Marina Di︠a︡chenko

Sergey Di︠a︡chenko

In this extraordinary stand-alone novel, the authors and translator of Vita Nostra--a "dark Harry Potter on steroids with a hefty dose of metaphysics" (award-winning author Aliette de Bodard)--return with a story about creation, music, and companionship filled with their hallmark elements of subtle magic and fantasy. Late one night, fate brings together DJ Aspirin and ten-year-old Alyona. After he tries to save her from imminent danger, she ends up at his apartment. But in the morning sinister doubts set in. Who is Alyona? A young con artist? A plant for a nefarious blackmailer? Or perhaps a long-lost daughter Aspirin never knew existed? Whoever this mysterious girl is, she now refuses to leave. A game of cat-and-mouse has begun. Claiming that she is a musical prodigy, Alyona insists she must play a complicated violin piece to find her brother. Confused and wary, Aspirin knows one thing: he wants her out of his apartment and his life. Yet every attempt to get rid of her is thwarted by an unusual protector: her plush teddy bear that may just transform into a fearsome monster. Alyona tells Aspirin that if he would just allow her do her work, she'll leave him--and this world. He can then return to the shallow life he led before her. But as outside forces begin to coalesce, threatening to finally separate them, Aspirin makes a startling discovery about himself and this ethereal, eerie child.

A Novel

Daughter from the Dark

In this extraordinary stand-alone novel, the authors and translator of Vita Nostra return with a story about creation, music, and companionship filled with their hallmark elements of subtle magic and fantasy.

The whole book rises and falls like the great pieces of music it references at times. 

I don't really know what I make of it overall. It was interesting and engaging once I got stuck into it but then it just kind of ends... 

Liam Richardson

The whole book rises and falls like the great pieces of music it references at times. 

I don't really know what I make of it overall. It was interesting and engaging once I got stuck into it but then it just kind of ends... 

Elda Mengisto

** spoiler alert **
           "Alyona played the way people talked about beautiful memories. She spoke with the audience, without a trace of smugness or a hit of arrogance, restraint, or inhibition. At that moment everyone in the concert hall realized that if truly happy and free people existed, they looked exactly like that girl in a slightly wrinkled white shirt and a skirt that was a tad too long." (202)

I was quite excited when I've heard that Marina and Sergey Dyachenko wrote another book, separate from the Vita Nostra universe. It takes place in the present, but this time, it's about how DJ Aspirin stumbled upon an eleven-year old girl with a teddy bear, and he just can't seem to get rid of her no matter how hard he tries. Little does he know, the teddy bear Alyona holds can become something more powerful, and she has come to earth to find her brother through the means of a very long piano solo. Chaos ensues, as they try to get to know each other and hopefully, separate at the end.

I knew there was something awkward about Alyona meeting DJ Aspirin; she insists that he's her long-lost father, whereas Aspirin is intimidated by the prospect. "His mother always said that one's personality defines one's fate. All it takes is to show a sign of weakness once; all sorts of disasters flow into that crack" (24). So he learns about this quirky schoolgirl, and he goes in between his real life and fantasy. A common theme was his arc of getting a visa and moving to London to escape, all because of "a little girl and her teddy bear. It was laughable.." (83). Seems like a basic novel, right?

Like with their other work, Dyanchenko adds an added dimension of surrealism into this world. Alyona's goal, to play this 173-minute piece to find her brother, is talked about in length by the two characters, with DJ Aspirin likening this as a fallen angel. We see some abnormal things in the beginning of the novel, from the audio tape which doesn't record Alyona's voice to when Aspirin enters Alyona's world through shooting Mishutka. They always add some mystery to it, though throughout the novel, I frequently got lost on what's going on. While writers have to show rather than tell, when Alyona says, "Imperfect world...Creativity is only possible in an imperfect world. In a perfect, complete world, it is not possible at all" (147), the fragments of the story start to make sense.

The idea of creation is drawn throughout the book, and I'm sort of intrigued by it. For example, "The people on the dance floor, they were in his power. In just a moment, he would boost them up, speed up their pulse, make every one of them feel like a winner of a world race: like thousands of sperm that die on the way, and only one makes it to the end..." (149). Aspirin creates a mood of ecstasy and lust within his club, whereas Alyona creates to call something out of an imperfect world. She justifies the chaos she creates by saying "That song is perfection, playing in the world where perfection does not exist" (163). I find that a really fascinating concept, though it seems like its power is for the negative than the positive. Later, when Aspirin asks on whether or not Alyona could play something nice for the lady, she replies that she "doesn't know how. Apologies are so much harder than fear" (178). I find it strange.

