Name: Vita Nostra
Rating: 4.096428571428572 (70 reviews)
ISBN: 9785425052940

Marina Di︠a︡chenko

Sergey Di︠a︡chenko

Жизнь Саши Самохиной превращается в кошмар. Ей сделали предложение, от которого невозможно отказаться; окончив школу, Саша против своей воли поступает в странный институт Специальных Технологий, где студенты похожи на чудовищ, а преподаватели – на падших ангелов. Здесь ее учат... Чему? И что случится с ней по окончании учебы?

Vita Nostra

“Vita Nostra” — a cross between Lev Grossman’s “The Magicians” and Elizabeth Kostova’s “The Historian” [...] is the anti-Harry Potter you didn’t know you wanted.” -- The Washington Post “Vita Nostra has become a powerful influence on my own writing. It’s a book that has the potential to become a modern classic of its genre, and I couldn’t be more excited to see it get the global audience in English it so richly deserves.” -- Lev Grossman Best Books of November 2018 -- Paste Magazine The definitive English language translation of the internationally acclaimed Russian novel—a brilliant dark fantasy combining psychological suspense, enchantment, and terror that makes us consider human existence in a fresh and provocative way. Our life is brief . . . Sasha Samokhina has been accepted to the Institute of Special Technologies. Or, more precisely, she’s been chosen. Situated in a tiny village, she finds the students are bizarre, and the curriculum even more so. The books are impossible to read, the lessons obscure to the point of maddening, and the work refuses memorization. Using terror and coercion to keep the students in line, the school does not punish them for their transgressions and failures; instead, it is their families that pay a terrible price. Yet despite her fear, Sasha undergoes changes that defy the dictates of matter and time; experiences which are nothing she has ever dreamed of . . . and suddenly all she could ever want. A complex blend of adventure, magic, science, and philosophy that probes the mysteries of existence, filtered through a distinct Russian sensibility, this astonishing work of speculative fiction—brilliantly translated by Julia Meitov Hersey—is reminiscent of modern classics such as Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Max Barry’s Lexicon, and Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale, but will transport them to a place far beyond those fantastical worlds.

