Aza Holmes

Aza is the protagonist and first person narrator of Turtles All the Way Down. She is a 16-year-old junior at White River High School in Indianapolis. She lives with her mother, who is a teacher at her high school. Her father is deceased. Aza's best friend is Daisy Ramirez. Aza and Daisy learn of a reward being offered for information related to a missing billionaire, Russel Pickett, at the beginning of the novel and decide to investigate. This investigation reunites Aza with Davis Pickett, the billionaire's son, who Aza first met years prior at a camp for children with a deceased parent. Over the course of the novel, Aza pursues a romantic relationship with Davis Pickett, but it ultimately does not work out because Aza's issues with anxiety preclude intimacy.

The true conflict at the heart of the novel is not related to the investigation into Pickett's...