Special Topics In Calamity Physics :: Marisha Pessl
668 pages, Penguin Books, 2006, Paperback

I was NOT going to let this book get the better of me. I hung on for dear life, carting this heavyweight around in my bags for nearly 2 months. I endured some rather rotten characters in the first 434 pages to only have those characters nearly disappear in the remaining pages. So much for getting attached to some people I had grown to really dislike.

I kept asking myself as I turned each page, "What's the point in all this?" And after just finishing the book a scant 10 minutes ago, I have to say, "Nothing." Except for a couple of incidents that happen in the first two-thirds that shed some light on the last few chapters, everything is expendable. Pessl's freshman effort could use with some drastic editing, if not for the book's benefit, than at least for the sake of her readers. The last 200 pages zipped along with a couple of twists I rather enjoyed though you can see them coming as the plot slowly unravels. But goodness! Getting to that point where you can actually start enjoying it, is SO tedious.

Go to Amazon to read a synopsis, I'm too fed-up with this book to write more than this: Girl and father move to a new town, to a new school, girl makes unlikely new friends, girl finds body of her teacher, loses friends, then uncovers an underground, near-legendary revolutionary group with links close to home.

Recommended only if you're going to be marooned on a desert island.

Now gratefully reading: An Alphabetical Life by Wendy Werris.

Labels: Books, Bookshelf