Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko – Review

Published: November 13, 2018

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Series: Metamorphosis #1

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 416 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.5/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

Our life is brief . . .

While vacationing 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 an air of the sinister directs her to perform a task with potentially scandalous consequences. He rewards her effort 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 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 school, she also feels 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 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, 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 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.

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SO. MUCH. WEIRDNESS.

I was intrigued by this book from the moment I laid eyes on the cover and honestly, that didn’t change until I closed the book. It was such an odd book and is really something quite special. Originally published in the Russia in 2007, Vita Nostra has now been translated into English and is just so… different from all the other fantasy books I’ve read.

Somewhat reminiscent of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Vita Nostra captures what you could consider the oddest magical school you may ever come across. But first let’s talk about Sasha Samokhina. Sasha is a teenager enjoying a delightful seaside vacation with her mother when she first encounters Farit Kozhennikov and he gives Sasha her first set of instructions. Wake up at 4:00am and swim to the buoy and back, every morning without fail or you will face consequences. She is terrified, doing as he says but she misses a day and her mother’s new beau is hospitalized. Thus begins Sasha’s metamorphosis and her time at the School for Special Technologies.

This school is bizarre and in addition to the usual subjects, they attend a class called Specialties and a daily gym course. Specialties is mind-cramping, nausea inducing journey into the metaphysical, beginning the retraining of the students’ perceptions of reality. They’re assigned texts that cannot be read, impossible mental manipulations, and memorizations of texts that cannot be memorized. Except it’s all possible with enough determination and Sasha rises to the top of her class. She begins to transcend reality, though this doesn’t come without trouble of its own. Success means she becomes detached, reality is not quite so solid, and she suddenly isn’t entirely human anymore. Her fellow classmates undergo the same journey, facing their own struggles with classes and classmates.

Vita Nostra is perhaps one of the strangest, most unputdownable books I’ve read this entire year. Perhaps ever. It is on another level and while it’s considered fantasy it’s much more akin to what I would imagine a drug induced state would be like. If weird fantasy is your thing and/or you enjoyed Lev Grossman’s books then I think this would be worth your time. This is, for now, a trilogy and I do hope the translations of the next two books follow along shortly. The ending was just as odd as I would have expected, but I HAVE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ARE REQUIRED. I think this is a book that will not appeal to everyone, but it is masterfully told and the translation felt very natural and smooth.