Book Review - Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Special Topics in Calamity Physics Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl



My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars

My friend Stacey loaned me this book after raving about it and telling me she thought I would really enjoy it. I approached it with skepticism since I can't trust her judgment since she said Kushiel's Dart was fantastic and I couldn't get past the first 50 pages.

I have to give props to her intuition on this one, though. The story revolves around Blue Van Meer and the events of her Senior year in high school. Traumatic events as she discovers a favorite teacher hung in the woods. That's not a spoiler, btw.

Raised by a nomadic, academic Dad, Blue is incredibly well read and versed in culture. So much so that she relates to everything that happens as a reference to a book, film and other publications. Told from the first person, Blue provides splendid description with literary references - footnote like entries that further flesh out the story.

At 500 pages long, this isn't a quick read and it did take me a while to get into it. However, I finished the last 250 pages in one sitting because I wanted so much to know the end of the tale

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