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elliebasta's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Body horror
emdashx's review
challenging
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A thought-provoking book that involves a magical school. Sasha is a sympathetic character, and while the rest of the characters have interesting personalities none of them have the same amount of development. The pacing of the book is relatively uneven, with some semesters receiving multiple chapters and others barely spanning a few pages. The book's strongest points are the themes, and it makes some compelling points about the necessity of suffering, and the inevitability of fate, as well as the harsh nature of educational institutions. In particular, the concept of people as words is especially interesting, and I like how each character's narrative purpose is tied to their grammatic purpose.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Rape
konsectatrix's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Outstanding book. Complex, rich, immersive, and dreamlike, it does really capture the unreal feeling of being in a long form magic rite.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
amsters's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This was easily the most compelling book I've read in the a while. It's a bit coming of age, a bit dark academia, a bit psychological thriller, a bit fantasy. I'm pretty sure i understood only a fraction of it, but it's a highly recommend for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
themis_biblos's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Just like Sasha's field of study, there is no sufficient way to describe this book. Like a dream it only makes sense while you're immersed; once you close the book and wake up, what just made sense two seconds ago becomes weird and somewhat eerie.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Alcohol
Moderate: Body horror, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt
scramuel058's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Minor: Abortion
zias's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
I would totally give this 5 stars if I were smarter enough to conceive some of the abstract concepts in this book. The first portion of the story was not as exhilarating but once Sasha got into her journey at the Institute, I truly felt like Sasha - the more she learned, the less she knew. This is one I could probably read again and again and always make new connections.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Suicide, and Vomit
Moderate: Death
meganpbell's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Dark academia—but make it Eastern European! Welcome to the Institute of Special Technologies…Now enrolling fans of mysterious schools, linguistic magic systems, dark and ambitious speculative fiction, and over-achieving female main characters. This is one of the few English translations of the work of award-winning Ukrainian masters of science fiction, Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, championed in the U.S. by The Magicians author Lev Grossman. If brutal academies and arcane systems of magic speak to you, this is required reading!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Grief, and Suicide attempt
podanotherjessi's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is a hard book to review because I liked almost everything in the book; it's genuinely hard to pinpoint anything specific about it I didn't like. And yet the overwhelming feeling I had while reading was just boredom. Everything - including the weirdness - was just so mundane, which I actually think is a strength of the writing, but it did make for a dull read to me.
The concepts in this book were amazing. It took so long to really get to them, and I understand why, but I loved them. The first 20% was my favorite part because the stakes really felt there for me, and I was enjoying the mystery of what was going on, but then that faded which is where the boredom set in. The last 20% was also incredible; the pace picks up and the stakes were there again, and I was genuinely engaged and excited.
I liked all of the side characters, and I almost wish the book had a wider focus to more encompass them more. The moments when Sasha interacts with Lisa or Yegor or Kostya or even her mother were some of the highlights of the book.When her mom first said she was going to visit the school was when the stakes came back for me.
Sasha herself held very little interest for me. She's just special but the book takes far too long to explain why, so I just kind of didn't care. I needed to know why she was trying harder than her classmates (or see more from her classmates to know that wasn't true, just her perception). Why was she excelling where everyone else wasn't?
And the writing was really amazing. I don't know how it is in the physical book, but in the audio there aren't really pauses between scenes for a lot of the book, which creates a really disjointed feeling that I loved. Scenes never really end or start but flow into each other. And beyond that, it's beautifully written.
So I think it's a fantastic book, but I don't think I'll ever read it again.
The concepts in this book were amazing. It took so long to really get to them, and I understand why, but I loved them. The first 20% was my favorite part because the stakes really felt there for me, and I was enjoying the mystery of what was going on, but then that faded which is where the boredom set in. The last 20% was also incredible; the pace picks up and the stakes were there again, and I was genuinely engaged and excited.
I liked all of the side characters, and I almost wish the book had a wider focus to more encompass them more. The moments when Sasha interacts with Lisa or Yegor or Kostya or even her mother were some of the highlights of the book.
Sasha herself held very little interest for me. She's just special but the book takes far too long to explain why, so I just kind of didn't care. I needed to know why she was trying harder than her classmates (or see more from her classmates to know that wasn't true, just her perception). Why was she excelling where everyone else wasn't?
And the writing was really amazing. I don't know how it is in the physical book, but in the audio there aren't really pauses between scenes for a lot of the book, which creates a really disjointed feeling that I loved. Scenes never really end or start but flow into each other. And beyond that, it's beautifully written.
So I think it's a fantastic book, but I don't think I'll ever read it again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Vomit
applejacksbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book is deliciously weird. Like at no point did I know where this was going and I am very excited to read the second one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Forced institutionalization