Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, 2006

Blue van Meer, a smart 16-year-old, spends her senior year at a private school. She attracts the attention of Hannah Schneider, the film studies teacher, who invites her into the Bluebloods, a clique of five snobbish seniors. They strip van Meer out of her intellectual and social cocoon (they give van Meer her first cocktails, and after she throws up, they nickname her “Wretch” and “Hurl”). It’s a coming-of-age story, except it’s less coming into the new and more leaving the old behind. As the Bluebloods run van Meer through the wringer, Schneider becomes more erratic and the story starts becoming a horror-thriller. Schneider leads the Bluebloods on a over-night camping trip. Schneider takes van Meer deep into the woods, where they get spooked by something. Schneider goes after the something, and van Meer goes after Schneider. She finds Schneider dead, hanging by the neck (this is not a spoiler; van Meer mentions it on the first page).Now the story becomes a mystery. The police rule suicide, but van Meer believes it’s murder. van Meer goes to the police to present her views, and the detective in charge gives her a convincing justification for suicide. Nevertheless, van Meer conducts an investigation, and the story diverts into conspiracy theory. As expected van Meer spirals down the rabbit hole until an event (which would be a spoiler if revealed) shocks her out of her pursuit. Then the story swerves back to coming-of-age with van Meer’s graduation, in which she delivers a cynical valedictory in the Blueblood character (which she no longer is because Schneider is no longer there to plead van Meer’s case with them).

The writing is pyrotechnic in style and plot, often to no good effect, but it’s tricky because the book is presented as van Meer’s autobiography written while she’s a first-year student at Harvard. It’s not Pessl’s writing, but Pessl’s writing as van Meer’s writing. Pessl also illustrated Special Topics in Calamity Physics, which, perhaps unfortunately, brings to mind Cyra McFadden, who, I don’t think, did the illustrations for her story.