I keep wavering back and forth on how I felt about this. It took longer to pull me in than the first two books, but eventually it did become just as engaging. However, I found the characters a little thin this time around, maybe due to the fact that we were frequently bouncing around between multiple perspectives? The moving parts of the story didn't feel as deftly woven together as the previous installments, and the pacing felt a bit odd too. I am glad to have a conclusion to the series, but ultimately I think this suffers for a variety of reasons, some of which nobody could've controlled, and the fact that nothing will ever live up to Vita Nostra.

I was very fortunate to be given an ARC of School of Shards in exchange for an honest review. I was probably among the first readers to have read the first two books in the Vita Nostra trilogy, and I've been waiting for this entry impatiently. I'm so glad to see it finished. In my mind, it is the best book of the three - not only because the main characters are already developed - but because we get to see them reflected in the eyes of newcomers, the first year students at the mad magic school in Torpa. The story focuses primarily on the next generation of Words while describing the role of Sasha as the assassin and creator of realities. My heart ached for Valya, Sasha's brother, and the twin sons of Yaroslav, the brave pilot she had loved in book 2. The studies are back with a vengeance, and we get to follow our young heroes from acceptance to the institute to the conclusion of their studies. Their course of study is complicated by temporal loops, threats of arson, and impossible to complete homework assignments.
It was bittersweet to see Kostya, Sasha's first love, take the place of his father, Farit, who had terrorized Sasha and her fellow students into studying harder in the first two books. It gave me a glimpse of Farit's character in a way the first two books hadn't, and made me want to reread them. In all, I feel like rereading the entire trilogy, now that it's complete, is a good idea - I'm sure I will see things I haven't noticed before on second (or third/fourth look! I've reread them before).
This is just a magical book, suffused with affection for its characters, and I hope it finds more readers searching for fantasy and magical realism. Beyond the genre, though, it's a beautiful story of love, loss, and change, for anyone with a heart and a brain. It's been compared to Harry Potter for adults, but I'd say this is a far more complex universe, with multidimensional heroes, meant to engage you in ways HP never could.

Overall, a satisfying conclusion to a fairly intense trilogy! The stakes kept getting raised throughout, and this book wrapped it up in a way that was both logical and not too "just so," the way can sometimes happen. One major challenge was that this book got more and more conceptual as it went, which was enjoyable to a degree but less engaging emotionally. Still, quite good!