Reviews - Vita Nostra | The StoryGraph

2.75k reviews for:

Vita Nostra

Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko

4.02 AVERAGE

meguet's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ahhhhhhlexa's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Such interesting world building and unique writing which forces you to ready it so slowly, so dense and weird and mysterious. Even with only comprehending like 85% of this story I was still sat.

sdonahue9's review against another edition

4.75

challenging reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

qog's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

ejrathke's review against another edition

4.0

This is a novel of high highs and low lows but I do think it overall succeeds. It has a premise that may make you think of Harry Potter or Lev Grossman's The Magicians trilogy. And it does share elements with those! A girl goes to a magic college.

But magic here is so much weirder and wilder and more dangerous. There's a sinister, antihuman element to all this, which is fascinating. I like a lot about this novel. So much of it works in such delirious and weird ways that it all threatens to collapse in upon itself.

But I also don't know that I want to read the next one. It's a strange novel in both good and bad ways.

mikarala's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Pretty dull overall. Frankly, I didn't care about the mystery of the school and what the students are being trained for that much. Sasha's perspective is so detached and blindly accepting that it sorts of sucks all the intrigue out of the narrative. That characterization also made it really hard for me to be interested in her journey and challenges at all. I'm not sure if it's a translation issue or that the original was lacking the same tension, but to me it nullified whatever interesting elements could have existed in the story.