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A review by sarahanne8382
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
3.0
I'm feeling a little guilty because it seems like nearly everyone is either in love with this book or hates Marisha Pessl because she's hot. I fall into neither category. Yes, she's attractive, but that doesn't make me hate her, but I'm also pretty sure I didn't love her book.
Special Topics in Calamity Physics suffers from the opposite of Spiderman 3 syndrome (too many stories, not enough time) and instead took too long to tell what what actually turned out to be a fairly concise story. For at least 300 pages it sounds like a more erudite version of Mean Girls. The narrator, 16-year-old high school senior Blue Van Meer finds herself for the first time attending the same school for an entire year (her father has spent most of her life criss-crossing the country as a visiting professor of political science). Due to the interest of the alluring film teacher, Hannah Schneider, Blue is initiated into the Bluebloods, the social elite of St. Galway School, but of course struggles adjusting to this new way of life.
As the only child of a widowed professor, Blue is almost ridiculously academic (but in an endearing way), outlining her story like a syllabus, naming each chapter after a major literary work (Shakespeare's Othello begins it and Ovid's Metamorphoses ends it), as well as exhaustively referencing the sources of academic as well as popular culture that influence her. This is all fine and used pretty effectively in quick asides throughout the book. However there are also several occasions where Blue goes into lecture mode, expounding on obscure tales of academia only to tangentially connect to the current action of the story several pages later.
Finally, two-thirds of the way into this 582 page book (I actually had to finish on the 927 large print version after the first copy I checked out from the library was recalled), we discover the real story - a murder mystery that finally uncovers the clouded past of more than one person in Blue's life. However, this has very little to do with the first two-thirds of story that deals so well with Blue's struggles to attempt become part of a social fabric outside of the exclusive Van Meer family (Blue & her dad). Instead, this plot is essentially dropped and Blue seems resigned to always be "the new kid" who never stays in one place long enough to fit in.
I loved getting to know Blue, but you never really get to know any of the other characters in the book, other than as quick caricatures. It felt awful to leave this girl who's perpetually alone (while she & her dad have plenty of intellectual in-jokes, it's clear from the beginning that emotions are something he considers himself above) with no equally fleshed out character of equal depth so that she could finally have a real, true friend.
Quick Take: Starts off as high-school social drama, finally reveals itself to be a dark, political murder mystery - all the pieces are good and interesting, but the whole is bloated and not very compelling - needs considerable editing in the beginning and better development of the ending
Special Topics in Calamity Physics suffers from the opposite of Spiderman 3 syndrome (too many stories, not enough time) and instead took too long to tell what what actually turned out to be a fairly concise story. For at least 300 pages it sounds like a more erudite version of Mean Girls. The narrator, 16-year-old high school senior Blue Van Meer finds herself for the first time attending the same school for an entire year (her father has spent most of her life criss-crossing the country as a visiting professor of political science). Due to the interest of the alluring film teacher, Hannah Schneider, Blue is initiated into the Bluebloods, the social elite of St. Galway School, but of course struggles adjusting to this new way of life.
As the only child of a widowed professor, Blue is almost ridiculously academic (but in an endearing way), outlining her story like a syllabus, naming each chapter after a major literary work (Shakespeare's Othello begins it and Ovid's Metamorphoses ends it), as well as exhaustively referencing the sources of academic as well as popular culture that influence her. This is all fine and used pretty effectively in quick asides throughout the book. However there are also several occasions where Blue goes into lecture mode, expounding on obscure tales of academia only to tangentially connect to the current action of the story several pages later.
Finally, two-thirds of the way into this 582 page book (I actually had to finish on the 927 large print version after the first copy I checked out from the library was recalled), we discover the real story - a murder mystery that finally uncovers the clouded past of more than one person in Blue's life. However, this has very little to do with the first two-thirds of story that deals so well with Blue's struggles to attempt become part of a social fabric outside of the exclusive Van Meer family (Blue & her dad). Instead, this plot is essentially dropped and Blue seems resigned to always be "the new kid" who never stays in one place long enough to fit in.
I loved getting to know Blue, but you never really get to know any of the other characters in the book, other than as quick caricatures. It felt awful to leave this girl who's perpetually alone (while she & her dad have plenty of intellectual in-jokes, it's clear from the beginning that emotions are something he considers himself above) with no equally fleshed out character of equal depth so that she could finally have a real, true friend.
Quick Take: Starts off as high-school social drama, finally reveals itself to be a dark, political murder mystery - all the pieces are good and interesting, but the whole is bloated and not very compelling - needs considerable editing in the beginning and better development of the ending