Review by Booklist Review
The long-awaited sequel to Vita Nostra (2018) picks up moments after Sasha Samokhina fails her final exam at the Institute of Special Technologies. She didn't reverberate, meaning she could not leave her human form to transcend into a Word of Great Speech, a verb in the imperative mood. Such failure should have meant death to her and to her mother, stepfather, and baby brother, per the bargain she made with her advisor, Farit Kozhennikov: study hard and succeed, or die. And she did study hard, so hard that her human form was malleable and she was a grammatical construction able to control and bend reality to her will. But though she failed, no death came. Instead, against the wishes of her professors and her incredulous classmates, Kozhennikov insisted she be returned to the institute to continue her studies and fix her mistakes. A tense, gripping, and satisfying story that will leave readers wondering about their own physical limits and what would be possible, if only one had the proper motivation. Translated from the original Russian, this dark and unforgiving magical world treats its characters in ways that make Harry Potter and even Naomi Novik's Scholomance Trilogy look like preschool.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
The award-winning Dyachenkos return to the characters of their international best-seller Vita Nostra. After a reality altering third-year exam, Sasha--or at least one version of herself--is back at school. She attends the Institute of Special Technologies, where students practice to transcend human existence by becoming grammatical expressions. Even among these extraordinary students, Sasha's talent is unique and her studies more dangerous. Outside of the institute, she meets Yaroslav, a pilot, and falls in love. Yaroslav is often traveling, and Sasha finds companionship in caring for Yaroslav's father, Anton. As trusted teachers leave the institute and new ones arrive, Sasha knows that every relationship can be used against her, but isolation also leads to failure. She struggles with increasingly difficult lessons that have fatal consequences and wonders what possible future there could be when the goal is to not exist. VERDICT As with the previous book, inventive storytelling delves into philosophical concepts such as time, meaning, and language. This is a novel that transcends genre and will astound readers looking for serious, contemporary fiction.--Catherine Lantz
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