People have been telling me I had to read this book ever since it came out. I picked it up once and found the writing to be a little overmuch, too cluttered with metaphors and asides, and I gave up in about 50 pages. The second time I felt the same way, but found that the further I read, the more it was like the narrator was immersing me in her language and I was becoming fluent. And once you reach that level of fluency...! Brilliant, breathtaking, charming, sad, funny, and left me forgetting to breathe again and again. What's funny is, this book is a page-turner. The plot is enthralling, you always want to know what's going to happen next, and the writer seems to almost intentionally want to frustrate the reader in that drive for plot. The narrator is so full of asides and rambling memories--right in the middle of things happening that you sometimes want to shake her--but--but what happens next?! But that is the charm of this precocious narrator with a head full of more books than she knows what to do with and a melancholy past and a claustrophobic present that threaten to engulf her. The end, well, the end left me devastated in a very personal way, as if it happened to me, and in that way, it's hard to call this one of my favorite books, only because it broke my heart. But I'm working on forgiving it. ( )

As a bookseller, I'm very conscious of the fact that different people like different books. My job is to find the right book for the right person, not to try to foist my personal preferences on everyone that walks through the door. And that goes for every book, except Special Topics in Calamity Physics. There's no one that shouldn't read this delightful novel that packs more metaphors per sentence than any other book I've ever read. It took me almost four years to convince my wife to read it all the way through and love it as much as I do, but eventually I did. Over those four years, I've convinced many friends and customers to do the same. I have the rest of my life, to reach the rest of the world with this particular literary evangelist project. That means YOU whoever it is that's reading this. ( )

Really an original book. Never read anything like it. ( )

Blue van Meer and her somewhat eccentric dad live a nomadic life as he jumps between visiting professorships all over the country. Our story takes place during Blue's senior year of high school in North Carolina, when the two actually stay in one place for an entire year. She meets a collection of unusual characters, most notably Hannah Schneider, a film studies teacher at the high school with a somewhat mysterious past. The most memorable and enchanting part of this book is the writing style. Blue's lively narration is rife with intellectual asides, all backed up with MLA-style citations. I kept wondering how many of the references were real. So convinced was I of the legitimacy of the sources that I was rather surprised to discover that the Night Watchmen don't actually exist. I found the plot and the unique storytelling methods delightful. And for the record, I think Blue is 100% correct. (Those who have read the book will know what I mean.)

I listened to this on audiobook. Though the reader (Emily Janice Card) was fantastic, the "visual aids" (illustrations) and other textual ornamentation would have been a nice addition. I picked up a hardcover copy at the library, so I was able to see what I was missing. Card was one of the best female readers I've ever heard; the story would have simply been better to experience as intended. ( )

Not quite the successor to Donna Tartt's The Secret History as promised in the promotional material but certainly a great read with a few surprises. ( )