oh . . .it's good

I was up past midnight finishing a fantastic read - I don't often blog about books - even though a read one or two a week - but this is one I have to tell you about. Nana found it first and knew I'd love it. Take The Secret History by Donna Tartt, mix it with Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov and finish it with The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and you've got Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. Oh . . . it's good. Told by high school senior Blue Van Meer who moves continually around the country with her professor father, you know right away that someone dies and you get the smacking huge 500+ pager to find out how and why. It's a lot to get through but as soon as I hit the final third, I couldn't stop. I felt somewhat smart in figuring a few things out but also got that totally satisfying feeling of being shocked by the author as well.
The author - Marisha Pessl is a young Barnard graduate who also illustrates the book. She also has a lovely - if pesky loading - Web site to preview the book http://www.calamityphysics.com/main.htm