A review by contre_qui
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

One of the biggest points in the blurb (
Hannah dying
) takes 300+ pages to actually happen. Blue, the main character, is classist, racist, and has a heavy superiority complex. This would have been a great place to examine the racism and classism of academia, but Blue never has to face up to her prejudices and she just keeps on living the way she has been. The ending is ambiguous, but not in a good way. It felt lazy and unfinished, and the weird conspiracy theory ending was just annoying. It didn't seem to fit with any of the build-up from the rest of the book. A shocking plot twist is not a good plot twist. Plot twists should have some basis/foreshadowing in the rest of the book, and this one did not. It was simply there for cheap shock value. Blue was a wholly unlikeable character, and I found her narration pretentious at best. This had so much potential, but it was just awful.
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