Turtles All the Way Down: Chapters 14–19

by John Green
Sixteen-year-old Aza investigates the disappearance of a local billionaire and navigates complicated relationships with her mom, best friend, and a new romantic interest, all while trying to manage obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–9, Chapters 10–13, Chapters 14–19, Chapters 20–24

Here are links to our lists for other books by John Green: Looking for Alaska; Will Grayson, Will Grayson; The Fault in Our Stars; Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. centrifuge
    an apparatus that separates particles from a suspension
    “Sorry about that,” Malik said at last, “but these cells don’t live very long outside the body, and Tua only weighs a pound and a half, so I try not to take more blood from her than necessary. That’s a centrifuge.”
  2. metabolism
    the organic processes that are necessary for life
    They have a very slow metabolism. But despite doing everything slowly and having not changed much in two hundred million years, tuatara have a faster rate of molecular mutation than any other known animal.
  3. mutate
    undergo a change or alteration in form or qualities
    “At a molecular level, yes. They change more rapidly than humans or lions or fruit flies. Which raises all kinds of questions: Did all animals once mutate at this rate? What happened to slow down molecular mutation? How does the animal itself change so little when its DNA is mutating so rapidly?”
  4. monologue
    speech you make to yourself
    I watched myself for a long time, trying to figure a way to shut it off, trying to find my inner monologue’s mute button, trying.
  5. respite
    a relief from harm or discomfort
    I could still feel his spit in my mouth, and the respite the hand sanitizer had provided was dwindling away.
  6. cryptic
    of an obscure nature
    The site had been created two months earlier, and like Davis’s previous journal, most of the entries began with a quote from someone else and then concluded with a short, cryptic essay.
  7. entity
    that which is perceived to have its own distinct existence
    S came by last night to walk us through what happens now—what happens if he’s found, what happens if he’s not—and at one point he said, “You understand that I’m referring now not to the physical person but to the legal entity.” The legal entity is what hovers over us, haunting our home. The physical person is in that map somewhere.
  8. melancholic
    characterized by or causing or expressing sadness
    I’m overwhelmed by a melancholic ache—and I want the past back, no matter the cost.
  9. snare
    something that catches you unawares
    The past is a snare that has already caught you.
  10. paranoid
    suffering from delusions of persecution or grandeur
    Him: Sorry if I sound paranoid I just like posting there and don't want to have to delete it.
  11. discernible
    capable of being perceived clearly
    His face appeared, gray in the ghostlight of his phone, and I held a finger up to my mouth and whispered, “Shh,” and we watched each other in silence, our barely discernible faces and bodies exposed through our screens’ dim light, more intimate than I could ever be in real life.
  12. intrepid
    invulnerable to fear or intimidation
    But because one had lost some of its energy when Ayala opened the box, the recipients knew our intrepid heroes had seen the cargo, and a bounty was placed on their heads—or should I say our heads—all of which meant the stakes would be even higher in next week’s story.
  13. bounty
    payment or reward for acts such as catching criminals
    But because one had lost some of its energy when Ayala opened the box, the recipients knew our intrepid heroes had seen the cargo, and a bounty was placed on their heads—or should I say our heads—all of which meant the stakes would be even higher in next week’s story.
  14. careen
    move sideways or in an unsteady way
    I stayed up too late reading, and then later still thinking about what I’d say to Daisy the next morning, my thoughts careening between furious and scared, circling around my bedroom like a vulture.
  15. muss
    make messy or untidy
    He reached over and mussed Noah’s hair.
  16. biased
    favoring one person or side over another
    “I kind of liked her, but I guess I’m biased.”
  17. sinewy
    possessing physical strength and weight; rugged and powerful
    He was skinny, but I liked his body—the small but sinewy muscles in his back, his goose-bumped legs.
  18. solace
    comfort offered to one who is disappointed or miserable
    It sucked having a dead person in your family, and I knew what he meant, about seeking solace in the old light.
  19. contextual
    relating to the set of facts surrounding a situation
    Mammal brains receive a constant stream of interoceptive input from the GI tract, which combines with other interoceptive information from within the body and contextual information from the environment before sending an integrated response to target cells within the GI tract...
  20. clammy
