Wayward
I felt like layers of my brain peeled open reading Vita Nostra. Ideas I'd never had, metaphysics I'd never imagined, were written into this in a way that had me utterly transfixed. Discovering what the universe in this book was comprised of was FASCINATING. I can imagine how the basics of the idea for this story mayhaps formed, but it was layered with the depth and structure of humanity and revealed through mind-bending metamorphosis, yet structured so meaningfully and patiently with human experience, emotion, and connection woven into its very fabric that it carried this... earth-shaking feeling right through to the very end.
The characters in this are incredible creatures also, very real and relatable. Watching a simple teenage girl go through the metamorphosis she's forced to take throughout this book with all attendant human emotions MOVED me and effectively put its claws in my interest from early pages. That only multiplied as I watched Sasha go through her own growth, learn, and change.
This book is honestly so difficult to describe. As I mentioned, it's mind-bending and unique. It's also a dark academia, but not in any modern Young Adult fantasy sense. It's deep and dark, philosophical, and full of moral dilemma. There's also a healthy dose of body horror, fantasy, and sci-fi elements, with just an insinuation of romance. Though for much of the book, all of these little human emotions are almost made inconsequential, shown starkly in dichotomy of those chatacters who have yet to be transformed next to those who have already transitioned through their metamorphosis, yet at the end of the day, EMOTION and the connections formed are the most important things in the universe.
Vita Nostra is intense, beautiful, and utterly intelligent. The authors managed to write a story that pulls the reader by the hand but lets them discover answers on their own. It's not for the faint of heart or the distracted. It's for those looking for something NEW, weird, clever, deep, and beautifully well-written. While I'll admit that some sections moved slower than I would have liked, and there were a few areas that I believe fought the bounds of their translation, this was a phenomenal, incredible, and deeply enjoyable book. If you want to go on a journey and ride on the edge of your seat and perhaps hurt your brain a bit along the ride, this book's for you. It's an experience that I'll brag about. Surprisingly, it CAN, as I'd heard, be experienced as a standalone, but I'll be scooping up the sequel audiobooks from my library app and consuming them with as much thirst as I did this one. Highly recommend in any format. But if you're a fan of audiobooks? The narrator is top tier.
All in all, this was a book I didn't know I was looking for. "Impressed" is not a strong enough word, and I'm very interested in catching up on these authors' backlog.
I felt like layers of my brain peeled open reading Vita Nostra. Ideas I'd never had, metaphysics I'd never imagined, were written into this in a way that had me utterly transfixed. Discovering what the universe in this book was comprised of was FASCINATING. I can imagine how the basics of the idea for this story mayhaps formed, but it was layered with the depth and structure of humanity and revealed through mind-bending metamorphosis, yet structured so meaningfully and patiently with human experience, emotion, and connection woven into its very fabric that it carried this... earth-shaking feeling right through to the very end.
The characters in this are incredible creatures also, very real and relatable. Watching a simple teenage girl go through the metamorphosis she's forced to take throughout this book with all attendant human emotions MOVED me and effectively put its claws in my interest from early pages. That only multiplied as I watched Sasha go through her own growth, learn, and change.
This book is honestly so difficult to describe. As I mentioned, it's mind-bending and unique. It's also a dark academia, but not in any modern Young Adult fantasy sense. It's deep and dark, philosophical, and full of moral dilemma. There's also a healthy dose of body horror, fantasy, and sci-fi elements, with just an insinuation of romance. Though for much of the book, all of these little human emotions are almost made inconsequential, shown starkly in dichotomy of those chatacters who have yet to be transformed next to those who have already transitioned through their metamorphosis, yet at the end of the day, EMOTION and the connections formed are the most important things in the universe.
Vita Nostra is intense, beautiful, and utterly intelligent. The authors managed to write a story that pulls the reader by the hand but lets them discover answers on their own. It's not for the faint of heart or the distracted. It's for those looking for something NEW, weird, clever, deep, and beautifully well-written. While I'll admit that some sections moved slower than I would have liked, and there were a few areas that I believe fought the bounds of their translation, this was a phenomenal, incredible, and deeply enjoyable book. If you want to go on a journey and ride on the edge of your seat and perhaps hurt your brain a bit along the ride, this book's for you. It's an experience that I'll brag about. Surprisingly, it CAN, as I'd heard, be experienced as a standalone, but I'll be scooping up the sequel audiobooks from my library app and consuming them with as much thirst as I did this one. Highly recommend in any format. But if you're a fan of audiobooks? The narrator is top tier.
All in all, this was a book I didn't know I was looking for. "Impressed" is not a strong enough word, and I'm very interested in catching up on these authors' backlog.