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Jun 21, 2016danielestes rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Blue van Meer isn't all that different from other teenage girls, other than she's exceptionally smart and has lived in far too many places for someone so young. Her father, Gareth van Meer, is an eccentric and affably lovable presence in Blue's life, who, as a restless college professor, routinely accepts new job positions all across the country. This is why Blue is so well-traveled, but she adores her father so it's a comfortable arrangement. (Blue's mother passed away a decade before.) On the cusp of finishing high school but nevertheless starting out anew once again—this time it's at the St. Gallway School in Stockton, North Carolina—Blue falls in with a questionable clique of friends who call themselves the Bluebloods. Through them she is introduced to the curious and socially unwieldy Hannah Schneider, a film teacher at the school, whose relationship with the Bluebloods is more like a permissive older sibling than as an authority figure. And, little does Blue know, her life is about to be forever changed. Unlike most books I finish, persevering through Special Topics in Calamity Physics was a hard-earned effort. Marisha Pessl has composed a complex narrative comprised of nuanced character development, ostentatiously long sentences and a smattering of cultural references, often directly cited, scattered about like sprinkles on a cake. And, I didn't check, are any of the citations made up? A few seem like inside jokes. Some readers may be turned off by the book's overt cleverness, but it grew on me. Like I said, hard-earned. It was as if I could feel my reading skill leveling up after each chapter. By the end, the story coalesced so unexpectedly that I now consider it one of my all-time favorites. Side note: Randomly, while I was about 2/3rds of the way through, I picked up and skimmed a few pages from another novel. It was an average paperback for the masses, but since I was already heavily immersed in Marisha Pessl's world, the variation in quality between the two was jarring. The difference was like tasting a fine Cabernet Sauvignon vs chugging a grape juice soda.