Wayward
Assassin of Reality didn't hit as strongly as its predecessor for a few crucial reasons. Is it silly to say there were too many answers and not enough questions? One of the things that hooked me from the start with Vita Nostra was that... it was mind-boggling and drip-fed me any sort of answers. And then OF those answers most were vague or implied rather than stated. Things were much more straightforward in this book. Still weird and complex, but not nearly AS MUCH. There was no body horror. No creeping dread. No sitting on the edge of my seat or wondering what was going to happen to Sasha next. And, importantly, the focus of this story was more strongly on the insta-love romance that spawned between her and a new character and the drama around fitting that puzzle piece into her life rather than surviving the Institute of Special Technologies.
This story, this continuation, also re-vilified a character Sasha had almost become friends with or had, at least, reached some level of mutual understanding: Farit Kozhennikov. Which, okay, maybe the finale of Vita Nostra implied that possibility on some level, but he took a turn in this book that felt like a left one. He was much different from the stoic, scary but just doing his job cage-rattler in Vita Nostra and became a straightforward, maniacal villain in this one. And, again, yes, some of this was implied if you looked closely enough in the previous book's finale, but I felt like he was a completely different (and cliched) creature in this one, the Satan to Sasha's God.
Ironically, since the characters had now reached adulthood and the authors decided to include quite a bit of swearing in this book where there was literally none in the first, this one, Assassin of Reality, felt more juvenile and more like a Young Adult category read than the first in this series, not least of all from the romance INJECTED into this one, where the subtle undertones of such were more there to keep the characters personified and sane in book one.
I... continued to want to see what would happen to Sasha, yes, but mostly because of the curious bond I formed for her while following her tortured journeys in book one. This book didn't leave me aching to find out what would happen next. I wouldn't label it "just a story" since there were still strange mechanisms and strange people I haven't entirely seen done in other reads, but it wasn't a fascinating or bated breath or brain peeling read either. It was all right.
I do plan on reading the third book, but I'm less excited about it than I was. I more want to read it because I like completing things, and since I've come this far, I might as well find out what happens in the conclusion (though book one could have been read as a standalone and book two as a duology; reading book three is completely arbitrary). I'm not sorry I read Assassin of Reality, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it either unless you're someone dying to have more overt answers after finishing Vita Nostra and like the idea of Sasha in a star-crossed romance while Farit the villain causes trouble for her at every turn.
Assassin of Reality didn't hit as strongly as its predecessor for a few crucial reasons. Is it silly to say there were too many answers and not enough questions? One of the things that hooked me from the start with Vita Nostra was that... it was mind-boggling and drip-fed me any sort of answers. And then OF those answers most were vague or implied rather than stated. Things were much more straightforward in this book. Still weird and complex, but not nearly AS MUCH. There was no body horror. No creeping dread. No sitting on the edge of my seat or wondering what was going to happen to Sasha next. And, importantly, the focus of this story was more strongly on the insta-love romance that spawned between her and a new character and the drama around fitting that puzzle piece into her life rather than surviving the Institute of Special Technologies.
This story, this continuation, also re-vilified a character Sasha had almost become friends with or had, at least, reached some level of mutual understanding: Farit Kozhennikov. Which, okay, maybe the finale of Vita Nostra implied that possibility on some level, but he took a turn in this book that felt like a left one. He was much different from the stoic, scary but just doing his job cage-rattler in Vita Nostra and became a straightforward, maniacal villain in this one. And, again, yes, some of this was implied if you looked closely enough in the previous book's finale, but I felt like he was a completely different (and cliched) creature in this one, the Satan to Sasha's God.
Ironically, since the characters had now reached adulthood and the authors decided to include quite a bit of swearing in this book where there was literally none in the first, this one, Assassin of Reality, felt more juvenile and more like a Young Adult category read than the first in this series, not least of all from the romance INJECTED into this one, where the subtle undertones of such were more there to keep the characters personified and sane in book one.
I... continued to want to see what would happen to Sasha, yes, but mostly because of the curious bond I formed for her while following her tortured journeys in book one. This book didn't leave me aching to find out what would happen next. I wouldn't label it "just a story" since there were still strange mechanisms and strange people I haven't entirely seen done in other reads, but it wasn't a fascinating or bated breath or brain peeling read either. It was all right.
I do plan on reading the third book, but I'm less excited about it than I was. I more want to read it because I like completing things, and since I've come this far, I might as well find out what happens in the conclusion (though book one could have been read as a standalone and book two as a duology; reading book three is completely arbitrary). I'm not sorry I read Assassin of Reality, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it either unless you're someone dying to have more overt answers after finishing Vita Nostra and like the idea of Sasha in a star-crossed romance while Farit the villain causes trouble for her at every turn.