Widely regarded as one of the leading voices in contemporary Russian speculative fiction, her work combines science fiction, horror and dystopia with an exploration of fear, social transformation and the limits of the human condition. She graduated in Philology from Moscow State University and has worked as a journalist, critic and editor for various Russian media outlets. She is the author of novels, short stories and children's books translated into numerous languages.

At the age of just twenty-seven, she published Una edad difícil (Nevsky Prospects, 2012), followed by works including El vivo, winner of the Utopiales European Award and the Ukrainian International Assembly of Sci-fi "Portal" Award; La glàndula d'Ícar (Mai Més, 2023), recipient of the Russian National Best Seller Prize; and Gatlándia (Espiral Ediciones), named Book of the Year by The Observer. In 2021 she published Tienes que mirar (Editorial Impedimenta), a novel written in a confessional style that recounts the loss of a child alongside the devastating horror of navigating the Russian healthcare system. In 2018 she received the European Science Fiction Society Award for her overall body of work. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, she left Russia and now lives in exile, where she continues her literary and journalistic work.