History Literature / SpecialTopicsInCalamityPhysics

BarefootLoon: Hannah is eccentric, and one of her pecularities is a penchant for going barefoot.

* ArcWords: "[[spoiler:The Nightwatchmen.]]"

* {{Butterfly Of Death And Rebirth}}: Blue's deceased mother collects them.
* ComingOfAgeStory
* CoolTeacher: Hannah is this, overlapping with EccentricMentor.
* DoesNotLikeShoes[=/=]BarefootLoon: Hannah is eccentric, and one of her pecularities is a penchant for going barefoot.
* EccentricMentor: Hannah Schneider is an eccentric teacher who has a profound impact on the Bluebloods' lives.

The debut novel of Marisha Pessl.

* LeftFieldDescription: Abundant, even for the most minor of characters.

* {{Well Excuse Me Princess}}: Jade is a spoiled brat and often insults Blue, but while drunk tells her that Blue is the only Blueblood she actually really likes.

* QuoteToQuoteCombat: Blue and Gareth argue via literary quotes over whether she should tell the police her suspicions about the Nightwatchmen. She ends by quoting Gareth back at him.

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: A variation: [[spoiler:A few of the reasons of the reasons Blue thinks her dad and Hannah slept together at some point include things like Hannah's use of the simile "like butterflies" in a suspicious context, her fondness for the film ''L'Aventura'', and other things which she describes as "her father's fingerprints".]]

* {{Embarrassing Tattoo}}: Milton has one.

* MocksteryTale: The book is about a young woman describing the events that led up to her finding her teacher dead in an apparent suicide. Throughout the story, several hints that the death was in fact murder and that a conspiracy may be involved are dropped, and the narrator forms a theory, but she can't prove anything and the novel turns out to be more of a psychological drama and a coming-of-age story. It is really indicative that the book has references to the movie ''Film/LAvventura'', which is a classic of this trope.
** WordOfGod says that there is a definite solution but the author won't say which one it is.
* NoEnding: Played with; see RiddleForTheAges. Also [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] as the ending of the film ''L'Aventura''.

* {{Riddle For The Ages}}: Whether Blue solved the mystery or not, as well as the answers to many other unanswered questions, is left up to the reader. Literally--the end of the book is [[spoiler:a multiple choice exam, which presents the reader with a number of different conclusions to various mysteries]].

* {{Homage}}: Is both an homage and a deconstruction of Donna Tartt's ''Literature/TheSecretHistory''. Tartt's work is all about an elitist circle of students centering around a charismatic teacher. In Pessl's work, it begins the same way, but their elitism is nothing more than pretense; after the teacher's death, Blue breaks up with the rest of the Bluebloods, and it becomes more about the protagonist's investigation and relations with her father.

->''Sometimes it takes more courage not to let yourself see. Sometimes knowledge is damaging - not enlightenment but ''enleadenment''.''

* {{Well Excuse Me Princess}}: Jade is a spoiled brat and often insults Blue, but while drunk tells her that Blue is the only Blueblood she actually really likes.

* {{Hot Dad}}: Blue's father Gareth is very handsome and charming as well as a serial womanizer.

After moving across America for years, her charismatic and intensely educated father the only constant in her life, Blue van Meer finally gets to spend a solid year in a single town to finish high school. A mysterious teacher, Hannah Schneider, bumps into her and her father while they're shopping before school starts. She strikes up a conversation with them, and soon after invites Blue into the Bluebloods, a group of assorted children she invites to dinner every weekend. Soon, Blue is drawn into intrigue both personal and political.

* {{Hot Dad}}: Blue's father Gareth has no problem attracting women, and is even something of a womanizer.

* {{Riddle For The Ages}}: Whether Blue solved the mystery or not, as well as the answers to many other unanswered questions, is left up to the reader. Literally--the end of the book is [[spoiler:a multiple choice exam, which both connects some of the dots (or not--again, as you choose) and offers some potential looks at what happened to characters afterwards]].

* BrickJoke: Several. For instance, early on, Blue mentions that she thinks it would be romantic if someone whispered pi to 65 decimals places into her ear. At the end of the book, [[spoiler:one of the multiple choice answers includes "

* EverybodyLies

->''Sometimes it takes more courage not to let yourself see. Sometimes knowledge is damaging - not enlightenment but ->enleadenment.''
-->--— Marisha Pessl ''Special Topics in Calamity Physics''
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This book was written in 2006 by Marisha Pessl. At over 500 pages the hardcover version is something of a {{Doorstopper}}. It draws on a wide variety of cultural references as the main character, a teenager named Blue Van Meer, gets drawn somewhat against her will into a close knit group of school mates called the Bluebloods. Towards the end of the book a tragedy that was alluded to in the beginning occurs, and Blue tries desperately to solve the mystery surrounding it.

* ArcWords: [[spoiler:The Nightwatchmen.]]
* {{Riddle For The Ages}}: Whether Blue solved the mystery or not, as well as the answers to many other unanswered questions, is left up to the reader. Literally--the end of the book is [[spoiler:a multiple choice exam, which both connects some of the dots (or not--again, as you choose) and offers some potential looks at what happened to characters afterwards]].
* {{Embarrassing Tattoo}}: One of the male Bluebloods has one.
* {{Hot Dad}}: Blue's father Gareth has no problem attracting women, and is even something of a womanizer.
* {{Parental Abandonment}}: Jade's mother leaves her to be raised by servants. Blue's mother dies before the book starts.

* {{Femme Fatale}}: Blue's teacher, Hannah Schneider

* {{Riddle For The Ages}}: It is ultimately up to the reader to determine if Blue solved the mystery or not.