A Novel

ikkychan

It’s almost funny how growing up changes the way we look at things—how the books and stories we once loved can start to feel strange, or even hollow, once we come at them from a new angle. As we get older, our perspectives widen; we notice patterns we once missed, and what used to seem magical starts to show its cracks. It’s not unusual to rethink the things we once admired—and then rethink them again—as we try to make sense of a world that’s a lot messier than we thought when we were younger. That’s exactly what happened to me with Harry Potter. When I first read it, I thought it was the most wonderful thing ever: being “the chosen one,” learning magic, making two loyal best friends, and going on exciting adventures with the guarantee that things would be okay in the end. Sure, there was danger—but it was the fun kind, the kind that made you stronger. There was always the promise of a happy ending waiting. Now that I’m in my thirties, I see the series in a different light. The four dorms reflect an outdated temperament theory, pigeonholing kids into rigid roles and discouraging empathy. The lack of diversity and the clumsy portrayal of characters from other cultures are glaring. Even the author’s own behavior has made it harder to separate the work from the person. But beyond all that, what’s changed most is how I see the idea of magic itself. I used to think of it as something beautiful. Now, I find myself more interested in stories that show how terrifying and invasive it can be. That’s where Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko comes in. If Harry Potter is a fantasy of self-discovery through empowerment, Vita Nostra is a dark, unsettling meditation on transformation, control, and the cost of knowledge. It strips away the whimsy and replaces it with existential dread. A coming-of-age story warped into a psychological horror, the novel plunges its protagonist—and us—into a brutal education system where language is both the weapon and the battlefield. At its core, this book is less a story than a philosophical experience disguised as one. Sasha Samokhina, a teenage girl, is manipulated into joining the Institute of Special Technologies, a place that initially seems like a regular school but quickly reveals itself to be anything but. Here, learning is agony. Magic doesn’t come from wands or incantations, but from warping one’s perception of language and, by extension, reality. Grammar—the subjunctive, the imperative—becomes a force of cosmic significance. It’s like Sapir-Whorf with teeth: the idea that language shapes reality isn’t just theoretical, it’s life-threatening. As Sasha is pushed through increasingly incomprehensible lessons, the book poses a haunting question: is being human something to be preserved, or outgrown? Her transformation isn’t heroic or empowering—it’s painful and isolating. The more she learns, the less human she becomes. She loses her empathy, her body begins to change in surreal and grotesque ways, and her relationships fall apart. She doesn’t become a better version of herself—she becomes someone (or something) else entirely. This stripping of identity isn’t framed as evil by the school’s authorities, but as necessary. Figures like Farit Kozhennikov aren’t villains in the traditional sense—they’re enforcers of a higher, incomprehensible order. Their morality is unclear, and that ambiguity is the point. They offer no comfort, no clear explanations, only the promise of transformation at great cost. The tension between free will and predestination hangs over everything. Sasha “chooses” to stay at the Institute, but only under threat. Like the works of Dostoevsky, the book is steeped in fatalism—individual choice seems almost irrelevant in the face of an overwhelming, unknowable system. What’s perhaps most unsettling is the way the novel ditches traditional plot structure. There are no clear arcs or resolutions. Instead, it follows a loose three-act structure tied to Sasha’s evolution, or maybe dissolution. The pacing is glacial, but intentionally so—it mirrors Sasha’s sense of psychological entrapment. Even ordinary moments (a phone call with her mother, a walk across campus) are charged with dread. The story doesn’t build toward a triumphant climax, but drifts toward something stranger: an ending that’s less an answer and more a surrender to the unknown. Sasha’s relationships deteriorate as she changes. Her bond with her family fades; they can no longer understand or even recognize her. Her connection with Kostya, Farit’s son, is complicated—somewhere between affection and manipulation, it adds a layer of emotional dissonance to her already fractured world. These strained human ties emphasize what she’s losing in the name of “progress.” And then there’s the setting. The town of Torpa, bleak and Soviet in its mundanity, is the perfect backdrop for the Institute’s surreal horrors. The school’s curriculum is essentially a form of ritualized torment. Fail to properly recite an assignment? Your loved ones might suffer. Forget to complete an incomprehensible task? You might vomit metal or worse. Here, magic is indistinguishable from trauma, and the process of learning is a process of unmaking. In this way, Vita Nostra becomes a reflection of post-Soviet anxiety: institutions that promise knowledge but deliver dehumanization, systems that function according to rules you’re not allowed to understand. It’s not just Sasha being remade—it’s the reader, too, who has to grapple with what it means to lose oneself in the name of progress. By the time the book ends—and it does end, though not in any way that resolves—the reader isn’t given a clear takeaway. We’re left, instead, with a final image: Sasha no longer quite human, not even quite herself. It’s haunting because it refuses to explain. But in its refusal, it captures something true. As someone who once looked at fantasy as a promise of escape, Vita Nostra hit differently. It reminded me that stories about magic don’t have to be safe or comforting. They can be brutal. They can be terrifying. And sometimes, they can show us the cost of transformation in a way that bright, tidy tales never could. If Harry Potter was my childhood, Vita Nostra feels like adulthood—messy, unsettling, and impossible to fully understand. And maybe that’s exactly what makes it matter. P.S: Nevertheless, I still have some bones to pick with the book. One of the most disturbing aspects of Vita Nostra lies in its treatment of bodily autonomy and coercion, particularly in moments that blur the line between transformation and violation. Early in the novel, Sasha is forced by Farit to strip and swim in the ocean under the threat of harm to her family—an act that is humiliating, charged with sexual undertones, and deeply inappropriate given Sasha’s age. Later, Professor Sterkh suggests that sexual encounters with peers could help her progress academically, a moment that feels less like a rite of passage and more like a manipulation by those in power. What makes these scenes troubling isn’t just their content, but how they are framed as necessary steps in Sasha’s transformation. There is no sense of discovery or agency—only pressure from authority figures who cloak their coercion in the language of higher purpose. While the novel explores the erosion of self and the cost of transcendence, using sexuality as a tool of control undermines any notion of empowerment. It turns Sasha’s journey into one shaped by external imposition rather than personal awakening, making these moments feel less like challenging literature and more like ethical blind spots.