The first two acts seem to go in a blur at times, despite the thoughtful analyses Dyachenko has. However, the third act basically comes over and holds up the book. We almost see Aspirin go to London, as he has all his documents together and needs to escape. However, we finally meet Alyona's mother, and it doesn't go as well as expected. The scene where Alyona finally plays her piece in the restaurant was definitely action-worthy.

"Daughter from the Dark" has some good things going along for it--the creative process, a budding connection, and an interesting tale. However, I found some of the gaps missing, along with some underdeveloped parts, which reduced my enjoyment of the book as a whole. Some more depth would've made the book more compelling, though it has good parts. (6/10)

Fraser Simons

Another book translated to English from the couple who wrote Vita Nostra. This was listed as a sequel to that, but it isn’t. It’s got some of the same qualities of metaphysics fiction but it doesn’t seem to have a direct connection to Vita. 

This also denies categorization, too. It feels a lot like a weird, dark fairy tale with surrealistic and even some absurdist elements put in the mix. Every character feels like something a bit askew, yet cast in a stark light. 

An 11 year old-ish girl is saved by a DJ in the heat of the night from ruffians and their dog. He, a completely inept care giver and toxic personality, she something undeniably otherworldly. Her only possession is a teddy bear that may or may not have a creature attached to it. She claims to be from another world, here on a mission: To find her brother, fallen from this place as well. Only he is sort of reincarnated, if she’s telling the truth, anyway, and so doesn’t remember who he is or why he chose to come to this existence. 

What follows are many questions, and a tug of war playing out in our main characters head, the DJ. Is the girl making this up? Can the strange things he’s seen be explained away? Things keep getting not only more uncanny, seemingly, but also deadly. Trouble dogs this girl.

This is certainly a story about a man learning something, as Gaiman would put it. But the realism in it is not what I expected. The DJ is legitimately a pretty terrible guy. He hits the girl a couple times. He’s not overly bright, and because we follow him in the story, the prose reflect that. They’re not as rich and detailed as Vita Nostra. It’s a straight forward affair, for the most part. He’s basically a man child that hates being inconvenienced and thinks he’s suffering for his good deed; though for her part, she’s the ideal roommate. 

Most often kind and acting well beyond her years. She neither falls into the tropey roll of parenting him or the damsel in distress. She’s has a single minded nature to succeed at her mission, but is easy to empathize and like. 

It’s almost a fairytale about a man who helps a child; almost a tale of a man who takes in something dark that isn’t a child; almost the story of a man who thinks he’s got a good life, but learns he’s missing something important. But never quite anything I’ve read before, which makes it continually compelling and impossible to anticipate while reading. 

There is a side character who is like the DJs friend, but isn’t. Provides him security but also is a mobster and a wild card who takes a weird interest in the strange happenings. There’s the notion that the uncanny is hypnosis sometimes too, and so a creature who comes to confer with the girl, who seems like something straight of a fairy tale, may instead be something like a hallucination. 

Ultimately, you’ll have to decide for yourself what’s real. I like that there is again, some subjectivity in the ending. I would have even liked more though, making it harder to decide which camp you belong to. It’s interesting to read something that would initially seem to want to convey strong themes and be proverbial or a metaphor, as so often fantasy is, but just instead be an off kilter thing that feels like it doesn’t care whether you like it or not.

While there were some moments that seemed off and some that were perhaps cultural subtext, I really quite enjoyed how different it was. It clips along nicely and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. It often begs larger questions. When it gets into musicality and creativity, it’s even more interesting.

Mahogany Skillings

This is a weird novel. It has pieces of magical realism, horror, and mystery all wrapped up in one. Who is Alyona? Where does she come from? What does she want? What will she do? These are all questions that are raised from this reading. While the book is told from DJ Aspirin's point of view, it is most decidedly a book about Alyona.

The prose is simple and direct and used to create a foggy atmosphere while reading. It put me in the mind of "Let the right one in" by Ajivde Lindqvist. The heavy weight of the subject matter is laid bare in this way, but there is still a sense of wonder and foreboding.

Daughter from the Dark A Novel

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