Like its predecessor, this book almost gets where you want it to go.

In my review of the first book in this series, I mentioned how high concept the magical system was and how as a result of that it suffered more than other books from a subpar translation. I was hoping the second book would have a different translator, but alas. I noticed the translation issues in this book less than in the first, but the trade off is that the first book is the better part of the story.

While the magical system and the way language functions in it is interesting, there’s not much Dark Academia atmosphere to these, and the stakes of the plot feel almost ridiculously low. That wouldn’t bother me if the story exhibited a strong sense of place or felt more immersive, but this subgenre needs either superior atmosphere or story arc to succeed, and it doesn’t quite get there on either.

The magical system itself is probably the best of what these books offer, and though it has some commonalities with books like Babel in that regard, it does achieve solid originality and an intriguing linguistic complexity.

This was a really good sequel to Vita Nostra. I love the writing style and plot. The book starts off quickly and you're immediately thrown back into the world. Looking forward to future writings by these authors!

This is a stunning piece of literary fiction. Impressive, intelligent, and abstract. longer review to come.

In "Vita Nostra," the protagonist, Alexandra, a.k.a. Sasha, Samokhina, is “recruited” and blackmailed into applying and attending the Institute of Special Technologies. Due to the subject matter and the secrecy, Sasha and the other students strive for good grades in order to protect their families. As the students metamorphosed alongside their studies, they prepare for the Third-Year Final Exam, which will determine whether or not Sasha and her classmates gain acceptance into the graduate program. The end of "Vita Nostra" left readers with a HUGE revelation and a MAJOR question about Sasha. In "Assassin of Reality"—the direct sequel to "Vita Nostra"—everyone learns more about the Institute and its faculty, the roles and the expectations of the students, and what happened to Sasha and whether or not she “passed” the exam.

"Assassin of Reality" is an innovative, yet mind-blowing (direct) sequel to "Vita Nostra." Fans of the first book can expect more of the same during the graduate program until all of the revelations are revealed and you find yourself not only rooting for the protagonist, but also for her classmates. The audience will have even more unanswered questions by the end, but the hope you have for the protagonist will remain. At least, until the next book—a.k.a. Sasha’s final year at the Institute of Special Technologies—in the series is released.

R.I.P. Sergey Dyachenko.

In Assassin of Reality, Alexandra (Sasha) finds herself back at her mysterious technical college under unique circumstances. Although she “failed” her final exam at the conclusion of Vita Nostra, she has somehow earned the right to (or is paying the penalty of) correcting her “errors” and completing the program. If the undergraduate course of study was a series of difficult and mind-bending exercises, the fourth-year curriculum is downright dangerous. Defending her master’s thesis promises annihilation. Yet Sasha and her fellow students persist.

Because Sasha, the straight-A student and dutiful girl of Vita Nostra, has been through some extraordinary experiences, she’s gained—often flawed—insights into her own identify. She fights the faculty and her mysterious and vaguely threatening "advisor" for the right to learn, develop, and most of all, exercise her freedom. In a charming airline pilot and his adorable elderly father, the forces trying to manipulating Sasha find new foils with which to coerce her into compliance.

Nature of Reality

In Assassin, Sasha (and the reader, along for the ride) continue to learn the nature of the "technology,” a dizzying confluence of grammar, physics, and force of will, through which remarkable, inexplicable things happen. Like Vita Nostra, Assassin doesn't just tell the reader an entertaining, beautifully crafted story about life-and-death choices. It draws us in and makes us ponder the nature of reality.

From the first day of Sasha’s return to the college, it is obvious that she is a playing piece in some larger conflict among the faculty and staff of the school. Her return to her studies is a first, obviously pushed by her advisor, but what’s his end game? Sasha has no interest in pleasing him. But even if he weren’t slyly threatening all she holds dear, I suspect she can’t help herself from taking on difficult intellectual tasks and mastering them. That’s just who she is.

Reader Experience
The book isn't an easy read, but not a difficult one, either. It's on the short side for a standard novel but tells the next stage of Sasha’s remarkable journey with grace and style. Your best reader experience would be to read Vita Nostra first. While Assassin of Reality does bring the reader up to speed on past events, those events are mind-blowing, and you won’t get the full effect of Assassin without immersion in Vita Nostra.

** spoiler alert ** Loved the first book Vita Nostra

Big thank you to Netgalley for this ARC!

This book picks right up from where Vita Nostra left off. Alexandra (Sasha) Samokhina takes her exam, and it is assumed she failed it because she wanted to keep her human nature rather than be some construct of reality.

Sasha is a rare part of speech (which is what all of reality is constructed of) called Password. She can create new realities and open up new pathways.

Except, in the Institute, some wish to control her, and some may even fear her. When the book beings, it's 14 years later, and Sasha is married unhappily and gets into a fatal car accident. Only to "wake up" and realize it's just an alternate reality. Farit Kozhennikov is her advisor who has his own agenda for Sasha, and he's the one who presented this version of reality to Sasha.

Fourteen years have passed, and Sasha is back in the institute with her fellow students. This confused me. If time is a fluid construct, not linear, then why have 14 years elapsed? Why not go back to the moment she "failed" the test?

Sasha learns more about reality, discovers her power, sees the true motivations of her teachers, and she falls in love with a pilot. This love helps her overcome her fear and finally reverberate as she was meant to, not how the institute wanted her to.

