It’s also a very complete book, and without spoiling the ending, I couldn’t imagine how Sasha’s story could continue from its brainmelting conclusion.īut, continue it does, in a novel that is every bit worth the wait.

It’s a shimmering gem of a novel-inventive, atmospheric, transcendent. As such I’ll try to restrain my actual reaction, which was an elated squeal so high-pitched that only dogs could hear it.Ī few years ago, I read Vita Nostra, and it absolutely blew my mind. I am truly honoured to be one of the first people who gets to read this in English after waiting several years for there to be a translation. I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Which means Sasha needs to rewrite the world so that can’t happen.or fail for good. Her teachers despise and fear her, her classmates distrust her, and a growing love-for a young pilot with no affiliation to the school-is fraught because a relationship means leverage, and Farit won’t hesitate to use it against her. Years have passed around the Institute-and the numerous realities that have spread from Sasha’s first failure-but it is only her fourth year of learning what role she will play in shaping the world. If she fails, she faces a fate far worse than death: the choice is hers. Subsequently, Sasha must correct her mistakes before she is allowed to graduate and is forced to do what few are asked and even less achieve: to succeed and reverberate-becoming a part of the Great Speech and being one of the special few who dictate reality. However, Farit Kozhennikov, Sasha’s dark mentor, finds a way to bring her out of the oblivion and back to the Institute for his own selfish purposes. Accomplished and ready to embrace her new role, she soon learns her powers threaten the old world, and despite her hard work, Sasha is set to fail. After defying her teachers’ expectations, Sasha emerges from the exam as Password, a unique and powerful part of speech. In Vita Nostra, Sasha Samokhina, a third-year student at the Institute of Special Technologies, was in the middle of taking the final exam that would transform her into a part of the Great Speech. The eagerly anticipated sequel to the highly acclaimed Vita Nostra takes readers to the next stage in Sasha Samokhina’s journey in a richly imagined world of dark academia in which grammar is magic-and not all magic is good.

Vita nostra marina and sergey dyachenko