2006 book 109

Marisha Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics
I thought I would hate this book--the few reviews I read kept comparing it to Jonathan Safran Foer, and talked about how it was organized like a lit class syllabus, and they all made it sound so pretentious and annoying. Guess what! It's not like that at all. It's just a novel and all the chapter titles are titles of great books (and the chapters sort of tie in with the books thematically, but really the story flows and you can read it and enjoy it without even noticing the chapter titles). In case you can't tell, I really liked this book. It's narrated by Blue, the daughter of a professor who's moved her from place to place over the years since the death of her mother. For her senior year of high school, she ends up in Western NC (Pessl lives in Asheville) and falls in with the school's film teacher and her chosen favorite students. Honestly, I don't get why this novel is compared to Foer's work; the first half of it is way more reminiscent of Donna Tartt or Daniel Handler (the whole group of kids with slightly sinister undertones thing). Sure, Blue is precocious, but she's been raised by an academic who is set on sending her to Harvard, so I found her quoting of texts entirely believable and within character.

Anyway! A death occurs and the last part of the book is taken up with Blue trying to unravel some mysteries. Things twist and turn all over the place and it's pretty frigging awesome. This is definitely a contender for my top books of the year list. I might even have to buy it!