Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

213 reviews

lleer's review against another edition

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

3.75

I had a lot of fun reading this book for sure. It was very fun to read and gripping and fast to get through. 
But throughout the whole book there's no actual plot, and there's a lot of telling and no showing. The six immediately accept being part of the society and accept killing someone without even questioning what is the society and what is the benefit of all this. 
We are told there's a society and that's t. What is the society who controls it what is the benefit of joining, and almost no description whatsoever, we don't even know what the forum is and why is it against the society. Even the plot twist was just handed down to us. Everything is just there including the magic system. Which makes the book lack a lot. 

Imo it's not worth more than 3.75 stars, but nevertheless it was very fun to read and easy to grasp. I enjoyed the characters interactions and the dialogues very much. If you are looking for a gripping mysterious story, I recommend it. It's overhyped though. 

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ssellwood's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

As a premise, the Atlas Six sounds amazing, dark academia fantasy, with 6 powerful mages being inducted into a secret society. The highlights include interesting magic theories, a broad mix of characters but I think what holds it together is the tension, both plot wise and romantic, with some good twists. However, I felt let down by the writing style. There is quite a lot of time spent discussing different broad themes like morality, knowledge and power, and while these are good themes, I felt the style was a bit overwrought and try-hard, with some chapters feeling very dense. Also, while I understand that mystery is a large part of this plot, it felt like a lot of some character's backstories and magic theories wasn't discussed so some characters were a lot easier to understand than others.

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blessjessmess's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

I understand the mixed reviews on this book. Its definitely not for everyone. This book is dark academia and an alternate universe where magic users are a normal part of society and society reflects magic in all aspects of the world. 

OF COURSE, if magic were commonplace, it would find itself being used corruptly in finance, politics, and crime. 

But what I really loved about this book is that this books main theme revolves around information. How information is weaponized against those without the means to access it. How the more information you know you realize theres so much you don't know. How easily information can be altered and how that can have dire consequences. How censorship hurts the entire population. And how information is power and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

  •  I held off on a 5 simply because the first book (the intro book, if you will) of a series should never be its best, which means I have high expectations for the upcoming 3rd in the series.
    • I, personally, loved this book. It's a bit meta in the most original way I've seen any genre meta book written before, so I really enjoyed that.
    • I liked that each character was well rounded, and time was spent on developing the entire cast in the novel. 
    • This book is incredibly cerebral, but I love cerebral fiction so that's a win for me. 
  • This book basically said F*** the Hero's Journey and took its on path....and I really respect that. 

You will like this book if you like: 
  • alternating povs
  • science theory
  • coming of age books
  • grounded magic
  • time travel
  • dimensional travel
  • Dream travel
  • found family
  • if you want the feel of Harry Potter but want adult themes and modernized for the environment we currently live in
  • If you are in a reading rut this is a good book to break it

You will NOT like this book if:
  • unlikable characters.
  • meta reading
  • advanced science jargon



******I half read/half listened to this book on audio. I found I preferred the audio because of the voice actors. 


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hannahcstocks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny 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

4.25


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fruitbatflora's review against another edition

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

2.0


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philosofreaky's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-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

3.75

I enjoyed this book but struggled to read it. (In the end, I think I just needed to be in the right mood/headspace to tackle it.) It's slow-paced, but I found the subject matter and character thoughts/conversations intriguing, until the last 5th of the book when it moves fast and exciting and couldn't put it down. That left me feeling quite content in the background and understanding I had of all the players moving forward. 

I neither loved or hated anyone in particular, instead, did a good job of everyone having a purpose and being an intricate, ensemble cast. I will read the next one for sure, knowing that some parts might be dry but inevitably not? Somehow? I don't know. I still enjoyed the story AND the writing even though it didn't feel like a page turner. It made my brain happy.

Also, the bits in the short story included, Sacred Hospitality, did in fact make me chortle.

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abbyycadabbyy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

3.0

     I had really high hopes for this book, and I was disappointed. I thought that the book was going to be a lot different then it was.

     When people said that the characters were "competing to be in the school" I was thinking like physically competing. I thought the book was going to be kinda A Court of Thornes and Roses vibes with the challenges. To be honest I don't really feel like they were competing. 

     This kinda goes along with the "competing" thing, but this book was SO slow. I feel like the book was way too long and had way too much random info dumping. Like the characters would talk about the molecular build of something and that would take up like 20 minutes. Like I took chemistry I don't need to relearn it. I don't know that was like extremely boring. 

     I didn't really like any of the characters. The only character I kinda liked was Prisa. Even then, I felt like she was annoying because all she would talk about was how she knew how to get into a man's pants so that they would give her information. I didn't like that at all. She could be really smart if she actually tried, but instead she resorted to sleeping with people.

     I am going to be so for real I don't think I would have finished this if I wasn't listening to the audiobook. I also don't know how I am going to get through the second book. 

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ahgauci's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.0

I really enjoyed the book until the end. It started off as grounded and very character driven before diving into a completely different story as the book was coming to a close. It’s a shame as I found the characters compelling.

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bookaholic84's review against another edition

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

4.0


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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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

3.0

This is my book club’s choice for September. I've always wanted to join a book club and it’s all online which I liked. I couldn’t participate in August’s book of the month as I'd already read it. So, this is the first month where I was fully involved. If this was the book club’s choice of the month, I probably wouldn’t have read it.  

This book is based on the Alexandrian Society who are the caretakers of lost knowledge from the civilizations of antiquity, and they are a secret society for the magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, knowledge and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only six of the most talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiations. In this book, we meet the newest initiates: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona are the unwilling halves of the unfathomable whole, who can control every element of physicality. Then there is Reina Mori, she is a naturalist who can speak the language of life within itself. Parisa Kamali is a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious and navigate worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova is an empath easily mistaken for illusionist and he can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through any illusions to a new structure of reality – it's an ability so rare that neither him nor his peers can fully grasp its powers. All of these candidates were recruited by the dark and mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they have one year to qualify for the initiation and during the time they are permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects such as time and space, luck and though, life and death. There is a competition – only five with get through to the initiation ceremony and one will be eliminated. The six will fight to survive the next year of their lives and prove themselves to be the best out of the six. 

This is another book where I was ignoring the hype on BookTok and was glad to ignore the hype on BookTok. I still don’t get the hype of it. I think my main issue with this book is I hated all the characters; I am all for rooting for the main character within a book. Due to this book having all six POVs, there wasn’t a good person who you knew was going to be safe. Libby was annoying and she was too much of a people pleaser than focusing on herself. Nico was just two-faced and taking unnecessary risks. Reina was too quiet that I felt we barely got to know her and when she was there, she couldn’t control her powers, or she was talking about stuff we already knew. Parisa drove me up the wall with how bitchy she was – the mean girls called, and Regina George wants her personality back. She was all about being open about sex and things which is all great but then was completely shaming Libby for only having one boyfriend or not wanting to sleep around. Callum gave me whiplash with how manipulating he was and honestly was glad about the decisions the team made if the plot was going that way. Tristan was the only one that sort of had a head on his shoulders and a conscious but felt like his POVs was just Callum is two-faced, Nico is annoying, Libby is cute, Parisa is staring at me. It felt like some characters were more favoured so had more of a personality and then others were literally there to remind us of information we already knew. I felt like the storyline and world building was a bit all over the place.  

I liked how the book was a bit calmer considering it was a competition and they had to kill someone to survive. I loved the multiple POVs, I just wanted more from them. I was more interested in Nico’s friends side drama than the actual storyline that was going on. 

Libby is probably the reason I might pick up the second book. Just to see what’s going to happen with her and who wins this freaking competition. 

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