Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl 4/5

[Nicole D.]

Pessl is SUCH a clever writer. I really enjoy her creativity and word play.

This was a really interesting story of a father and daughter who live an itinerant life as they travel around the US, the father as a visiting professor. He's an academic, and somewhat annoying to me, frankly, but that could have been the audio (even though the narrator was good.) But no, I'm pretty sure he was annoying.

After moving his daughter (Blue) around most of her life, he decides she can spend her last year of high school at a single school before she goes off to Harvard. That's where she meets Hannah (a teacher) and the "Blue Bloods" (acolytes of Hannah's) and from there the story goes. The trajectory seems pretty set until it's not.

I was totally engrossed and totally entertained. Would have been a 5-star read if not for ENDLESS quotations (were were part of the dad irritation) and the fact that he called her Sweet like every other sentence and that type of thing really bugs on audio.