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A review by aotales
Vita Nostra by Sergey Dyachenko, Marina Dyachenko
4.0
Vita Nostra is a particular read for a particular reader. Defying genre categorization this story is part fantasy, part lyrical fiction, part psychological thriller … part science fiction entities?? It really swings among many literary branches, never settling or allowing definition. Most notably, it most certainly is not your typical “magical school setting” story.
This is a cerebral read. It is dense. It is heavy. Being a translated from Russian piece, the names of the many characters are confusing and sound similar and a lot of time is spent on “out there” concepts like existential existence and corporeal reality. It can be a lot of work to chew through this beast of a book that even lacks chapters for the reader to hang their hat and catch their breath. Vita Nostra definitely could’ve benefited from more grounding in reality, more story spent on some familiar territory with the students, their lives, their feelings. Rather we stumble and stagger along with the characters just hoping some enlightenment will come at the end … but much like what has come before it, the ending is just as head scratching.
If this sounds like a negative review, it isn’t, not really. Because, as I said, for the particular reader this is going to be an unparalleled read. Something about Vita Nostra is compulsively readable - or in my case I couldn’t stop listening to the audiobook, which I highly recommend to cut down on some confusion. The book beats with a pulse of urgency and peril, building and building in atmospheric tension. Definitely bring your thinking cap and block out a good chunk of time, this book demands your attention it its intimidatingly confusing way. You’ll be frustrated and perplexed, but you’ll never read anything quite like it again.
Book Blog: https://aotales.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.o.tales/
This is a cerebral read. It is dense. It is heavy. Being a translated from Russian piece, the names of the many characters are confusing and sound similar and a lot of time is spent on “out there” concepts like existential existence and corporeal reality. It can be a lot of work to chew through this beast of a book that even lacks chapters for the reader to hang their hat and catch their breath. Vita Nostra definitely could’ve benefited from more grounding in reality, more story spent on some familiar territory with the students, their lives, their feelings. Rather we stumble and stagger along with the characters just hoping some enlightenment will come at the end … but much like what has come before it, the ending is just as head scratching.
If this sounds like a negative review, it isn’t, not really. Because, as I said, for the particular reader this is going to be an unparalleled read. Something about Vita Nostra is compulsively readable - or in my case I couldn’t stop listening to the audiobook, which I highly recommend to cut down on some confusion. The book beats with a pulse of urgency and peril, building and building in atmospheric tension. Definitely bring your thinking cap and block out a good chunk of time, this book demands your attention it its intimidatingly confusing way. You’ll be frustrated and perplexed, but you’ll never read anything quite like it again.
Book Blog: https://aotales.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.o.tales/