Girls, Before You Read The New Marisha Pessl, Try Reading The Old One!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           There are two things I want to say, up front, about my second reading of "Special Topics In Calamity Physics."  The first is that it holds up extremely well.  The second is that Pessl, and future writers, owe a debt of gratitude to Donna Tartt, for having patented, back in 1992, the Intellectual Murder Mystery, via her signature work, "The Secret History," which made Pessl's book and Tana French's "The Likeness" possible.  Because all three use the same structure--an exclusive school, with a group of academically promising students circling around a charismatic, unconventional teacher on the faculty.  While I am not going to hold my breath, I do wonder who will be the next writer to use this technique.  And whether or not Donna
Tartt should start collecting commissions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                              Structure is key to Pessl's book, and for those who thrive on it, and on academia, it is just perfect.  Its chapter headings are each titles of famous literary works; so that that the whole thing is set up like the syllabus for an AP English class.  And within each chapter something happens that makes it fit the title.  The trick is finding out.  If you have never taken AP English, or read the masterworks cited, you might find this rough going--or you may be stimulated to read the works in question.
I know there were one or two even I have not read, and I am bound and determined to--one of them is an Agatha Christie work.

                                                Blue Van Meer, the brilliant AP high school senior, and her equally brilliant, if psychologically erratic, professor father, Gareth,  are the lead players.  Hannah Schneider, who teachers Intro To Film. at Blue's school, with Antonioni's "L'Avventura" key to both the course and the book, and five other students--Nigel, Jade, Lula, Zach and Charles--with whom she becomes conjoined  There is a camping trip, and something unfortunate happens to Hannah.  The rest of the novel has Blue trying not only to ravel the
mystery of what happened, but, in the process, discovering truths about her own life that are enough to leave one permanently disillusioned, but in Blue's case, seem to set her free.  She is one of fiction's more able and
resourceful teens, which is why one does not fear for her at the end--she will be just fine.

                                                  However, unlike Donna Tartt, Pessl leaves the question of whodunit open ended.  I, for one, cannot fathom an answer, though there is equal weight for two potential suspects, but not
precisely enough evidence on each to prosecute them.  So Pessl leaves it up to the reader.

                                                     You will have to tell me, girls, when you read the book!   Over tea, with cakes and dainties, of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!