Special Topics in Calamity Physics

What to say about this book? Maybe the best thing to say is I rated it two stars because I liked it but only in the sense that I didn't absolutely hate it.

Having read Pessl's [b:Night Film|18770398|Night Film|Marisha Pessl|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397425352s/18770398.jpg|15182838] before I read this, I did notice a pattern of open-endedness to her work. Many things left unanswered by the author so that the reader's own mind fills in the blanks. But where Night Film offered up identifiable characters that I felt connected to, thus, making me want to fill in the blanks, I was just left not caring enough about Blue or anyone else in Special Topics to bother thinking that hard about it. ( )

I liked Blue, the main character, because she was extraordinary. I don't aim to read about people like ourselves, living ordinary, everyday lives- I read to have adventures. For right now, when I am the same age as Blue, it was lovely to see her senior year unfold, to read about something so fantastically implausible.
It was not a perfect book. I found Pessl's style hard to adjust to, so I spent the first few chapters feeling like I should put down this book and go read a classic. But eventually Blue's obsessive citing grew on me. Her narration was entirely in character, as she tried to categorize and organize the experiences she had, just like her father organized his life into college semesters.
I also felt pity for most of the characters at the end. There was not a single character that was not pathetic at some point in the book. But this also reflects life, and was valuable for that. I liked this book; it has earned a place on my shelf. ( )

Ambitious, cartwheeling, careening -- this novel is like a bullet train that has no stops. The author uses a lot of devices - including citation that can be real but mmost of the time refers to fictional sources. The rate of the use of this device is breathtaking. I couldn't believe that Pessl was able to keep it up. Alothough the sheer number of citations can't help but slow the plot they do add quite a bit once I was able to surrender myself to the fact they were just going to keep appearing. Sometimes its just an small chuckle, usually when a citation to some kid of nature related book is used to underline the appearance of behaviour of a character - sometimes they are used to underline or make something clearer. (not that you could actually look up the citation - but the name of the book cited is sometimes revealing enough. Anyway, this book just rolls. It is like one of those small rocks that starts an avalanche. There is no way to know it isn't more than the story of a girl in highschool but it morphs and morphs until the plot has taken so many sharp turns its hard to believe where you end up. Anyway, I liked it-ish. It wasn't an easy read for me. It was really dense. But - even though it took me three weeks to get through - and sometimes I was swearing at it. I think it is really masterfully done. I'd love to read it with other people, but I do think I will go through it again one day - I think there would be a lot to get out of it on a subsequent read. ( )

I honestly don't have a full picture of what I think of this book. I know it took my forever to read, I know I lugged through it at times (those fucking see insert book here page whatever drove me INSANE. They were incredibly annoying and caused me to skip over a lot) and I still have no real clear view what I think happened in the end. I think....the idea was nothing new, but it was interesting, the characters had potential and I WANTED to like it. I think it was longer (and more pretentious, esp like I said those fucking inserts) than it needed to be. There was a lot of story where nothing was happening, information you just didn't need. The end felt rushed after almost 400 pages of slow going. I don't know, I didn't actually hate it, but I guess I'm still making up my mind. ( )

A complex narrative that requires patience and commitment to fully grasp the plot and its many deviances. Pessl has a gift with words and, this book being her debut, I'm impressed with her talent.

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