Book Review: Special Topics in Calamity Physics

I'm typically a fast reader, but it took me almost 2 months to finish Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. This book is long, a little over 500 pages, & it's a slow read. The author has a unique writing style that I found distracting. She makes up fake citations & puts them all throughout the writing, like 1-2 a paragraph. For 500 pages. I got used to it by the end, but it was a major distraction in the beginning.

The book is about a girl, Blue Van Meer, who's mother dies when she's 5 years old, so she's raised by her father. The story picks up when Blue is 16 & a senior in high school. She falls into a group she calls the "blue bloods", who hang out at a teacher's house every Sunday, eating, drinking, etc. A conspiracy theory of sorts develops about the teacher. Unfortunately, I can't go into it without giving away the ending, but it is an interesting ending. I liked the ending, it was the other other 400 pages I had trouble with. I didn't identify with any of the characters, nor was I ever anxious to pick the book up & find out what happens next.

It's similar to The Secret History by Donna Tartt, but not as good. I just recently read The Secret History, so maybe that's why I didn't like it. I don't know. Read the reviews on Amazon & decide for yourself. I'm not saying it was a bad book, especially since so many of my friends liked it, it just didn't do it for me.