Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko

"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" -- Front jacket flap.

My first step into Russian fantasy - there appear to be real thematic and structural differences to my standard fare though those may be solely Dyachenko characteristics. I found this book to be surprisingly disturbing; I wasn't expecting quite so much of a horror element as I found though it did make for an enthralling read. The mystery of what the characters really are build with fantastic tension, but I didn't feel very satisfied with the climax and resolution... I'll definitely read the next one when it's translated, but if it ends similarly unresolved I likely won't continue.

This one... oh, this one. You know, this is one of those books that are extremely readable, they are fluid and you just go on and on. But the moment I closed it, I was like “huh, did any of that mean anything at all??”. Sasha is 17, on vacation with her mother. A weird dude approaches her and basically tells her to go skinny dipping every night for a few consecutive days or else bad things will happen. She is scared, but does it, then vomits gold coins. You did not really think that after that, he would leave her alone, right? She gets sent to a depressing magical school and the fun just begins. Not FUN fun, you know, but.... the story, I suppose. If there is one. For the majority of the book, we don't really know how magic works in this book. I mean, even at the end, I wasn't particularly knowledgeable about it. Weird shit just happens, the protagonist does things and has things done to her that just make no sense and one of the main things is that nobody explains anything to her, because naming a thing both changes it and prevents it from changing. They all have to come to certain conclusions by themselves or it all doesn't work. Now, I think it was absolutely worth reading this book, but it doesn't give you the satisfying feeling of a story with a proper arch or structure or anything. Nothing is really explained. The relationships are not resolved. Wo don't know what happens to people who fail out of school or to ones who graduate. It feels like nothing mattered at all. I got that feeling during the story as well. Many times Sasha is told she can't do a thing or she does something that is dangerous or not okay. We are being told that the weird dude who approached her is super dangerous, we are made to believe he can kill your loved ones for defying him. He even does to someone else. But it all just doesn't matter, because Sasha gets away with everything. I liked the writing, though. It has that Russian feel to it, that kind of gloomy and detailed style that makes something so dull like the dorms feel... vivid, I guess. Now this won't work for everyone, but if you know what I mean, you know. So again, the technique was there. It really was, I just don't feel the story was properly utilised as such. It said many words that are supposed to be profound, I think, maybe, but to me it just felt questionable if it is. I will be honest, I read this based on Helena Paris' review and I thank her for bringing this to my attention. According to her, it has something in common with [b:The Magicians 6101718 The Magicians (The Magicians, #1) Lev Grossman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1313772941l/6101718.SY75.jpg 6278977] (I love it) and [b:A Deadly Education 50548197 A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1) Naomi Novik https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1596909044l/50548197.SY75.jpg 75543174] (I really dislike it). If you love A Deadly Education, I wouldn't automatically go for this. That book is a simple YA book with some emo makeup in a school. This one... this is weird and conceptually much more out there, so be prepared for a bit more than “UWU, main character is so cool and she doesn't know she is cool, but like... YAAAS”. It's also much weirder than The Magicians, that had its odd moments already. Just dial it waaaay up. All in all, I don't regret it, but it's also not my favourite ever either. It was a good idea to read it while on break from work.

Read 10%, got uttlerly and unbelievably bored, gave up. First, the rhythm killed me, second there really was no characters or much plot, third I expected a fantasy and got a straight up YA. Really not to my taste. Too boring, too lame, too YA. Perhaps Westerners are impressed by the “exotic” background, but for me it was just everyday, boring day to day East Europe life.

Bleak. Cold. Depressing. Stilted. The way it made me feel: Like finding pieces of glass in your dinner.

The description says it has “a distinctive Russian sensibility” and boy, does it.