Our life is brief . . . The definitive English language translation of the internationally best-selling Russian novel – a brilliant dark fantasy combining psychological suspense, enchantment, and terror that makes us consider human existence in a fresh and provocative way.

What might sound like a dark romance at first glance at the title is a stunning way to merge dark academia and dark fantasy in a book that spanned the emotions from wanting to tear my hair out to crushing my heart and keeping me in a steel grip for quite a long time.

This book has been on my tbr since I first heard the term dark academia and then I finally got around to starting it in spring 2023. now, where I live, that was a beautiful, sunny spring and the entirely wrong time to start this book, so I made it maybe 150 pages in before I placed it on my nightstand (because I was not ready to give up on it just yet) and moved it around only when dusting off the shelves. Well, spring 2024 came around and with it the exact gloomy weather and mood I needed to pick it back up.

Vita Nostra follows the story of Alexandra Samokhina, a young girl on the verge of adult life with college looming ahead and who meets a strange man during her summer holiday, who starts requesting her to do different tasks for him that certainly require some discipline, willpower and lack of self-preservation but he gives one promise: he’ll never ask for the impossible.

Sasha, our protagonist, follows his lead albeit with great difficulty at points, and it brings her to the Institute in Torpa where her academic life begins.

Much like Sasha at this point in the book, I kept running into walls while reading. My brain had great difficulty imagining the subjects she was studying, the processes that were happening and the progress she was making. Until one today, the trigger flipped for me and once that happened I really did not want to put this book down at all. I was so curious for what was next for Samokhina, I was incredibly afraid for her at the same time and all the while fearing she was loosing herself along the way.

Now, the original title for this book is not a literal translation to Vita Nostra and let me detour for a second because I think the English title is one of the worst title choices I’ve ever come across when a book is translated from its original language (and mind you, I’m German, and German publishers make it a contest to find the most hideous and incredible names for the German editions of English books for example).

The original title is метаморфозы, which is the literal translation to metamorphoses (yes, plural, not singular) and in my reading history there never has been a title more fitting for a book which has been discarded for such a nonsense title like Vita Nostra. Yes, Vita Nostra is mentioned in the book but boy oh boy was I mad when I reached the part in this story that told me why it has a different name in the original.

So, I’d love to tell you more about the actual happenings in this book but truth be told, I can’t. At least not without spoiling it for you. And I really really don’t want to do that.

What now? If you enjoy witnessing the struggle of dark academia, of an institute so powerful it keeps expanding your imagination, of the tear it brings to its students, the despair, the hopelessness and the angst … then go ahead read it. Mind you, you will feel like you run in circles sometimes and keep crashing into walls but it’s so relatable to what Samokhina experiences, it somehow feels right that this is not an easy read. It is damn worth it, though.

This is not a book I’ll lightheartedly advertise to any book lover. But to that small, specific group of people? I’ll never cease recommending it.

It was good. And horrible. And tiring. And exciting. And tensionfilled. Heartbreaking. Aching. Sweet at times. And SUCH a good dark fantasy.

For me, putting this book down had the same effect as watching inception for the first time. I sat there contemplating what the actual f just happened. And I loved every second.

Leonie

What might sound like a dark romance at first glance at the title is a stunning way to merge dark academia and dark fantasy in a book that spanned the emotions from wanting to tear my hair out to crushing my heart and keeping me in a steel grip for quite a long time.