    unpleasantly cool and humid
    Back in my room, sweating over the covers, body clammy, corpse-like. Can’t get my head straight.
  21. abstraction
    a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance
    Do you feel like you're a threat to yourself? But which is the threat and which is the self? II wasn’t not a threat, but couldn’t say to whom or what, the pronouns and objects of the sentence muddied by the abstraction of it all, the words sucked into the non-lingual way down.
  22. forge
    create by hammering
    Can’t describe the feeling itself except to say that I’m not me. Forged in the smithy of someone else’s soul. Please just let me out.
  23. supposition
    a hypothesis that is taken for granted
    It was cloudy, the kind of day where the sun is a supposition.
  24. tinge
    affect as in thought or feeling
    Can’t bear the thought of Dr. Singh calling back, voice tinged with sympathy, asking whether I’m taking the medication every day.
  25. compulsion
    an irrational need to perform trivial or repetitive actions
    “Ayala, Aza. Beginning of the alphabet to the end and back. Gave her compulsions. Gave her my personality. Anyone reading it would know how you really feel about me. Mychal. Davis. Everyone at school, probably.”
  26. contemplation
    a calm, lengthy, intent consideration
    You could take three seconds away from your nonstop...contemplation of yourself to think about other people’s interests.
  27. pathological
    caused by or evidencing a mentally disturbed condition
    You have no idea what it’s like for me, and you’re so, like, pathologically uncurious that you don’t even know what you don’t know.
  28. encroach
    impinge or infringe upon
    Darkness encroached at the edge of my vision.
  29. seismograph
    an instrument for measuring movements of the ground
    Harold’s trunk was as crumpled as his hood—he looked like a seismograph reading, except for the passenger compartment, which was perfectly intact.
  30. wrest
    obtain by seizing forcibly or violently, also metaphorically
    I could see the latch; I just couldn’t get it pried open, and whenever I tried to lift, the pain in my ribs made my vision cloud up, but I finally wrested the trunk open enough to reach my arm inside.
  31. supernova
    a star that explodes and becomes luminous in the process
    I felt like I was getting ripped apart from the inside, the supernova of my selves simultaneously exploding and collapsing.
  32. welt
    a raised mark on the skin
    She sort of collapsed into Daisy, which is when I noticed Daisy was there, a red welt on her collarbone.
  33. calligraphy
    beautiful handwriting
    “Car accident?” the woman asked as she pushed me past the word kindness painted in calligraphy on the wall.
  34. lacerate
    cut or tear irregularly
    “Bad news, you have a lacerated liver. Good news, it’s a mild laceration. We’ll watch you closely for a couple days, so we can make sure your bleeding doesn’t increase, and you’ll be sore for several weeks, but I’m ordering you pain medication now so you’ll be comfortable. Questions.”
  35. irreconcilable
    impossible to bring into accord
    And in the way-down deep, some me screaming, get me out of here get me out of here get me out please I'll do any things but the thoughts just keep spinning, the tightening gyre, the jogger's mouth, the stupidity of Ayala, Aza, and Holmesy and all my irreconcilable selves, my self absorption, the filth in my gut, think about anything other than yourself you disgusting narcissist.
  36. narcissist
    someone who is excessively self-centered
    And in the way-down deep, some me screaming, get me out of here get me out of here get me out please I'll do any things but the thoughts just keep spinning, the tightening gyre, the jogger's mouth, the stupidity of Ayala, Aza, and Holmesy and all my irreconcilable selves, my self absorption, the filth in my gut, think about anything other than yourself you disgusting narcissist.
  37. reprehensible
    bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure
    I didn't reply, but I couldn't stop thinking about Daisy, about Ayala, and most of all about the bugs inside and outside of me, and I knew I was being selfish by even making a big deal out of it, making other people's real C, diff infections about my hypothetical one. Reprehensible.
  38. communal
    for or by a group rather than individuals
    How could I even fantasize about going to some school far away where you pay a fortune to live in dorms full of strangers, with communal bathrooms and cafeterias and no private spaces to be crazy in?
  39. sanitize
    make sterile by cleaning
    It’s the only way that’s stupid if it worked alcoholics would be the healthiest people in the world you’re just going to sanitize your hands and your mouth please...
  40. bile
    a digestive juice secreted by the liver
    There was yellow bile all over my pale blue hospital gown.
Created on Thu Jan 11 11:45:22 EST 2018 (updated Tue Apr 09 15:49:25 EDT 2019)

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