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aishu44 's review for:
Vita Nostra
by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕. 𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏, 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍. 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕. 𝑰 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕. 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 ~ i can't give a rating on this book
If the producer of Black Mirror released a new episode titled Password, Words, Pronunciation, Verb, Noun that plays with fragments of reality, concept, and metamorphosis, it would be this book.
This book is weird. It's the kind of book that makes you question everything. It throws you headfirst into a world where nothing makes sense-until maybe it does? Or maybe it never does, and that's the point.
Sasha is an ordinary girl until she's not. A strange man forces her to complete seemingly meaningless tasks & if she didn't execute it, something bad will happen to her family. Each time she executes it, she vomits a gold coin. Eventually, she's sent to a school where the subject of study is words, but not in any way that makes sense. Words aren't just language; they are existence itself. As Sasha learns, she becomes-but what, exactly, is she turning into? A language? A concept? An idea woven into the fabric of reality? If identity is tied to language, then what happens when language stops being just words and starts shaping the universe?
For the spoiler-curious, the school is attempting to embed themselves within the fabric of the universe by merging their very essence with the concept of language. This gives them the broad ability to reshape reality, but it takes years to even open their students to the possibility of how reshaping works, and several more years to help them control their powers. It's a wild idea, made even more unsettling by how little guidance or clarity is offered.
This book shouldn't work. There are no clear antagonists, no traditional stakes, no real explanations. The lessons at the school are gibberish. The transformations Sasha undergoes are disturbing. The entire book is a slow, creeping existential crisis.
I stumbled blindly alongside Sasha, waiting for things to make sense, only to realize that understanding might not even be the goal. By the last third of the book, I had fully accepted that my brain was simply too small to grasp everything that was happening. And yet, I couldn't stop reading.
I still don't know if I understand Vita Nostra. But I do know I won't forget it. It was an experience.
If the producer of Black Mirror released a new episode titled Password, Words, Pronunciation, Verb, Noun that plays with fragments of reality, concept, and metamorphosis, it would be this book.
This book is weird. It's the kind of book that makes you question everything. It throws you headfirst into a world where nothing makes sense-until maybe it does? Or maybe it never does, and that's the point.
Sasha is an ordinary girl until she's not. A strange man forces her to complete seemingly meaningless tasks & if she didn't execute it, something bad will happen to her family. Each time she executes it, she vomits a gold coin. Eventually, she's sent to a school where the subject of study is words, but not in any way that makes sense. Words aren't just language; they are existence itself. As Sasha learns, she becomes-but what, exactly, is she turning into? A language? A concept? An idea woven into the fabric of reality? If identity is tied to language, then what happens when language stops being just words and starts shaping the universe?
For the spoiler-curious, the school is attempting to embed themselves within the fabric of the universe by merging their very essence with the concept of language. This gives them the broad ability to reshape reality, but it takes years to even open their students to the possibility of how reshaping works, and several more years to help them control their powers. It's a wild idea, made even more unsettling by how little guidance or clarity is offered.
This book shouldn't work. There are no clear antagonists, no traditional stakes, no real explanations. The lessons at the school are gibberish. The transformations Sasha undergoes are disturbing. The entire book is a slow, creeping existential crisis.
I stumbled blindly alongside Sasha, waiting for things to make sense, only to realize that understanding might not even be the goal. By the last third of the book, I had fully accepted that my brain was simply too small to grasp everything that was happening. And yet, I couldn't stop reading.
I still don't know if I understand Vita Nostra. But I do know I won't forget it. It was an experience.