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. 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. 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. Being a translated from a 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. Most notably, it most certainly is not your typical “magical school setting” story. 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. Vita Nostra is a particular read for a particular reader. Yet despite her fear, Sasha undergoes changes that defy the dictates of matter and time experiences which are nothing she has ever dreamed of. Using terror and coercion to keep the students in line, the school does not punish them for their transgressions and failures instead, their families pay a terrible price. The books are impossible to read, the lessons obscure to the point of maddening, and the work refuses memorization.
Against her mother’s wishes, Sasha leaves behind all that is familiar and begins her education.Īs she quickly discovers, the institute’s “special technologies” are unlike anything she has ever encountered. Though she does not want to go to this unknown town or school, she also feels it’s the only place she should be. As summer ends, her domineering mentor directs her to move to a remote village and use her gold to enter the Institute of Special Technologies.
He rewards her effort with a strange golden coin.Īs the days progress, Sasha carries out other acts for which she receives more coins from Kozhennikov. The teenage girl is powerless to refuse when this strange and unusual man with an air of the sinister directs her to perform a task with potentially scandalous consequences. While vacationing at the beach with her mother, Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious Farit Kozhennikov under the most peculiar circumstances. You can find it here: Goodreads Synopsis:
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