For my final (except my epilogue!) review of the secret society/elite clique murder mystery sub-genre, I am looking at the book that started it all for me: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. It was published in 2006 and I read it in 2009, over a decade ago. I reread it once since then, and will probably read it again at some point.
Blue van Meer has grown up moving around with her academic father. For her senior year, he has taken a job at an elite high school. Blue gets involved with a clique of precocious, pretentious, and dangerous teens who are largely unsupervised, just as Blue also lacks any real parental involvement. The group’s only real adult supervision is one of their teachers, Hannah, who encourages their poor behavior. Things eventually go awry, a murder occurs, and Blue learns a thing or two that certainly surprised me as the reader. It is definitely a coming of age story. This basic outline is why so many cried out that the book copies The Secret History plot. It certainly seems to be informed and inspired by it, but the two books are still different enough, for me.
Furthermore, to go off on a tangent for a moment…to my knowledge, The Secret History spawned an entire sub-genre. All the books I have reviewed thus far owe something to Donna Tarrt, unless there is an earlier book that I am not aware of that inspired The Secret History. But there has always been the first person who wrote a romance, or a horror novel, or a sci fi book. It’s easy to get caught up in yelling copycat, but do people complain about this with all the many, many police procedurals out there? There’s a formula for a genre, and Donna Tarrt established both a sub-genre and its formula with her book. For that reason alone, it’s probably worth reading.
Anyway. Back to Special Topics. Here’s what is great about it. In a word – atmosphere. This book and The Likeness, previously reviewed, are probably the best in the sub-genre at creating a dark vibe that envelops the reader. I felt the whole time I was reading it like I was on the brink of something spooky and sinister. The atmosphere Pessl is able to create is excellent, and was better than The Secret History, for me. A book that makes you feel something is always better than a book that is merely interesting.
However, I soon got annoyed with her constant references to other literature, and by halfway through just skimmed those parts. What started out as a distracting, but interesting, characterization device eventually just seemed like the author’s way of saying “hey look how well-read I am.” It was just too much. Tarrt also plays with literary devices in The Secret History, but she is more subtle about it. Pessl hits you over the head with it. And then kicks you. And, just to be sure you are listening, she then throws it in your face. Unfortunately it made what was otherwise a really interesting and well written book, a somewhat irritating read at times.
Again, like Tarrt’s writing, the writing in Special Topics moved really slowly, but I liked it. It added to the buildup of tension. Despite all the similarities to The Secret History, there is still enough in the plot to feel original and I didn’t always know what was going to happen next, nor did I predict the ending, which is a rare surprise. Overall it was fun to read, and sparked my interest in this sub-genre, so it will always hold a special place in my mind!
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