An interesting read. I'm not sure I fully understood it, but I liked it. I've never read anything like this before, ever, and I've read a lot! Really enjoyed the deeper metaphysical realities of this book, but wished some of the reasoning and world-building were better explained.

That ending! It felt like a transcendental acid trip to outer space where I went beyond the boundaries of time. I need the last book NOW.

In Assassin of Reality, Sasha is given a second chance after failing her third exam at the end of Vita Nostra. Her peers think she's dead, gone, or just doesn't exist anymore. Imagine their surprise when they see that Sasha did make it through, 15 years later, in a world where time isn't linear. Will she or won't she matriculate and reverberate as part of the Great Speech? To be part of the Great Speech, one must shed their humanity. Knowing Sasha's actions at the end of Vita Nostra, her choice won't be a clear-cut answer.

I was so excited to receive this arc because Vita Nostra was one of my wildest reads of 2022. Similar to Vita Nostra, the sequel is just as metaphysical and wholly confusing. This is one of those series where you can't quite understand what's truly happening, and I think that's the beauty of it. While this doesn't quite pack as much punch as the first book, it's still a good follow-up and I'd highly recommend for those who liked or loved Vita Nostra.

Personally, I view Sasha's gift and the teachings at the Institute of Special Technologies as an all-encompassing metaphor for magic and creation. The concept of multiverses is explored many times. Time is literally a construct. The past and the present exist both separately and together. Events can happen again and again, with different outcomes each time.

Like I said, I don't try to pretend to understand the novel's concepts. Maybe there are messages about life, second chances, and taking risks. Maybe this is just a mind-bending novel with no hidden meanings. In the end, this is one of those books where, as the reader, you'll have to learn to let go of the wheel and let the story take you wherever it wants to go. Don't even question it.

I just wish that we had more interactions between Sasha and her peers, who were pretty interesting and had different "powers." Sasha becomes very detached and withdrawn in this book, but after the events of Vita Nostra (and the way that she was brought back for a second chance at the institute), it makes sense for her to be this way.

**MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD**

While I have zero issues with any of the metaphysical stuff, I didn't really feel the connection between Sasha and her love interest, Yaroslav. I understand his purpose, but I feel like their relationship should've been deeper and more meaningful for his existence to be so important to Sasha's humanity.

**END SPOILERS**

Thank you to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for this arc.

4.5 stars

With a completely unique take on the dark academia/dark fantasy genres, Assassin of Reality is an equally innovative sequel to Vita Nostra.

Despite being pretty significantly shorter than the first book, Assassin of Reality did a great job upping the stakes and expanding the world building and magic system. Even though the magic system is still incredibly unusual and obscure, the way it was portrayed in this installment made me “get it” more than I did from the first book alone. The entire setting still remains completely bizarre, but that’s what makes this series so special and work so well—and also makes them not for everyone.

While we did get some character development in this installment, particularly for Sasha and some of the teachers, this book would’ve been improved if this had been expanded upon even more.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I said it before about the Dyachenkos' works: those books are not for everyone. Their writing is basically THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR but...a bit wackier? This book is no different. Think of it as a ride, or an experience. I do stand by my opinion that the characters could use some fleshing out, but the setting and weird magic system totally make up for it.

CONTENT WARNING: death, blood

Wow, this book. I only read Vita Nostra last year, and reread it recently to prepare for this book, so I could keep the story fresh, and discovered that this is the complex, layered kind of story that makes things a little clearer each time I read it. And I absolutely couldn’t wait to start reading this, but I also knew I wanted to savor each and every word of this book, which I was convinced was going to be as much of a masterpiece as the first one.

To start with, this story worked its way into my brain and refused to let go. It immediately pulled me right back into this twisted world of dark academia, which took me a little bit to adjust to. We start out with Sasha outside of the institute after the surprising outcome of her third-year final exam. She’s watching a version of her life that could have been if she had chosen the other path open to her, the one where she didn’t go to the institute at all, and sees how that path plays out. But while she’s processing the implications of all of this, Farit appears and gets her to return to the institute.

Once she returns, she realizes how different things are. She doesn’t view the outside world the same, and while she knows she fits in at the institute, there’s new tensions there as well. The teachers aren’t as encouraging and friendly, and she doesn’t connect with her fellow students the same way. Whereas she’s always been at the top of the class, she isn’t any longer, and the whole dynamic is different, although Sasha herself hasn’t changed much at all.

Sasha experiences even more growth in this story. Initially, she regresses a little, but I can’t really fault her for it. She goes through so much, and it’s as if she’s gone through more than a person can be reasonably expected to put up with. But Sasha is a smart, tough, and extremely stubborn woman, and when she sets her mind on a path, it takes an awful lot to divert her. We’ve seen how much she’s willing to sacrifice in the quest to reach her goals, but she doesn’t compromise her values and will go out of her way to help people that she cares about, even if they’ve hurt her. She’s an unusual mix of tough and soft, and I find it easy to identify with her. But I see her start to make adult decisions in this story, basing her own path off of how it will affect others first, rather than thinking of them as an afterthought.

This story was just as complex as the last one, and I get the vibe that reading this a second time will offer just as much increased insight into it when I do go back for a reread. I’m obviously going to be sitting on tenterhooks until the next book comes out, because these are some incredible, mind-blowing books that just can’t really be explained in any way other than OMG YOU JUST NEED TO READ THIS SERIES IMMEDIATELY. Let me simply say that these are among my favorite dark academia series, and they’re some of the most completely unique and original books that I’ve ever read.