416 pages
English language
Published April 14, 2021 by HarperCollins Publishers.
"While vacationing at the beach with her mother, Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious Farit Kozhennikov under the most peculiar circumstances. The teenage girl is powerless to refuse when this strange and unusual man with an air of the sinister directs her to perform a task with potentially scandalous consequences. He rewards her effort with a strange golden coin. As the days progress, Sasha carries out other acts for which she receives more coins from Kozhennikov. As summer ends, her domineering mentor directs her to move to a remote village and use her gold to enter the Institute of Special Technologies. Though she does not want to go to this unknown town or school, she also feels it's the only place she should be. Against her mother's wishes, Sasha leaves behind all that is familiar and begins her education. As she quickly discovers, the institute's "special technologies" are unlike anything she …
"While vacationing at the beach with her mother, Sasha Samokhina meets the mysterious Farit Kozhennikov under the most peculiar circumstances. The teenage girl is powerless to refuse when this strange and unusual man with an air of the sinister directs her to perform a task with potentially scandalous consequences. He rewards her effort with a strange golden coin. As the days progress, Sasha carries out other acts for which she receives more coins from Kozhennikov. As summer ends, her domineering mentor directs her to move to a remote village and use her gold to enter the Institute of Special Technologies. Though she does not want to go to this unknown town or school, she also feels it's the only place she should be. Against her mother's wishes, Sasha leaves behind all that is familiar and begins her education. As she quickly discovers, the institute's "special technologies" are unlike anything she has ever encountered. The books are impossible to read, the lessons obscure to the point of maddening, and the work refuses memorization. Using terror and coercion to keep the students in line, the school does not punish them for their transgressions and failures; instead, their families pay a terrible price. Yet despite her fear, Sasha undergoes changes that defy the dictates of matter and time; experiences which are nothing she has ever dreamed of . . . and suddenly all she could ever want" -- Front jacket flap.
Really peculiar, slightly mind blowing. Reminded me a bit of how I felt reading The Magicians. Also, I didn’t really understand the ending, even after re-reading it.
Really peculiar, slightly mind blowing. Reminded me a bit of how I felt reading The Magicians. Also, I didn’t really understand the ending, even after re-reading it.
Really peculiar, slightly mind blowing. Reminded me a bit of how I felt reading The Magicians. Also, I didn’t really understand the ending, even after re-reading it.
Really peculiar, slightly mind blowing. Reminded me a bit of how I felt reading The Magicians. Also, I didn’t really understand the ending, even after re-reading it.
Interplay of subtle and disturbing otherworldly moments to capture so recognizably the transition from high school to college and the variety of struggles to grasp advanced subjects' - maybe math, maybe language, maybe psychology or sociology - beauty and explanatory power.
I really wish I had looked further into this very interesting novel before I had started reading. I would have seen that it is the only one so far translated into English, which means I'll have to wait to read the next volumes and I hate that.
I don't read a lot of fantasy but I thought this was a refreshing and clever take on what genre books I have read. It does spend quite a bit of time leading up to it's ending and although I suppose that was necessary the final 50 pages of this novel are far more interesting than the first 350. Not that they this is a poorly written book, maybe just a little meandering. That said, the emotional availability of the characters is there and although I got a little impatient here and there for the most part this was a fun read and …
I really wish I had looked further into this very interesting novel before I had started reading. I would have seen that it is the only one so far translated into English, which means I'll have to wait to read the next volumes and I hate that.
I don't read a lot of fantasy but I thought this was a refreshing and clever take on what genre books I have read. It does spend quite a bit of time leading up to it's ending and although I suppose that was necessary the final 50 pages of this novel are far more interesting than the first 350. Not that they this is a poorly written book, maybe just a little meandering. That said, the emotional availability of the characters is there and although I got a little impatient here and there for the most part this was a fun read and I look forward to getting the next volumes when they are available.
This was not at all what I was expecting. It was like Alfred Kubin’s The Other Side took place at a magical school for terrified college students, all learning how to deconstruct their mental understanding of the physical world and themselves in order to do magic. I hope they’re planning on translating the rest of this series!
Sasha Samokhina is a straight A student looking forward to going to university. When on holiday with her single mother a strange man starts to follow her. He sets her a challenge to repeat every day, to go swimming naked the same time every morning. If she doesn’t oblige, she will be stuck in a time loop or worse, her family will be hurt. And hurt in a way no one can prove was anyone else’s fault… When she succeeds, Sasha is offered a place at the Institute of Special Technologies. An offer she cannot refuse.
What on earth was this? It’s either genius or insane. Metaphysics, philosophy, the trials of growing up and going to university, a totalitarian regime at a mysterious university where they learn “special technologies”, emotional blackmail... You’re either going to love it or hate it.
The beginning captures the feeling of street harassment so well, …
Sasha Samokhina is a straight A student looking forward to going to university. When on holiday with her single mother a strange man starts to follow her. He sets her a challenge to repeat every day, to go swimming naked the same time every morning. If she doesn’t oblige, she will be stuck in a time loop or worse, her family will be hurt. And hurt in a way no one can prove was anyone else’s fault… When she succeeds, Sasha is offered a place at the Institute of Special Technologies. An offer she cannot refuse.
What on earth was this? It’s either genius or insane. Metaphysics, philosophy, the trials of growing up and going to university, a totalitarian regime at a mysterious university where they learn “special technologies”, emotional blackmail... You’re either going to love it or hate it.
The beginning captures the feeling of street harassment so well, that second sense that someone is watching you and the paranoia that something really bad will happen. Sasha asks Farit Kozhennikov if he is a pervert, because that is the initial reaction of anyone sane. And then suddenly it changes direction, but there is this huge sense of anxiety in the background. Whatever is happening cannot be good.
Usually when characters in books get whisked off to a secret, magical school, they love it. They are being taken out of a life they hated and given new opportunities. But Sasha does not wish to go to Torpa, a place she has never heard of, and explain to her family why she’s suddenly changed her mind about her education. No one at the special institute seems to want to be there. At one point her mother becomes convinced she has been brainwashed by some cult. Her first year there is not a cheery experience.
So it gets really weird but I also found myself trying to do the exercises along with Sasha. She doesn’t know the point of what she is doing. Her family’s health is held hostage, bad things will happen if she doesn’t comply. I liked that it intertwined normal university life, like not getting on with your roommates or dealing with a communal kitchen, with the metaphysical weirdness.
I did find it dragged a little in the middle, the only thing stopping me from giving it 4 stars. The exercises are repetitive for a reason, but I did want the story to move just a little bit faster. I think I love it, but I’m not sure I understand all of it.
