Reddit reviews Special Topics in Calamity Physics

It's from a crazy novel called Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

One of the best literary works I've read recently is Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. While reading it, I felt like Pessl was setting out to write her Great American Novel. In my opinion, she did about as well as could be expected.

The protagonist is a plucky, wise-beyond-her-years high school girl who forms a bond with one of her (very eccentric) teachers. Something horrible happens, and our heroine suddenly finds herself having to uncover some very well-hidden secrets.

It's best to go in not knowing too much. Pessl's style can be jarring at first, as she crams in literary references on nearly every single page, if not more often. The book is definitely worth your time either way, though. Highly recommended.

[Marisha Pessl Special topics in Calamity Physics http://www.amazon.com/Special-Topics-Calamity-Physics-Marisha/dp/0143112120/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371423506&sr=8-2&keywords=marisha+pessl]

It's a completely different style of writing and storytelling, but you might be interested in Bret Easton Ellis's Rules of Attraction which also is set at fictional Hampden/Camden University (and includes a couple of wry asides about "that weird group of Classics majors" on campus). But mainly it's just the story of a love triangle between people who do too many drugs and sleep around a lot. Though it does some interesting things with narrative -- several alternating first-person pov's, all of whom are unreliable narrators.

Edit: Also consider Brideshead Revisited by Waugh. It's the prototype of the "college novel" that influenced almost every novel since then with a university setting. No murders or bacchanals, but a good character study with plenty of dipsomania. Also, the character of Charles in TSH is completely borrowed from this book.

Oh, and Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl is very reminiscent -- perhaps a little too much so -- of TSH.

I enjoyed Special Topics in Calamity Physics a lot. One of the first really well written and clever books I read and appreciated as a teenager. A bunch of hidden events/themes/symbols too, which makes it worth a read twice-over.

I read A Prayer for Own Meany and All Quiet On the Western Front for the same 10th grade English, both of which were great as well.

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Humor, Pathos, Metaphysics and the citadel that's junior high (or secondary school)

Another:

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marissa Pessl

Evocative of Skippy in a lot of ways - leans more toward the female reader - which might appeal to your lady

Both fantastic books