Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha PesslMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow. This was a rollicking rollercoaster of a ride. The reviewer quoted on the back cover describes Pessl's writing as "literary pyrotechnics"--a very fitting description. This story bangs and pops and fizzes, and just when things go quiet and you think the show's over, there's another BANG!
But it's not just the plot, of course, that explodes. Pessl's writing is everything the critics say--dazzling, witty, inventive, stunning, exuberant, dizzying. It's hard to describe the wild ramblings of the extremely well-read, precocious and methodically intelligent Blue van Meer.
It's a book to keep you up late at night--the insomnia suffered by the narrator, Blue, becomes your insomnia as you go through the details of the story over and over in your mind.
This book will keep you awake at night even after you've finished it, as you try to fit the pieces of the puzzle together into new and more (or less) plausible arrangements. The mystery Pessl has created for Blue to investigate is enduringly seductive.
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