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Special Topics in Calamity Physics by…
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Special Topics in Calamity Physics (edition 2007)

by Marisha Pessl (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
6,5723041,431 (3.62)340
A darkly funny coming-of-age novel and a richly plotted suspense tale told through the distinctive voice of its heroine, Blue van Meer. After a childhood moving from one academic outpost to another with her father (a man prone to aphorisms and meteoric affairs), Blue is clever, deadpan, and possessed of a vast lexicon of literary, political, philosophical, and scientific knowledge--and is quite the cinéaste to boot. In her final year of high school at the élite (and unusual) St. Gallway School in Stockton, North Carolina, Blue falls in with a charismatic group of friends and their captivating teacher, Hannah Schneider. But when the drowning of one of Hannah's friends and the shocking death of Hannah herself lead to a confluence of mysteries, Blue is left to make sense of it all with only her gimlet-eyed instincts and cultural references to guide--or misguide--her.--From publisher description.… (more)
Member:mzonderm
Title:Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Authors:Marisha Pessl (Author)
Info:Penguin Books (2007), 528 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:***
Tags:fiction, high school, lies, the nightwatchmen

Work Information

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

  1. 172
    The Secret History by Donna Tartt (kmcquage, shellibrary, Littlemissmops)
  2. 40
    The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff (lyzadanger)
    lyzadanger: Precocious young women in small towns.
  3. 30
    The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (kinsey_m)
  4. 20
    The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (zhejw)
    zhejw: I loved both books, but Pessl's is a notch up in language, character development, and plot. Lockhart's is the place for teens to start.
  5. 10
    The Likeness by Tana French (samalots)
    samalots: Also about a group of elite school friends dealing with a mysterious death in their circle
  6. 10
    The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews (SqueakyChu)
    SqueakyChu: Both books offer in-detail insights into life as a young adult when interacting with others.
  7. 00
    Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (beyondthefourthwall)
    beyondthefourthwall: Families that seem close on the surface but under the surface turn out to have a lot of multilayered mysterious secrets.
  8. 22
    The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (krist_ellis)
  9. 00
    The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall (krist_ellis)
  10. 11
    My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman (SqueakyChu)
    SqueakyChu: Both books offer sharp humor offered by a student.
  11. 44
    Likewise: The High School Comic Chronicles of Ariel Schrag by Ariel Schrag (lorax)
  12. 11
    Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson (Mossa)
  13. 11
    I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (Littlemissmops)
  14. 00
    The Idiot by Elif Batuman (beyondthefourthwall)
  15. 01
    Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday (sarahemmm)
    sarahemmm: This is worth trying if you like the unusual format of Pessl's book.
  16. 01
    The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman (Lillydarlene)
    Lillydarlene: The intensity of friendship that comes with being in high school, and with being an isolated group, with a dark secret in the background. Both of these are good if you've read The Secret History and are hungry for a similar feel.
  17. 12
    Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (lycomayflower)
  18. 34
    Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (SqueakyChu)
    SqueakyChu: Both books look at issues encountered by one particular student.
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» See also 340 mentions

English (289)  Dutch (7)  French (5)  Italian (1)  Danish (1)  Norwegian (1)  German (1)  All languages (305)
Showing 1-5 of 289 (next | show all)
The mystery that took shape towards the end of the book was exciting, and I liked all the references to literature. If it had been 200 pages shorter, I would've liked it a lot more. ( )
  LibrarianDest | Jan 3, 2024 |
I'm sure this is one of those books the ending of which many people would swear that they knew by the second chapter, but this sort of reminded me of The Secret History by Donna Tartt, if it was set in a high school instead of a college. There's a lot of teenaged awkwardness, angst, and cruelty, but it never seemed gratuitous to me.

