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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
Read it, didn’t understand it. I was interested at first in where it was going but it didn’t come together in the end for me. Very repetitive in the middle but without the payoff for me at the end.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I stayed up until 2 am to finish this book. It's so engrossing, and I'm quite sad it's over. I've already started the second novel, and am sad it will eventually come to an end.
I have a tendency to get too wrapped up in a stories formula often bothered by predictability. When I'm enthralled, it's usually by beautiful and/or unique prose and character development. Vita Nostra is unlike anything I've read before.
It's dark, gritty, and delightfully weird. The Dyachenko's wove philosophy, magic, mysticism, psychology... At times it doesn't make sense, but I still found myself entranced in the mind-bending journey.
It's one of the most beautiful novels I've read this far. I've been obsessing over this book and can't recommend this book enough.
I have a tendency to get too wrapped up in a stories formula often bothered by predictability. When I'm enthralled, it's usually by beautiful and/or unique prose and character development. Vita Nostra is unlike anything I've read before.
It's dark, gritty, and delightfully weird. The Dyachenko's wove philosophy, magic, mysticism, psychology... At times it doesn't make sense, but I still found myself entranced in the mind-bending journey.
It's one of the most beautiful novels I've read this far. I've been obsessing over this book and can't recommend this book enough.
This is an amazing mixology of magical realism, language and metaphysics. A mysterious stranger coerces Sasha, a soon to be college student, into the Institute of Special Technologies. Upon arrival, she observes second year students walking in fits and starts, bumping into objects as if in a drunken stupor, and wearing gloves although winter is far away. Third year students look normal enough yet their gaze alone frightens her. The advisors, the mysterious stranger one of them, use subtle threats of harm to the student’s families should they fail.
Sasha along with the other students is torn between her curiosity and revulsion at what is asked of her. Sasha is homesick, away from home for the first time. Her mother is recently married and with the arrival of a new baby brother she wonders where she fits in this new family.
At the institute, Sasha befriends Kostya another first year student who has a secret that when discovered makes him an outcast. Of course, what would life be like without a roommate Lisa with whom Sasha has little in common and is her academic rival. Sasha navigates these new experiences, along with her classes: textbooks with strange characters that make no sense but alter her perception, a class on Applied Science that causes Sasha to sprout wings, and metaphysical discourses that somehow link them all together. As she progresses through her studies Sasha is shocked when her turbulent emotions manifest in unexpected and terrifying ways.
In the intervening mind-bending years, Sasha comes to embrace her studies perhaps too well; and even her professors are challenged to control Sasha’s potentially dangerous new abilities. In the final exam for placement, in the midst of professors and fellow students Sasha, achieves realization of who and what she really is in a single word. She sees the world as it truly exists; beautiful, exhilarating, and terrifying all at the same time.
A world that ultimately, she controls.
Are you curious yet?
I found Vita Nostra to be a highly compelling read that I could not put down. I needed to learn along with Sasha the secrets of The Institute of Special Technologies, her surreal metamorphosis, and the life altering conclusion.
I highly recommend Vita Nostra for fans of The Night Circus, The Magicians, Harry Potter, The Paper Magician and The Bear and the Nightingale.
Read it now! – Amy O.
Sasha along with the other students is torn between her curiosity and revulsion at what is asked of her. Sasha is homesick, away from home for the first time. Her mother is recently married and with the arrival of a new baby brother she wonders where she fits in this new family.
At the institute, Sasha befriends Kostya another first year student who has a secret that when discovered makes him an outcast. Of course, what would life be like without a roommate Lisa with whom Sasha has little in common and is her academic rival. Sasha navigates these new experiences, along with her classes: textbooks with strange characters that make no sense but alter her perception, a class on Applied Science that causes Sasha to sprout wings, and metaphysical discourses that somehow link them all together. As she progresses through her studies Sasha is shocked when her turbulent emotions manifest in unexpected and terrifying ways.
In the intervening mind-bending years, Sasha comes to embrace her studies perhaps too well; and even her professors are challenged to control Sasha’s potentially dangerous new abilities. In the final exam for placement, in the midst of professors and fellow students Sasha, achieves realization of who and what she really is in a single word. She sees the world as it truly exists; beautiful, exhilarating, and terrifying all at the same time.
A world that ultimately, she controls.
Are you curious yet?
I found Vita Nostra to be a highly compelling read that I could not put down. I needed to learn along with Sasha the secrets of The Institute of Special Technologies, her surreal metamorphosis, and the life altering conclusion.
I highly recommend Vita Nostra for fans of The Night Circus, The Magicians, Harry Potter, The Paper Magician and The Bear and the Nightingale.
Read it now! – Amy O.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The most weirdest and intriguing book I have ever read. I couldn't put it down and completed in one day.
From the first page, the writing style keep me hooked and immersed.
The ending is absolute blast.
From the first page, the writing style keep me hooked and immersed.
The ending is absolute blast.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-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
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Yes, more dark academia where the academia is the darkness, not just the setting!