I could vividly imagine a lot of the locations like the remote village, especially when Sasha and Kostya – Farit’s son – first encounter it. That was a clever move, for it grabbed me from the very first page, and there were times that I couldn’t put it down. I have a feeling that either the authors or the translator were aware that readers might not have a place to stop reading for the time being, hence the bold first sentences. I was about to get flashbacks to The Polished Hoeuntil I noticed that every first line in every subsection was bolded. That author wrote a novella called The Metamorphosis, and Sasha goes through one herself of a slightly different sort.Īt first, I was a little worried since the book contained no chapters, just sections that functioned like a 3-act play. The YouTube channel “ rincy reads” expressed the novel as this: “This book is like Harry Potter, but if it was written by Kafka.”Īlthough I’ve never read anything by Franz Kafka, I couldn’t have interpreted that book any better. However, that summary doesn’t quite describe everything that goes on in the book. The difference is how intense Vita Nostra can get, especially with how Sasha is forced to go to the school almost against her own will. Like Sasha, Harry also goes to a magical school and experiences things that he couldn’t ever dream of while living with the Dursleys. Despite her fear, Sasha goes through changes that defy matter and time as well as experiences which were nothing she ever dreamed of and suddenly all she ever wanted.Īs one can see from this summary, it’s a lot, but it’s truly like Harry Potter. The institute uses terror and coercion to keep students in line, yet they don’t outright punish them. She quickly finds out that the institute’s “special technologies” are unlike anything she has ever encountered like the books being impossible to read and the lessons being maddening. Even though Sasha doesn’t want to go, she feels that this is the only place she should be at. As her schooling and summer end, her domineering mentor makes her move to a remote village and use her gold coins to enroll in the Institute of Special Technologies. Every time she completes one, she is rewarded with strange gold coins. He directs her to perform certain tasks, and she is powerless to refuse. While vacationing with her mom, Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious Farit Kozhennikov.

Translated from Russian by Julia Meitov Hersey, Vita Nostra is a dark version of Harry Potter. It may not be for everyone, yet for those who chose to go on this journey, it’s worth it. Have you ever read a book that boggled your entire mind? A book so confusing that you have to double check to make sure that you read it right? Recently, I read a novel like that called Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko.

Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko