Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Registered by 
Apechild
of York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on 8/18/2008
This book is in a Controlled Release!
Apechild of York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on 8/18/2008 This book is in a Controlled Release!
1 journaler for this copy...
Got this in a swap for The Fat Woman's Joke on www.readitswapit.co.uk.
I finished reading this book this evening. It is a long one, at 500 pages long, and people could be forgiven for giving up part way through. It is sold as a murder mystery: The big print line on the back cover states "She found her teacher dead - hanging by a piece of electrical cord"... this doesn´t happen until 300 pages in.
I had heard somewhere - I forget now - that this was a great book. I have to admit that through all of part one, I really didn´t like it, but I stuck with it. The pace never picked up, but after the murder-suicide, it really got interesting and I was completely hooked.
The narrator is American teenager Blue Van de Meer, who has lived in countless towns with her father who is always changing university lecturer jobs. I am not big on teenagers, so it took a while for me to get going with this. Plus, it comes off as distinctly intellectually snobbish. This constant referencing to other books (as if it were an essay) and the naming of chapters after literature show that Blue has had nothing constant in her life apart from the books and learning from her father - we get it - but that with the comments and attitudes of father and daughter to other people did make them unsympathetic and cold characters. Got to admit I never liked her father in this book. Blue did grow on me, and at the end I did feel really sorry for her.
She is befriended by a very odd teacher at the school, Hannah, who is a single woman who hangs out with a group of five arrogant and odd teenagers from Blue´s new school. The five other teenagers are pushed into being friends with Blue by Hannah, but they never really like it.
And there is just a lot of this school life, with long, wordy conversations like this is The Gilmore Girls or something. Making you think this is just a teenage saga... although I suspect there were plenty of clues along the way. Then the murder-suicide happens and things get really interesting.
I am glad I stuck with it and that I have now read it because I do - despite the gripes - think it is a good book.
I had heard somewhere - I forget now - that this was a great book. I have to admit that through all of part one, I really didn´t like it, but I stuck with it. The pace never picked up, but after the murder-suicide, it really got interesting and I was completely hooked.
The narrator is American teenager Blue Van de Meer, who has lived in countless towns with her father who is always changing university lecturer jobs. I am not big on teenagers, so it took a while for me to get going with this. Plus, it comes off as distinctly intellectually snobbish. This constant referencing to other books (as if it were an essay) and the naming of chapters after literature show that Blue has had nothing constant in her life apart from the books and learning from her father - we get it - but that with the comments and attitudes of father and daughter to other people did make them unsympathetic and cold characters. Got to admit I never liked her father in this book. Blue did grow on me, and at the end I did feel really sorry for her.
She is befriended by a very odd teacher at the school, Hannah, who is a single woman who hangs out with a group of five arrogant and odd teenagers from Blue´s new school. The five other teenagers are pushed into being friends with Blue by Hannah, but they never really like it.
And there is just a lot of this school life, with long, wordy conversations like this is The Gilmore Girls or something. Making you think this is just a teenage saga... although I suspect there were plenty of clues along the way. Then the murder-suicide happens and things get really interesting.
I am glad I stuck with it and that I have now read it because I do - despite the gripes - think it is a good book.
Journal Entry 3 by Apechild at readitswapit.co.uk, A book trading site -- Controlled Releases on Friday, August 21, 2009
Apechild at readitswapit.co.uk, A book trading site -- Controlled Releases on Friday, August 21, 2009
Released 14 yrs ago (8/22/2009 UTC) at readitswapit.co.uk, A book trading site -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Am swapping this back on www.readitswapit.co.uk for The Colour Purple. This book is now on its way to Faringdon.
Am swapping this back on www.readitswapit.co.uk for The Colour Purple. This book is now on its way to Faringdon.
