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Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Special Topics in Calamity Physics is narrated by Blue van Meer, recalling the events of her senior year of high school. At the age of 16, she's already been in 24 different schools. Her father is an itinerant visiting political science professor, traveling from school to school. Most of Blue's memories are involved with long car trips with her father. He promises to stay in one place for her senior year, and Blue attends preppy St. Gallway School in North Carolina. She falls in with a small clique called the Bluebloods, which is led by the flighty film teacher, Hannah Schneider. Blue is captivated by Hannah, feeling the tight bonds with her father loosen in the process. After a Blueblood camping trip goes wrong, Hannah is found hanged from a tree. Blue sets out to find the truth and doesn't believe it was really a suicide. Marisha Pessl's debut novel has received mostly positive reviews with Salon.com saying, "Special Topics, for all its overeager freshman infelicities, is a real novel, one of substance and breadth, with an arresting story and that rarest of delights, a great ending."