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After a childhood moving from one academic outpost to another with her father (a man prone to aphorisms and meteoric affairs), Blue is clever, deadpan, and possessed of a vast lexicon of literary, political, philosophical, and scientific knowledge—and is quite the cineaste to boot. In her final year of high school at the elite (and unusual) St. Gallway School in Stockton, North Carolina, Blue falls in with a charismatic group of friends and their captivating teacher, Hannah Schneider. But when the drowning of one of Hannah's friends and the shocking death of Hannah herself lead to a confluence of mysteries, Blue is left to make sense of it all with only her gimlet-eyed instincts and cultural references to guide—or misguide—her. Special Topics in Calamity Physics is a darkly hilarious coming-of-age novel and a richly plotted suspense tale told through the distinctive voice of its heroine, Blue van Meer.
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I wanted to enjoy this book...
But honestly, I'm surprised I even bothered finishing it. I'm disappointed
Don't get me wrong. It's beautifully written. And books under the genre of Dark Academia is usually slow to get into, but this book was pushing it. There was just so much going on, the references made minimal sense to me, and frankly, about half of this book could have been edited out without changing the story.
I liked the characters--found them fascinating--but I could not get attached to any of them.
I may give this book another shot, though. I really had hopes for this and I think that if I were to read it when less is going on in my life, I would enjoy it more.