Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

75 reviews

bookswithmaia's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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anastasia_raf's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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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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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japanasi's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

it was even better reading it for the second time, loved the audiobook! olivie blake has such a way with words.. multiple pov, the story is soo good.. I love this book 

let’s goooo nicolibby brainrot ✌🏻

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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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cnohero's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5


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eve_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Overall Thoughts:
⁕ Did you know that this book is listed in the dictionary under Dramatic Irony? Just kidding... but seriously, the reader knows key information almost too in advance of the characters. It made the plot DRAG at points instead of building tension.

⁕ The magic system developed by Blake is so refreshing. The influence of physics and the differences between how each of the different mediums interact with the same concepts of time and space was unlike anything I've ever read before.

⁕ This book is stuffed with amoral, flawed characters -- each with their own juicy motivations and fears. They feel so distinct from one another across 6 different POVs.

To read my full review, visit: https://evereads.online/
For regular book-related content, follow my Instagram account: @eve_reads
 

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eli_cart's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

So much fun to read. Typically I can’t handle reading books where I don’t root for really any of the characters, but these were so fascinating the book was difficult to put down. The writing was beautiful and interesting!

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ramireads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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lynsstrange's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.25

Overall really enjoyed! It took me a while to get through. The language was trying to be edgy and philosophical, and at some points, it works quite well, and in others it comes off just as sorta clunky. (Read: “Did they hurt you?” He asked. She dragged her gaze up, sickened. “Who?” “Everyone.” “Yes.”) Like a lot of the dialogue is easy to picture in a book, but then you have to pause and remember “why the hell would anyone actually ever say that in real life??” 💀 However, I love the characters and how morally gray and complex they are. My favorites are Tristan and Libby, but I relate to Reina the most lmao. Basically all the characters sleep with each other at some point, so this leads to some bizarre dynamics and anyone can be shipped with anyone. But, I’m a sucker for academic rivals, so I’m going to have to go with Libby and Nico as my favorite. The plot twist was really interesting, and I was not at all expecting
Ezra’s crazy backstory with Atlas! I thought he’d probably end up being a villainous figure or something. But like, damn, I wasn’t expecting Atlas to be the overarching antagonist. Kinda interesting. I wonder just how old that makes Ezra though oop.
Overall really enjoyed this, though. Waiting excitedly for the atlas paradox!!

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