Quick-take: Slow, confusing, but oddly fascinating.

Dan's Review

Alexandra "Sasha" Samokhina is a straight A student poised to go to university. Beyond that, she is pretty unremarkable. She meets an odd man giving her strange requests. She is compelled to obey him. His final request was her to abandon her goal of attending a prestigious university in the city and instead go to the Institute of Special Technologies in some small town nobody had ever heard of. Everything has already been arranged. The paperwork is ready. Once again, Sasha ablidges.

At The Institute, the real book begins. Well, it sorta begins. I honestly don't know what to think of this place. I am just as thoroughly as confused as Sasha. The book moves along slowly with the teachers dropping nuggets of strange homework problems. Sasha powers through them like the good student she is... plus a dose of fear if she fails is helping.

I am reading the book just waiting for it to reveal its secrets. There is something happening that will tie all the strangeness together and let me know just WTF is happening at the school. What exactly are they getting taught? What is the ultamite goal? Finally, after fully completing the book, cover to cover, I can confidently say I still don't understand what exactly is happening. I suppose I can discuss it a bit more than I could back in chapter 5, but only barely.

The book is a slow burn that gradually gets more bizzarro as Sasha progresses in her classes. The assigned tasks are confusing. However, despite that, the book keeps my interest. I think it may be because I can feel Sasha struggling with me. Fear has trapped her, and she is willing to do whatever is asked.

Also, I want to give direct kudos to the translator (Julia Meitov Hersey). This is a Russian novel. However, if it wasn't for the Russian names, places, and other nuggets, I would not have known. The book was masterfully translated. There was even some slang added in a meaningful way (e.g. a student said "a teacher was dropping F-bombs"). I wish all imported books had that attention to detail.

Score: 4/5. It gets a bonus point purely for being so different. I can appreciate that. I don't need another one of these.