This book has been on my tbr since I first heard the term dark academia and then I finally got around to starting it in spring 2023. now, where I live, that was a beautiful, sunny spring and the entirely wrong time to start this book, so I made it maybe 150 pages in before I placed it on my nightstand (because I was not ready to give up on it just yet) and moved it around only when dusting off the shelves. Well, spring 2024 came around and with it the exact gloomy weather and mood I needed to pick it back up.

Vita Nostra follows the story of Alexandra Samokhina, a young girl on the verge of adult life with college looming ahead and who meets a strange man during her summer holiday, who starts requesting her to do different tasks for him that certainly require some discipline, willpower and lack of self-preservation but he gives one promise: he’ll never ask for the impossible.

Sasha, our protagonist, follows his lead albeit with great difficulty at points, and it brings her to the Institute in Torpa where her academic life begins.

Much like Sasha at this point in the book, I kept running into walls while reading. My brain had great difficulty imagining the subjects she was studying, the processes that were happening and the progress she was making. Until one today, the trigger flipped for me and once that happened I really did not want to put this book down at all. I was so curious for what was next for Samokhina, I was incredibly afraid for her at the same time and all the while fearing she was loosing herself along the way.

Now, the original title for this book is not a literal translation to Vita Nostra and let me detour for a second because I think the English title is one of the worst title choices I’ve ever come across when a book is translated from its original language (and mind you, I’m German, and German publishers make it a contest to find the most hideous and incredible names for the German editions of English books for example).

The original title is метаморфозы, which is the literal translation to metamorphoses (yes, plural, not singular) and in my reading history there never has been a title more fitting for a book which has been discarded for such a nonsense title like Vita Nostra. Yes, Vita Nostra is mentioned in the book but boy oh boy was I mad when I reached the part in this story that told me why it has a different name in the original.

So, I’d love to tell you more about the actual happenings in this book but truth be told, I can’t. At least not without spoiling it for you. And I really really don’t want to do that.

What now? If you enjoy witnessing the struggle of dark academia, of an institute so powerful it keeps expanding your imagination, of the tear it brings to its students, the despair, the hopelessness and the angst … then go ahead read it. Mind you, you will feel like you run in circles sometimes and keep crashing into walls but it’s so relatable to what Samokhina experiences, it somehow feels right that this is not an easy read. It is damn worth it, though.

This is not a book I’ll lightheartedly advertise to any book lover. But to that small, specific group of people? I’ll never cease recommending it.

It was good. And horrible. And tiring. And exciting. And tensionfilled. Heartbreaking. Aching. Sweet at times. And SUCH a good dark fantasy.

For me, putting this book down had the same effect as watching inception for the first time. I sat there contemplating what the actual f just happened. And I loved every second.

An awesome book! Dark academia, loads of twists and turns, and a page-turner to boot.

Nitin Khanna

I’ve listened to so much of this book, and yet at 60% done there’s still over 7 hours left in this audiobook. 😂 My husband likes it more than I am, so he’s gonna finish it without me. 

Caroline Clutterbuck Kapulkin

Anja Hansen

This book has such a fascinating concept. Although, it's quite confusing and I don't think I could describe it properly if I tried.

The entire time I was reading this book I didn't know how I felt about the story, and was banking on the ending and it's answers to make up my mind. However, the book was wrapped up rather quickly and left me with even more questions. And then it became apparent to me that this is not a standalone.

While I definitely enjoyed reading this, I'm unsure about continuing the series in the future.

Absolutely fantastic blend of Russian folktale, metaphysics, dark academia, and page turning thriller. Beautifully written and translated. Cannot get enough.

Jacque

Belle

I liked this more than I expected to. It was easy to read and interesting enough to make me look forward to reading more each night. I'd read it again, eventually.

Fraser Simons

Second reading: so it blew my mind again lol. I will be doing a write up on medium right now; with spoilers and without, as well as a YouTube video on it. So yeah. I love it. 

This book… blew my mind a little bit. I am very tempted to just reread it again, right now. It’s that good. I imagine there’s a lot to pick up on the second go around.

