Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - The Atlas Six

In The Atlas six by Olivie Blake, we follow six characters, each one has their own agenda but all of them must walk through the doors of the Alexandrian society in order to gain access to means necessary to succeed their personal goals. How far are you willing to go to get what you want? Are you ready to sacrifice your morals? To sacrifice your soul? Would you sacrifice another’s soul?

I still cannot decide if I liked the book or disliked it, or just didn’t care for it. It took me too long to become interested in the story; It started getting intriguing after 200 pages. I believe it’s a bit predictable… I guessed almost everything. It is a unique story, but the characters seemed mediocre to me. The author was so concerned in convincing us of everyone’s “gray morality” that I couldn’t distinguish any personalities within them. It felt like I read everything from the same POV but with just different “magical” abilities each time. Although I have a feeling that it’s going to be improved in the next books. Maybe I just need more time with them! I think I need to see how they behave outside of the society, how they are without one another, what they become on their own.
I liked the writing. The dialogue was pleasing as well! But I’m not sure if it’s enough for me to continue with the second book…

''A flaw of humanity,( said Parisa) the compulsion to be unique, which is at war with the desire to belong to a single identifiable sameness.''

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alliebliterary's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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itsheyfay's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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I was initially drawn in by the premise, a group of magicians brought to the Library of Alexandria have a year to decide which one of them will be eliminated and which five get to stay for another year. The cast of characters is pretty diverse (though a bit of that initial feeling of diversity was dampened when I realized all of them seemed to have English as their first language, which instantly shrunk the practical candidate pool. Part of the story questions the validity and methods of the entire enterprise, so that leaves some wiggle room for explaining why the candidates aren't actually very diverse (only six total, and two are from the same school in the USA?). Additionally, this could have been the library of Atlantis or Boston and it would have had just as much relevance to the plot. The latest incarnation of the "Library of Alexandria" is physically located in London, in the UK. It became clear pretty quickly that "Alexandria" is just a name, and an indication of thousands of years of whatever this thing is (or at least a claim to that long legacy). There are vague descriptions of the category of study and experiments which the candidates are pursuing, but most of the story is actually a very intense and complicated web of power plays and personal dynamics between the six candidates and the two Alexandrians who oversee them (mostly one of them). There's a pretty intense sex scene about halfway through which I actually didn't mind, but it felt like a sudden shift in tone from the rest of the book.

The characters seemed initially pretty interesting, but there's very little description of how their powers actually work. There are discussions of magical theory which I enjoyed, but they were usually couched in ways where the magic is actually secondary, which made them feel unmoored from the world being built.

It's six (sometimes eight) people in a house, talking to each other and slowly changing how they feel about one another, which is not what I was expecting in a book about "magicians living in the Library of Alexandria".

Ultimately I stopped because it became clearly stated that the whole thing is a slow burn trolley problem, and I don't like trolley problem situations.

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sheadunlop's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bookleafcrow's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

in the couple of days that have passed since i finished the atlas six, my rating has dropped down from a 4 to a 3.75 stars. i still enjoyed it and look forward to the sequel, but this book's divisiveness is very understandable; the plot is divided up in the perspectives of the six main characters, and if you don't like a character's POV (im looking at you, callum) then the chapters can kind of drag. also, it is an incredibly pretentious books at times. in my opinion, it could've been about 50-100 pages shorter because there were times where the author explained a concept across three pages when it really didn't need that much depth. the writing style can come off as a bit holier than thou at times?

however, it was a really enjoyable concept with an interesting take on the dark academia genre. the shock twist that

the elimination is quite literally a ritual killing

didn't feel like much of a shock because of how the book is advertised; literally, the tagline "knowledge is carnage" gives it away, so i'd forgotten that it wasn't known by the characters by the time it became relevant information. the setting was a lot of fun in terms of the low/urban fantasy world-building, and i really liked atlas in particular, especially towards the end.

nevertheless, i still enjoyed it a fair amount and will pick up the sequel when it's available in paperback. if you can stomach the writing style, definitely give this one a shot.

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erinfitzharris's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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