Reviews - Vita Nostra | The StoryGraph

2.78k reviews for:

Vita Nostra

Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko

4.02 AVERAGE

mmmmkay's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

shahd03's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

seashelly's review against another edition

4.0

The person who called it Harry Potter if written by Kafka was so right. I didn't get particularly attached to the characters but I enjoyed my time.

(It's above a 3 but not quite a 4 to me.)

autumn_wolf's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

jt004's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 24%

not enticing enough to keep reading…

ayluwriter's review against another edition

4.0

This book reads to me like a new consciousness, born without the tropes of American literature

jvan's review against another edition

3.0

This is a strange, magisterial novel that echoes The Magicians (tv show more than book) but, for me, loses itself in esoterica as it goes along, until by the end it becomes increasingly difficult to determine what you're supposed to think is happening. The story of a young woman who is recruited by a mysterious college in a sinister fashion is intriguing; the growing explanation of what she is and can do is fascinating; but at some point I lost the ability to follow along and it all became nothing but babbling and uncertainty. That's perhaps on me, I don't know. But it meant that the last couple of chapters of the book were more and more nebulous and less enjoyable. The translation is fluid, the writing (in translation) is good, the Russian filter is distinct and enjoyable as an American reader. But the ending. I keep coming back to how much I couldn't stay with the book through the end. I finished, but it was too far out there.