Okay, so this is the story of a young adult, struggling to graduate high school at good enough grades to get into a decent post secondary school. She’s accosted multiple times by this older creepy dude, who has a strange power over her, basically he’s able to remove her agency and compel her to undergo tasks; very much in a hero’s journey sort of way - except far more of a suspenseful, surrealistic, and somewhat horrific bent. This book has got a very unique tone it strikes, I don’t even know what to compare it to. 

She’s made to go to a school nobody knows about, the universe conspiring to get her there through a series of bizarre incidents and coaxing from the strange guy. 

At the school things get even more interesting and surreal. We follow her journey at the school as she unravels what is going on, experiences as coming-of-age at the strange institute, and try to navigate social situations - all while taking classes that make her, and the other class members, to feel like they’re being brainwashed and reprogrammed. 

From the plot alone you might suspect that it’s purely surrealistic horror, but I meant it when I said it strikes an odd tone. There IS loss of agency synonymous with horror, but the book is thematically cohesive despite its weirdness. Perhaps it’s one of the most thematically calibrated pieces I’ve yet to read, actually. 

The post secondary experience and the internal mechanisms of youth changing, growing, evolving with knowledge and the fruition of the development of their bodies - basically all natural and systemic change that undergoes in the here and now through all learning and life cycle of the human body (especially puberty) - are literalized in the fiction.

The fiction would be thoughtful and interesting just in that myopic sense if that were all that was going on. 

It combines the scientific notions of the body with cerebral concepts on philosophy, and then mixes in magical elements as well. Change, and the potential of every person is the main focal point of the story. Of course, as it relates to Sasha. Her place in the world, in the universe, and the raw potentiality of Sasha nicely counterpoint the horror elements, and, thankfully, explain the wildly strange and problematic teachings the mentors inflict on students. 

Without spoilers I will say the magic system is so well designed and just blew me away. Everything about this was my jam. 

That isn’t to say it’s an _easy_ read; though I devoured it quickly. The concepts are illusive and heady. The book is broken up into parts and doesn’t otherwise have chapters, just paragraph breaks for new scenes, making it structurally a bit challenging depending on your reading habits. It could also be troubling and triggering for people. There’s esoteric harm that is certainly abusive to the teenagers, including, if I understood correctly, sexual assault of a young woman when she recounts her story to Sasha. 

It does make sense, so it’s not just gratuitous shock value crap, but it’s also not easily digestible, and I think that’s why it immediately signals those horror elements from the get go. Still, something to consider.

The ending of this book just. I can’t even. So good. This book works at a mythical story, as a critical reaction to academia, to the way society treats youth; but also a meaningful, self actualization of a person coming-of-age, facing off against an innermost obstacle, and hope in the unlikeliest of places (depending on your point of view). 

It’s so fucking good, y’all.

Maria

Vita Nostra вышла, когда я еще не читала young adult, так что добралась я до нее только сейчас – возможно, самой последней в мире. Но штош теперь, поехали.

Саша Самохина отдыхает с мамой в Крыму, никого не трогает, и тут за ней начинает следить очень стремный чувак. Саша бегает от него несколько дней, но однажды он всё-таки к ней подсаживается и дает странное задание. Саша, поразмыслив, соглашается, и довольно быстро узнает, что если от заданий отказываться, кому-то из близких будет плохо. Чувак заставляет её выполнять задания до конца лета, а потом находит уже дома и дает задание на весь год. А в июне сообщает, что ей надо собирать вещички и ехать в провинциальный городишко, где она зачислена в институт непонятно чего. А то хуже будет.

В институте Саша встречает таких же замученных, запуганных первокурсников, а также студентов старших курсов – хромых, трясущихся и одноглазых – и начинает учиться какой-то необъяснимой хренотени, сначала просто из страха за близких, а затем её выбрасывает на новый уровень реальности. 

