Vita Nostra (Vita Nostra, #1) by Marina Dyachenko

"After being forced to make a deal with the devil, Sasha is accepted into the School of Special Technologies. The Curriculum is brutal, the teachers abrasive and demanding and discipline is deadly. Unfortunately, the characters were flat and the plot completely disintegrated after Part 1."

⭐⭐

Pros: The repercussions for students missing classes/exams are extreme and frightening but it keeps you reading/Some of Sasha's transformations were interesting, at first.

Cons: The characters were kind of flat and one dimensional. The Special Technologies that they're studying made absolutely no sense and as the book went on it just became more and more obscure and I found myself annoyed by it all.

Full Review:

Alexandra (Sasha) Samokhina is on Summer Holiday with her mother when she keeps seeing a man in dark glasses. At first, it feels like he's haunting her but every time Sasha wishes it was a dream, he just keeps appearing. Finally, he approaches her and tells her to swim out to a buoy every morning at the exact same time. Not completing this task will have dire consequences. And the one time Sasha oversleeps, her mother's boyfriend has a heart attack.

So, she knows the man in dark glasses means business. After awhile, once she's done everything he's asked, he explains to her that he's sponsoring her for entrance into the Institute of Special Technologies in the small village of Torpa. She's not really given a choice as to whether she wants to attend and once she starts classes, things just start getting weirder and weirder.

She and her classmates are asked to decipher nonsensical texts, practice exercises where they have to fit shapes into different shapes, in their minds. It's all obscure and confusing and honestly, it made absolutely no sense. As the semester progresses, it's obvious that Sasha has a real talent. Though when she goes home for break, she feels like a stranger and terrible things tend to happen.

It's obvious that she can no longer be around those she loves, and so, she becomes more and more reclusive and removed.

Honestly, by the end, all the obscure exercises, Sasha's transformation, it all became repetitive and just hard to understand. The book began with such promise but it just continued on a gradual downhill slide and I was ready for it to be over.

I won't be continuing the rest of the series.

Comments

Animal Farm by George Orwell

"A blithe and scathing commentary on equality, power, corruption and how everyone is created equal, but...some are more equal than others. Orwell hit the nail right on the head with this novel and it's no wonder it's a staple for most high school curriculums. " 3 Stars. Pros: Benjamin the Donkey is the smartest animal on the farm and it would have done all the others a world of good if they had listened to him in the first place. Cons: The fact that societies like this actually do exist is nauseating and terrible. It's not a con, per se, it's just a gut wrenching fact. Full Review: When the overworked and mistreated Animals on Manor Farm decide to rise up and overthrow their cruel master, they're successful. They rebel and now find themselves with an entire Farm to run. They rename it Animal Farm and are intent on creating a paradise, where work and play are equal, where productivity is key but relaxation is a must and all the lives of all the animal...

Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov

"When a scientist, Benes, who has integral and world changing information attempts to defect and join our Side, he's injured. A blood clot forms in his brain and the only way to save his life is to miniaturize the crew of the Proteus and inject them into Benes' body, so they can break up the blood clot from the inside. Of course, one thing after another goes wrong and every chapter is a new catastrophe but it was definitely a fantastic voyage. 2 Stars Pros: Grant is one dry character but he's a welcome bit of amusement in an otherwise serious and scientific novel. Cons: Grant is also SUCH a man that he spends most of the mission staring at saving the one woman board, Cora./Definitely ripe with anatomical lessons and what part of the body they were in. Since I've never been great at anatomy, a lot of it was lost on me and became burdensome near the end. Full Review: As in all things, there is a good side and a bad side. This book is very vague as...

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

"Arnold Spirit, Jr, or "Junior" as he's known on the Rez, does something no Spokane Indian has ever done. He enrolls in Reardon High School and begins the long and often painful process off navigating not only high school and adolescence but also being an outsider. Alexie handles it all with grace, humor and honesty. This was a great read. I would recommend it to anyone." 5 Stars Pros: Alexie handles the ups and downs of not only adolescence, but tragedy and loss in a stark, honest but gut wrenchingly relatable way. Cons: Some of Junior's all-consuming guilt, though understandable was a little repetitive but it's all part of being a teenager. Full Review: It all starts when Arnold Spirit Jr, or Junior, throws a textbook across the classroom. When he opened the book he saw his mother's name, her maiden name and it enrages him. He's furious that the reservation is so poor that they're learning from thirty-year old textbooks. He doesn't...

All the Books.

Search This Blog