 Pessl's parents divorced when she was three, and she moved to Asheville, North Carolina with her mother and sister.Pessl had an intellectually stimulating upbringing, recalling that her mother read "a fair chunk of the Western canon out loud" to her and her sister before bed, and entered her in lessons for riding, painting, jazz, and French.She was also a fan of "The Chronicles of Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time," and the "Nancy Drew" books"."