Какой-то ревьюер на Goodreads написал, что это «Гарри Поттер, которого мог бы написать Кафка», и мне это определение нравится (возможно, из-за эпизода, где героиня местами покрывается хитином, как насекомое). Хотя по-моему, наиболее интересная тема в этом романе – даже не упражнения на поле преобразования материи в энергию, а тема воли и страха. Всю первую треть книги – пока Саша выполняла вступительные задания и обустраивалась в институте, меня немного подташнивало от того, как страх и ощущение беспомощности и бесконечной ненависти к мучителям заполняли героиню, а затем и её однокурсников. Позже в книге Саша спросит своего главного абьюзера – зачем вы меня запугивали, рассказали бы сразу, что к чему, и я бы сама училась. А он ей ответит – нет, не училась бы. Чтобы достичь тех результатов, которые были нужны, мотивация должна быть по-настоящему сильной, и это мог быть только страх. 

Многие пишут, что сравнивать Vita Nostra с Гарри Поттером не стоит – мол, они совсем разные, но мне кажется, авторы намеренно проводили какие-то параллели со знаком минус. Там есть и письмо про зачисление в институт, на которое Сашина мама реагирует как дядя Вернон («никуда ты не поедешь»), но из соображений полностью противоположных, и унылая дорога с чемоданом, контрастирующая с волшебным прибытием Гарри в Хогвартс, и эпизод с закольцованным временем, как у Гермионы – когда Саша начинает фэйлить предмет, преподаватели помещают её в «день сурка» до тех пор, пока не наметится прогресс. И при этом обе книги в итоге приходят к одной точке – к тому, что такое любовь.

Думаю, в книжном клубе было бы довольно любопытно порассуждать про этот роман в абсолютно разных парадигмах – а теперь давайте в библейском фреймворке посмотрим, а теперь давайте вспомним Фердинанда де Соссюра и ассиметричный дуализм языкового знака, а теперь – в парадигме теории мотивации Дэвида Макклеланда! 

В общем, совсем не жалею, что прочитала, детишек вот только жалко.

Aleena Korell

"You taught me to be afraid," Sasha said, gripping the phone.
"No. You knew how to be afraid without me. Everyone knows that. I simply directed your fear, like an arrow toward the target."

There is no great explanation for why I enjoyed this book. It's the most intense 400 pages of literally just reading about someone studying that I never knew existed. And here I am at 2am trying to figure out what to say about it.

Lexicon meets The Name of the Wind is the best I can come up with. But there's no real way to describe Vita Nostra. It's about a special school, yes, and about a special student. But Sasha isn't really driven by heroics or noble aspirations. Most of Sasha's decisions are driven by fear, all throughout the book. Fear, and something that might be love. But the themes of fear and love weave tighter through the story as it goes along and converge at the end in one final decision. 

I had to think about it for a bit, but I actually love the ending. Unexplained but self-contained. And with the significance of words in the story, I feel the translation from Russian was perfect, and if I missed anything due to a different language, I didn't feel a loss. 

Hopefully the next two in the series are translated soon!

Our life is brief . . . The definitive English language translation of the internationally best-selling Russian novel - a brilliant dark fantasy combining psychological suspense, enchantment, and terror that makes us consider human existence in a fresh and provocative way. 'A book that has the potential to become a modern classic.' Lev Grossman, best-selling author of The Magicians Our life is brief . . . While on holiday at the beach with her mother, Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious Farit Kozhennikov under the most peculiar circumstances. The teenage girl is powerless to refuse when this strange and unusual man with a sinister air directs her to perform strange and uncomfortable tasks. He rewards her efforts with a strange golden coin. As the days progress, Sasha carries out other acts for which she receives more coins from Kozhennikov. As summer ends, her new domineering mentor directs her to move to a remote village and use her gold to enter the Institute of Special Technologies. Though she does not want to go to this unknown town or university, she also feels that somehow it's the only place she should be. Against her mother's wishes, Sasha leaves behind all that is familiar and begins her education. As she quickly discovers, the institute's 'special technologies' are unlike anything she has ever encountered. The books are impossible to read, the lessons maddeningly obscure, and the work refuses memorization. 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. Yet despite her fear, Sasha undergoes changes that defy the dictates of matter and time; experiences which are nothing she has ever dreamed of... and suddenly all she could ever want. A complex blend of adventure, magic, science, and philosophy, filtered through a distinct Russian sensibility, this astonishing work - brilliantly translated by Julia Meitov Hersey - is reminiscent of modern classics such as Lev Grossman's The Magicians, Max Barry's Lexicon, and Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale, but will transport them to a place fantastical and new.

