and charger to scroll through the pictures, his phone “worked eight years after his body stopped working. ” Though the pictures are backed up, she enjoys to look at it on her dad’s phone. Aza had put the phone and its charger away by the time Daisy had arrived. Aza shows Daisy the money that Davis had given Aza and they decide to split it, fifty thousand each. They go inside Applebee’s to eat.

The next morning, Aza receives a call from Simon Morris, the Pickett’s lawyer to organize a meeting for her to deposit the money at Second Indianapolis. She drives with Daisy to the bank, though her thought spiral tightens along the way, telling her that the medicine has made her complacent and that she forgot to change her Band-Aid that morning, and filling her head with thoughts making her question what she has done to ensure the cut on her finger doesn’t get infected. She tells Daisy about her Band-Aid situation and asking her if she used the bathroom at lunch, which Daisy assured her she always did. Daisy then wishes she understood what it was like. The thoughts continued to scream at Aza while they were at the bank, causing her to zone out. When Aza arrives at school the next day, she discovers Volkswagen Beetle in bright orange in her usual spot. She finds out that Daisy had purchased the car, which the banker had told both of them not to make any big purchases for at least six months. Daisy gives Aza a Fiske Guide to Colleges book, while Aza is disapproving in Daisy’s purchases, which also included a computer. Davis comes to pick Aza up from her house, originally to watch a meteor shower that was going to happen that night, but ended up being overcast. Aza’s mom demands to talk to Davis. Aza’s mother causes him to cry when she interrogated him. They arrive at the Pickett residence, and eat dinner. They go outside and talk. Then Aza has a panic attack while kissing Davis, she then reads a research page about “do bacteria of people you kiss stay inside your body” with the answer yes, she freaks out. She goes to a bathroom to change her Band-Aid and swishes cold water in her mouth. They go and watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Aza goes home and her mother apologizes that she took it too far. Her mother then sings Aza a lullaby to help to help her sleep. Aza has a consultation with Dr. Singh the following day. She confesses that she might be fictional because she doesn’t control her thoughts. Aza and Davis text back and forth that night. After school on Monday, Aza meets Davis at the Pickett estate. She and Davis then watch a movie called Jupiter Ascending. Aza gets another panic attack when she kissed Davis, she heads to a bathroom and then decides to drink the hand sanitizer. When Aza goes home for the night, she discovers Davis’s secret blog, which he began to write after his father’s disappearance. The two facetime and continue to do so nightly, and Aza realizes that she feels intimate with Davis. Aza decides to read Daisy’s Star Wars fanfiction, which has a character named Ayala in all of the stories and came to realize that Ayala was herself. She then saw the way Daisy saw her: “clueless, helpless, useless. Less. ”

Daisy and Aza watch Attack of the Clones after school the next day and the duo argue a little before Daisy goes and hangs out with Mychal. Aza goes to see Davis that night. The two go stargazing for a little bit before going swimming. They both look into a telescope and talk. Then, Aza goes home and reads Davis’s blog and Daisy’s fanfiction. Aza ends up reading a wikipedia article about “‘gut-brain informational axis’” which is how bacteria affects your thinking. She finds the article horrifying and heads to the bathroom to change her Band-Aid and swallows hand sanitizer. She then wonders if she is a danger to herself. The following morning, Aza is sick and tired. She goes to Applebee’s with Daisy after school and confronts Daisy about Ayala. Daisy says that she came up with Ayala in the seventh grade and that it was a hurtful move, though Daisy says that Ayala is her own character now and that Ayala does not equal Aza. Daisy goes on to start insulting Aza for being a horrible friend and spoiled. Aza then starts to insult Daisy as well, telling her that imagine being stuck inside Aza’s head with no way out. Aza’s ranting causes her not to pay attention to the road, which causes multiple car crashes. They crash into the SUV in front of them, then a car crashes into them from behind, and then a smaller crash into the one behind them. Aza realizes the phone is still in the car and rushes to get it out, only to find out that it’s broken and won’t work. A firefighter asks Aza if she is okay and after a minute, Aza blacks out.

At the hospital, Aza finds out she has a lacerated liver, which is when you have a physical injury to the liver. Daisy leaves the hospital once Aza got upstairs while Aza’s mother stays. Aza desperately doesn’t want to stay in the hospital, for her fear of C. Diff. While Aza’s mother is asleep, Aza intrusive thoughts swarm her and forces her to drink the hand sanitizer on the wall. Though her mother wakes up and catches her drinking the hand sanitizer, Aza vomits and her mother calls the staff. Aza realizes she isn’t possessed by a demon, but that she is the demon, the one which she has been terrorizing her. Aza then offers a alternative ending, which doesn’t happen. She tells her mother that she’s in big trouble and she dreams that she walks into the sunset with either Davis or Daisy. Dr. Singh comes and finds out that Aza wasn’t taking her meds. Dr. Singh continues to come by each morning. When Aza goes home, Dr. Singh came to her house twice a week. Aza returns to school in early December. Daisy ended up breaking up with Mychal and selling her car. Daisy and Aza have a picnic outside for lunch. Daisy tells the story of a scientist giving a lecture about the history of the earth, but then an old woman in the back says that the earth is a flat plane resting on the back of a giant turtle and that turtle is standing on another turtle and so on and so forth; it’s turtles all the way down. Aza believes that the story represents her mental state. She stops by her mother’s classroom to tell her about the money that Davis gave Aza.

The next day, Daisy invites Aza to a one night underground art gallery in Pogue's Run. After a while in the gallery, Aza and Daisy decide to go on a walk through the sewer, which the gallery is located in. Aza tells Daisy that with their headlamps off, you’re stuck there, alone, with the headlamp on, it’s a walk in the park. When they walk to the end of Pogue's Run, Aza realizes that they’re in the jogger’s mouth. Aza decides to tell Davis what she found out. When she does, he starts crying. Later, Aza saw on the news that the police had found Pickett’s body, thanks to an anonymous tip.

Aza finds out that Davis and Noah decided to tip off the cops together. Davis gives Aza the painting she liked in the mansion, and Davis and Noah move away. Aza then addresses the reader about not knowing at the time that she would “go to college, find a job, find a life, see it unbuilt and rebuilt. ” She didn’t know that she would have kids and “would get too sick to care for them, be hospitalized, get better, then get sick again. ” Aza wrote this all down when her therapist would ask her to write down as to how she got here.