Special Topics in Calamity Physics By Marisha Pessl

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“Dad always said that a person must have a magnificent reason for writing out his or her Life Story and expecting anyone to read it. Unless your name is something along the lines of Mozart, Matisse, Churchill, Che Guevara or Bond – James Bond – you best spend your time finger painting or playing shuffleboard, for no one, with the exception of your flabby-armed mother with stiff hairs and a mash-potato way of looking at you, will want to hear the particulars of your pitiable existence, which doubtlessly will end as it began – with a wheeze.”

Despite this advice from her father, Blue van Meer has ample cause to write her memoirs at the age of just 18. Like every good Disney heroine, Blue lost her mother at a young age. Unlike Belle and Jasmine however, Blue spends her time traveling from town to town with her itinerant professor father, who ensures she is well versed in both classics and pop culture.

Blue and her father Gareth start over again, this time in Stockton , North Carolina . At the elite St. Gallaway School, Blue is drawn into the private circle of enigmatic film teacher Hannah Schneider. Just when she is beginning to feel comfortable with her new friends and herself, Hannah is brutally murdered. Blue's search for her killer will shatter every illusion she has about her life and the people in it.

With Special Topics, Marisha Pessl debuts her first novel. To mirror Blue's background in academia, the book is set up like a college syllabus – each chapter named for a great work of literature. Pessl is dark, witty, and possibly the most well read woman under 30. Special Topics in Calamity Physics is not for the average reader. But the reader looking for an unapologetically honest narrator with a haunting story and ready wit will find their name all over this book.