Jennifer

Preliminary review: (full review with favourite book quotes to be added later this year)

For someone who don't really enjoy books with heavy horror elements & translated work, I'm pleasantly surprised!! I basically gulped down this book within a single day because it's so good <3

To put it plainly Vita Nostra is an impressive dark academia masterpiece: it's immersive, beautifully written, detailed, and at times philosophical. Despite its slow pacing and dense prose, my doubts were lifted really early on and I grew to like the main character Sasha within the first 100 pages. She's bright, hardworking, and has hidden talents: to name a few of her relatable traits. In addition to this, her solid character arc are also demonstrated through the tough academic schedule at Torpa.

In addition to Sasha's resilience and autonomy throughout the novel, I also enjoyed the writing itself: the poetic ways to convey thought processes and how we understand the world around us & ourselves & acquire knowledge. While the teaching process the Institute that Sasha attends is very strict and controlling, this also raises plenty of thought provoking questions with regards to knowledge: how do we learn what we know now and how do we take control of what we take in?

Usually I find excessive horror / dark elements quite distracting in a book, but in Vita Nostra these aren't really an issue - thanks to the nuanced and well-developed characters and themes. There were characters whom I wasn't really sold into initially but eventually grow to like because they demonstrated redeeming traits through their time at the Institute - and it's indeed a rare feat.

To sum it up, I'm still processing but I have certainly found my next favourite dark academia read with Vita Nostra. It's dark. It's a wild ride to read within a single sitting. But it's also a book rich with substantial materials: magic, science, and philosophy. I finished this a couple days ago and I couldn't stop thinking about this underlying question - the intricacy of one's process of acquiring knowledge & tapping into their potentials.

So if you are looking for something with dark academia aesthetic and could put up with the dense prose, the slow pacing, and some horror elements, reading Vita Nostra is going to be a very rewarding experience.

N.B. This book contains following triggering content: vomiting, blood mention, drug mention, alcohol, emotional blackmailing / coercion, and violence

(4.5 stars out of 5)

Moray Lyle McIntosh

A highly original book that is difficult to pin down for a satisfactory description. Urban fantasy? Sci-fi? Speculative? Weird? It has elements of many of this but doesn’t fit neatly under any label.

While on holiday with her mother in a small seaside town, Sasha Samokhina meets the unsettling Farit Kozhenikov who gives her a series of bizarre tasks to complete. Sasha feels powerless to refuse and Kozhenikov promises that failure will result in dire consequences. After failing her entrance exam to university Sasha discovers that she has been selected for the mysterious Institute of Special Technologies, where the lessons are inexplicable, the teachers terrifying and the older students damaged. The what, why and how of what is happening are all equally obscure as Sasha begins a bizarre and disturbing process of mental and physical metamorphosis as everything she knows about time and matter disintegrate.

Esoteric and metaphysical, the spiralling plot and lack of answers make for a frustrating read that part of me wanted to abandon, but that’s all part of the Dyachenko’s devious writing. The reader experiences Sasha’s own bewilderment, and both her desire and her inability to escape, picking apart the reality of her situation right beside her.

A few of the sections drag on a little too long after their purpose has already been achieved, making the pacing uneven and the story sometimes gets caught up in its own sense of mystery, edging over into self-indulgence. But it’s also clever, absorbing, challenging and infuriating. Harness your patience and it is well worth a read. I hope that the rest of the series is translated into English in due course.

Vita Nostra

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