I enjoyed Special Topics a great deal, and I'm eager to look up the works referenced (those that are real). There's a beautiful balance to it illustrating the subtle, subtle gradation between the colors of wisdom, wit, intelligence, and education, with varying uses of the filters of charm, beauty, loneliness, etc. Acknowledgement of bias doesn't necessarily protect one from it, awareness of the power of charm doesn't necessarily keep one from being charmed.

The lack of ultimate resolution is frustrating for me, but I think that's mostly due to the fact that my heaviest influence out of the Western canon is ancient Greek tragedy, in which there are typically punishments for every sin, and some kind of eventual justice. There's very little vindication in Special Topics, but I think part of the point of the story is that vindication is overrated, that knowing the truth is sufficient, and doesn't require being able to prove it to other people.

I'm curious about how I would've felt about the book if I'd read it when I was the same age as Blue Van Meer (impossible, not written at the time), versus how I feel about it now. In my egocentrism, it makes me wonder what precocious teenagers see when they look at us precocious-teenagers-former, what judgment is laid down on us by them. It also makes me wonder, whenever I meet a precocious-teenager-present, which of them are going to make good, and which of them are doomed. ( )
  IsraOverZero | Sep 23, 2023 |
A classic coming of age tale meets a conspiracy theory thriller roughly at its peak and the two spark an entirely new type of story. Compelling and shockingly good. ( )
  settingshadow | Aug 19, 2023 |
DNF. i wanted to like this and on some level it connected with my "inner teenager," i know i would've loved it when i was like 15 - but unfortunately as an adult i just found it insufferable. i also didn't think the main character was particularly fleshed out, she just seemed to constantly define herself in terms of her father and her devotion to him - and i found the father character utterly annoying and frustrating. i got my friend to spoil the ending for me so i do get what she was going for, but it did NOT work for me.
  i. | Jul 24, 2023 |
A quirky, wordy, bookish novel. It started out with a slow but enjoyable build up to. . .a lengthy expositional section that seemed to be lost and wondering just where it belonged. It went off the rails at the end and came to a ho-hum rest that betrayed the reader (me) more than a little given the initial promises made by the author. Wonderfully entertaining, nonetheless, so I couldn't give it less than four stars out of five. ( )
  judeprufrock | Jul 4, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 289 (next | show all)
Her exhilarating synthesis of the classic and the modern, frivolity and fate — “Pnin” meets “The O.C.” — is a poetic act of will. Never mind jealous detractors: virtuosity is its own reward. And this skylarking book will leave readers salivating for more.

 

» Add other authors (10 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Pessl, Marishaprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Card, Emily JaniceNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Devaux, LaetitiaTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Dad always said 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, or Bond—James Bond—you best spend your free time finger painting or playing shuffleboard, for no one, with the exception of your flabby-armed mother with stiff hair and a mashed-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."
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Wikipedia in English (3)

A darkly funny coming-of-age novel and a richly plotted suspense tale told through the distinctive voice of its heroine, Blue van Meer. After a childhood moving from one academic outpost to another with her father (a man prone to aphorisms and meteoric affairs), Blue is clever, deadpan, and possessed of a vast lexicon of literary, political, philosophical, and scientific knowledge--and is quite the cinéaste to boot. In her final year of high school at the élite (and unusual) St. Gallway School in Stockton, North Carolina, Blue falls in with a charismatic group of friends and their captivating teacher, Hannah Schneider. But when the drowning of one of Hannah's friends and the shocking death of Hannah herself lead to a confluence of mysteries, Blue is left to make sense of it all with only her gimlet-eyed instincts and cultural references to guide--or misguide--her.--From publisher description.

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Book description
Special Topics in Calamity Physics, the dazzling debut of Marisha Pessl, is a buoyant combination of comedy, tragedy, mystery, and romance, a story of disturbing secrets and the eccentric high school student who uncovers them. It is a coming-of-age tale and a disturbing mystery. a snapshot of the dark relationship between ideology and violence but also the poignant tale of a young woman learning to stand on her own.
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