Turtles All the Way Down: Chapters 20–24

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. gingerly
    in a manner marked by extreme care or delicacy
    Gingerly, carefully, you assess your own consciousness for a moment.
  2. ostentatiously
    in a manner intended to attract notice and impress others
    At the end of your bed you see a huge bouquet of flowers resting on a table, ostentatiously huge, complete with a crystal vase.
  3. opaque
    not clearly understood or expressed
    Maybe we needed to give shape to the opaque, deep-down pain that evades both sense and senses.
  4. caboose
    a car on a freight train for use of the train crew
    You’ve just had a successful train of thought, with an engine and a caboose and everything.
  5. ineffable
    defying expression or description
    And then you feel a wave of nausea, a fist clenching from within your rib cage, cold sweat hot forehead you've got it it's already inside of you crowding out everything else taking you over and it's going to kill you and eat its way out of you and then in a small voice, half strangled by the ineffable horror, you barely squeeze out the words you need to say.
  6. dogged
    stubbornly unyielding
    My dogged obsessiveness leads me to ignore all manner of threats, and the risk to the fortune Daisy and I have stumbled into.
  7. obsessive
    characterized by an unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation
    My dogged obsessiveness leads me to ignore all manner of threats, and the risk to the fortune Daisy and I have stumbled into.
  8. declarative
    relating to an explicit statement or announcement
    I focus only on the mystery, and embrace the belief that solving it is the ultimate Good, that declarative sentences are inherently better than interrogative ones, and in finding the answer despite my madness, I simultaneously find a way to live with the madness.
  9. inherently
    in an essential manner
    I focus only on the mystery, and embrace the belief that solving it is the ultimate Good, that declarative sentences are inherently better than interrogative ones, and in finding the answer despite my madness, I simultaneously find a way to five with the madness.
  10. interrogative
    relating to sentences that ask a question
    I focus only on the mystery, and embrace the belief that solving it is the ultimate Good, that declarative sentences are inherently better than interrogative ones, and in finding the answer despite my madness, I simultaneously find a way to five with the madness.
  11. omnipresent
    existing everywhere at once
    Both were a relief if for no other reason than my omnipresent mother was forced to leave the room briefly.
  12. catatonic
    characterized by unresponsiveness or lack of movement
    I just lay there, almost catatonic, as my mother hovered, perpetually near, breaking the silence every few minutes with a question-phrased-as-a-statement.
  13. inquisition
    a severe interrogation
    Each day is a little better? You’re feeling okay? You’re improving? The inquisition of declarations.
  14. insoluble
    without hope of solution
    When I finally did power it up, I felt an insoluble fear.
  15. monogamous
    having one mate
    And so I was, like, ‘Let’s see other people,’ and he was, like, ‘No,’ and I was, like, ‘Please,’ and he was, like, ‘I want to be in a monogamous relationship,’ and I was, like, ‘I just don’t want the weight of this, like, Thing dominating my life,’ and he was, like, ‘I’m not a thing,’ and then we broke up.
  16. misogyny
    hatred of women
    ...I know that virginity is a misogynistic and oppressive social construct...
  17. oppressive
    weighing heavily on the senses or spirit
    ...I know that virginity is a misogynistic and oppressive social construct...
  18. earnest
    devout or heartfelt
    “My whole life I thought I was the star of an overly earnest romance movie, and it turns out I was in a goddamned buddy comedy all along. I gotta go to calc. Good to see you, Holmesy.”
  19. empathize
    be understanding of
    “You’ve always empathized with that kid,” she said.
  20. akin
    similar in quality or character
    “Because it’s turtles all the way down,” I said again, feeling something akin to a spiritual revelation.
  21. revelation
    an enlightening or astonishing disclosure
    “Because it’s turtles all the way down,” I said again, feeling something akin to a spiritual revelation.
  22. surreal
    characterized by fantastic and incongruous imagery
    It seemed surreal and miraculous to me that so many cars could drive past one another without colliding, and I felt certain that each set of headlights headed my way would inevitably veer into my path.
  23. montage
    the technique of splicing together different sections of film to convey an idea
    “Okay, so remember how I had that idea for Mychal to make those photographic montages of exonerated prisoners?”
  24. sheepish
    showing a sense of shame
    “I didn’t know I was supposed to dress up for the sewer,” I said sheepishly.
  25. protagonist
    the principal character in a work of fiction
    You’re the narrator, the protagonist, and the sidekick.
  26. ballad
    a narrative song with a recurrent refrain
    As Daisy switched the song to a romantic ballad that she and Mychal were singing, I started thinking about turtles all the way down.
  27. curator
    the custodian of a collection, as a museum or library
    “I’m Frances Oliver. I think Prisoner 101 is one of the strongest pieces in the gallery. And I’m the curator, so I should know. Come, come, let’s head on down together. I would be fascinated to learn more about your process.”
  28. culvert
    a transverse and enclosed drain under a road or railway
    There was an overturned shopping cart just outside the start of the culvert, trapped against a moss-covered boulder.
  29. portly
    fairly large
    Daisy’s light lingered on one image featuring a portly rat drinking a bottle of wine with the caption, THE RAT KING KNOWS YOUR SECRETS.
  30. reverberate
    ring or echo with sound
    Someone had set up a stereo, and music began reverberating through the tunnel.
  31. objectively
    in a manner not influenced by emotion
    “I don’t know,” I said. “This just isn’t scary.”
    “It objectively is,” she said.
  32. incompetence
    lack of physical or intellectual ability or qualifications
    “Keep Pogue’s Run filthy, because the view from the unfinished water treatment tunnel is spectacular. Thanks, Russell Pickett, for your corruption and incompetence.”
  33. conglomeration
    a sum total of many varied things taken together
    Indianapolis winters rarely feature the sort of beautiful snow that you can ski and sled in; our usual winter precipitation is a conglomeration called “wintry mix,” involving ice pellets, frozen rain, and wind.
  34. musty
    stale and unclean smelling
    He lay down and I lay down with him, the two of us barely fitting on the musty couch.
  35. solemn
    dignified and somber in manner or character
    “And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, / The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, / The solemn temples, the great globe itself, / Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve / And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, / Leave not a rack behind.”
  36. insubstantial
    lacking material form
    “And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, / The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, / The solemn temples, the great globe itself, / Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve / And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, / Leave not a rack behind.”
  37. pageant
    an elaborate exhibition or procession
    “And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, / The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, / The solemn temples, the great globe itself, / Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve / And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, / Leave not a rack behind.”
  38. magnate
    a very wealthy or powerful businessperson
    Our sources indicate that while Pickett has not been positively identified, authorities believe the body found in an offshoot of the Pogue’s Run tunnel is indeed that of billionaire construction magnate Russell Davis Pickett, Sr.
  39. ether
    a medium that was once thought to fill all space
    You go on, I told myself, and tried through the ether to say it to him, too.
  40. conditional
    imposing or depending on or containing an assumption
    I, a singular proper noun, would go on, if always in a conditional tense.
Created on Thu Jan 11 11:54:44 EST 2018 (updated Tue Apr 09 15:49:37 EDT 2019)

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