Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

62 reviews

hanarama's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

Book at a Glance: 
• Dark academia
• Diverse, ensemble cast
• Multiple POVs
• CWs: murder, psychological abuse, suicide

Atlas Blakely taps six talented magicians for admission to the prestigious and secret Alexandrian Society. The Society has continued to care for the Library of Alexandria in seclusion across the centuries, and drawing from its vast well of knowledge to shape the world. The newest cohort will learn the price that such knowledge carries, for only five out of the six will gain full membership. 

This is the book that A Deadly Education wishes it was. 

While in retrospect, very little happens through most of the book, it did not feel slow. This is due to cycling through six opposing points of view. The characters are different enough from each other, and driven by different motivations that moving between them keeps things interesting. Because the reader is constantly learning new things about the characters and uncovering information through each, its possible to uncover the full picture ahead of the characters. 

The characters are complicated morally gray, and messy. Because they know that one of them will not move to the next level, there’s a lot of politicking between the characters. It feels like a political intrigue on a small scale. This may not be to everyone’s taste, but I enjoyed it a lot. 

The final reveal is predictable in some ways. Information in early chapters gives some hint, but Blake performs an excellent sleight of hand, drawing the reader’s attention away to the characters over the background. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Gaslighting

apmerri's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Bullying, Sexual content, and Violence

sohma4uesugi's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

I had to force myself to finish this and I am exhausted. There is just so much without anything at the same time. The sentences are wordy and over the top in a way that is heavy and clunky. Instead of saying “she was shocked by his reply”, the text is that “she was aghast at the perversion of the transaction.” Just… why? Everything simple that should be easy and flows is so over the top that it falls flat beneath the weight of its self. 

There is no immersion into this world. My eyes kept jumping forward begging it to be over with faster. I would reread sentences several times and still be confused in the next paragraph.

Interesting characters were largely ignored and the uninteresting characters were heavily focused on. The artwork, though beautiful, strangely did not match the characters each section was named for, which didn’t make sense to me. 

It felt like whole chapters were missing and the ones that were there dragged on forever and a day. Anything interesting was just simply dropped the next page in infuriating regularity. The last two chapters of the book seemed like they were written for another work entirely, in that they were interesting and actually held my attention. 

To go from talking in tiring detail about the complexities of stopping time to calling someone a useless fuckboi just because they could in the next sentence was jarring and not in a way to bring humor or relief from the vast complexities the text tried and failed to reach. 

The concept was super cool and I wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, I did not. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

kathleencoughlin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I really enjoyed The Atlas Six! It's fun, magical, mysterious, and a bit sexy too. I felt like Blake did a pretty good job balancing so many pov characters and making them all individuals. My biggest complaint (which really isnt that big at all) is that I wish there were a more complete narrative arc for the book. I realize it's part of a series and I definitely want to read on but this feels a bit incomplete. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, and Sexual assault

queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.0

I read this book in two days. I'm still coming down from the high of finishing it, so I'm not sure if it was technically good, but I know I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters are spectacularly interesting. Reina and Callum could use a bit a fleshing-out; but Libby, Nico, Parisa, and Tristan were amazing POVs. Libby was obviously meant to be the audience avatar, since she is the first POV, and it's no secret that most of the target audience is likely to be women of academic background and/or anxiety/ MI.

There were definitely enough clues along the way where I saw the Ezra twist coming. I'm much more interested in the mystery of Dalton.

Faults few and far between in my opinion include: lack of depth to Nico's character, plot relying heavily on the miscommunication trope (although there is some reason for it), and a bit of pseudointellectualism since I didn't buy into the sci-fi explanations and philosophical arguments.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent

li_reading's review against another edition

5.0

Now that I’ve re-read it (twice) and catalogued all the changes, expect a video in the next couple days. 

I will say, I do think the new edition is an improvement to the original.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Infidelity, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Misogyny

aniaise's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual content, Suicide, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

sunsetcity's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense slow-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Thank you Libro.FM for the ALC of The Atlas Six, read by a full cast, a Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books! Whoever decided to cast Steve West as Callum deserves a raise.

For those like me who were living under a rock and hadn’t picked this one up, here’s the pitch: every ten years, the society that guards the lost library of Alexandria archives selects six of the most promising and powerful magicians of their generation as candidates for a year-long fellowship. Five are selected. One is eliminated.

I haven’t read a lot of dark academia, and even less “new adult” (since it was picked up and published by Tor, it is ADULT, just to be clear), so I don’t have much to compare it to. But if you liked Ninth House and/or Umbrella Academy, this is right up that alley.

I loved the setting and the overall “vibes”… but I was less of a fan of the writing style and all of the characters. I’ve had seasons of my life where I was too similar to Libby — naive, teacher’s pet sort of person — and having all the other characters mock and gang up on her was tiring as a reader.

Content warnings: cursing, su*cidal thoughts and attempts, gaslighting and bullying, sexual content (though honestly not as much as I thought there would be, given its TikTok fame)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Violence and Death of parent

phippsmr's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism