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nataliebootlah's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
How can an interesting concept with dark academia, magic, and a secret society go wrong?
Pacing. It was so. damn. slow.
Every decade, six of the most talented magicians are chosen to compete against each other for initiation into the Alexandrian Society. Unfortunately I didn’t love any of the characters. This is not to say that I hated them, but I definitely didn’t love them or feel connected to anyone in particular after the first ~100 pages.
While the premise really was interesting, the execution just wasn’t there for me, which is too bad because I wanted to love it. In hindsight, this book seems like mostly world-building and character development for the rest of the series, but I needed more. I’m not sure if I’ll be picking up book two yet, only time will tell.
Pacing. It was so. damn. slow.
Every decade, six of the most talented magicians are chosen to compete against each other for initiation into the Alexandrian Society. Unfortunately I didn’t love any of the characters. This is not to say that I hated them, but I definitely didn’t love them or feel connected to anyone in particular after the first ~100 pages.
While the premise really was interesting, the execution just wasn’t there for me, which is too bad because I wanted to love it. In hindsight, this book seems like mostly world-building and character development for the rest of the series, but I needed more. I’m not sure if I’ll be picking up book two yet, only time will tell.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content and Suicide
miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Hm i said id be annnoyed if u did that didnt i
Minor spoilers?
Minor spoilers?
‘How long would it have taken you to start a war, do you think? Or to end one?" He paused, and Callum said nothing. "Five minutes? Perhaps ten? How long would it have taken you to kill someone? To save a life? I admire what you have not done,"
‘What a relief it was, being a cog in something that actually turned for once.’
‘“Are you less guilty simply because you've been the one to unravel more?"’
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Death, Murder, and Violence
ellahoward_'s review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I really enjoyed this story and loved the concept. I just kept wanting more and didn’t feel that by the end it lived up to its potential. I’m going to assume the ending sets up book two but wish it would have been a standalone!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Violence
beegster16's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Death, and Suicide
Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Violence, Death, and Cursing
Minor: Chronic illness, Child death, Colonisation, and Grief
alicelalicon's review against another edition
mysterious
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Toxic friendship, Death, and Suicide
zareenj's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Death, Murder, and Violence
rinku's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
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
2.0
I decided on a 2.5 rating for The Atlas Six. The world and the characters had so much potential, but this potential sadly wasn’t fulfilled. Instead, we get characters that feel flat, even though they’re supposed to be #deep, an uneventful story, and an irritating writing style. I can see why this is a book TikTok would hype since I probably would’ve loved it when I was 13 and in my edgy anime phase.
For the first third, I was still intrigued with the novel and the premise, even though it’s not the most innovative one: All ten years, the best six magicians of their generation get chosen to become part of the Alexandrian society that takes care of the Alexandrian library. We follow those six characters as they navigate this new task. I normally like those stories where different characters with different goals battle each other for one thing. We naturally have some between the characters here, but it felt a bit artificial for me because the characters are barely fighting with each other seriously. Still, I was interested in what would happen.
But after this first third, nothing happens anymore and there is no plot at all which got boring. Most of the time, the characters just talk to each other which wasn’t interesting either. Also, the things that did happen were quite predictable, like the fact that Libby would break up with Ezra or that she wasn’t really dead, and that Ezra was her kidnapper . Another big problem the novel has is its pacing which is really off. Weeks or even months pass in the course of few sentences, and in-between are mostly only dialogues. Add to this a confusing and often not chronological timeline where scenes are interrupted by others and the story gets slowed down even more.
The whole moral behind the novel is a bit weird as well. Why exactly do we need to keep all this knowledge a secret? The author made some anti-colonial and anti-capitalistic jabs here and there, but she never follows through with these ideas. If we do this, I come to the conclusion that everyone should have access to the library. From what we’ve seen this far, there isn’t any dangerous knowledge that is stored there and needs to be hidden from the public. An organization exists that criticizes this, but they do nothing besides introducing themselves to the main characters.
The ending really irritated me as well, and it’s literally just a chapter of a character telling us their backstory which was so boring; we learn that Ezra can travel through time and once was part of the initiation with Atlas and faked his death to survive it, or something. Furthermore, it was not really surprising that Atlas is the villain and his plan of wanting to reset the world and create a new one was so cliché . What I also dislike about the ending is that there’s just no feeling of closure because there was no story arc there that could’ve ended, besides Libby’s kidnapping , which is not remotely resolved.
Coming to the world building, it was quite different from what I’ve expected. I actually thought that the book would be a high fantasy one, and I think that this would’ve been more interesting. Still, I always like magic in modern settings and seeing how it’s used there. But this is all that is interesting about the world. We barely know anything about the place they’re staying at besides that it “looks British”, whatever that means. Other things aren’t explained enough and hence didn’t make sense, like the mind wandering or the different dimensions.
I also had a huge problem with the way the story was written, and I think that Tor should’ve edited the book more. Like others said, the writing is quite pretentious and tries to be complex and deep but lands more on the cringe side. There’s additionally so much talking about what happened and how the characters supposedly are, but we barely see any of it which was again boring. What really bothered me as well was how the author would write dialogue with no action beats in-between and simply write “(Name.)” behind dialogue lines. This just felt lazy to me, just like some of the info dumping throughout.
The story is very character-driven, but a problem is, like other reviewers said, that the characters are not as interesting as the author think they are. After spending over 500 pages with them, I just don’t have the feeling that I know anything about them. What was their life like before they went to the library? What about their families? What are their interests? I personally think that it would’ve been more interesting if there were other people/visitors at the library and not only them, but oh well. The characters I liked the most were probably Reina and Libby. The rest of them is just too edgy for me, and I especially disliked Callum. I also found it so terrible how mean they all were to Libby without any reason. What I did like was Parisa x Dalton, but their scenes together were honestly boring as well because the forbidden part of the forbidden relationship was barely there. Talking about relationships, I have the feeling the author really hates monogamous relationships, seen in the way she portrays the relationship between Libby and Ezra. This honestly made me cringe a bit.
There was still something about The Atlas Six that I can’t say that I disliked it. This something was probably the dark academia atmosphere and the general premise. I’m not sure if I’ll read the sequels or not since I don’t know if I can stand the pretentious writing style and characters again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Infidelity
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Blood, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Sexual content
megannoelle's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, Cursing, Death, and Violence
jaclynszick's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Alcohol, Body horror, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Classism, and Blood
onthesamepage's review against another edition
dark
slow-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
3.5
Writing Style
I didn't find the writing style to be as overwrought as I was half expecting it to be. I will say that the author uses more words than are strictly necessary, but overall I found it readable enough for my tastes. However, she makes some stylistic choices that I didn't like. For example, two characters might be starting a discussion, and then the POV character remembers this other conversation they had with someone else, and we get that entire conversation in the form of a flashback in the middle of the current discussion. It happened often enough that I noticed it.
Characters
I was hoping that I would connect to at least a couple of them, but the most I can say is that they were, mostly, fine. There are characters that we are clearly meant to dislike and mistrust because of the power they have and how they choose to wield it. I think I enjoyed Nico's perspective the most out of the six. I really liked his relationship with Gideon, and the protectiveness he feels towards his friends. I'm pretty lukewarm on the rest of them.
Plot
It's not that this book doesn't have a plot at all, but most of it is characters talking and interacting with each other. The plot is truly minimal, in my opinion. There's a lot of focus on them studying, getting to know each other, and experimenting with their magic. If you like books that have very strong vibes, this might work for you. I don't think it's character-driven either—there's no meaningful growth for any of the six points of view that we get. It's possible that this happens in later books, and I'm curious to see if the sequel will have more of a plot as well.
I didn't find the writing style to be as overwrought as I was half expecting it to be. I will say that the author uses more words than are strictly necessary, but overall I found it readable enough for my tastes. However, she makes some stylistic choices that I didn't like. For example, two characters might be starting a discussion, and then the POV character remembers this other conversation they had with someone else, and we get that entire conversation in the form of a flashback in the middle of the current discussion. It happened often enough that I noticed it.
Characters
I was hoping that I would connect to at least a couple of them, but the most I can say is that they were, mostly, fine. There are characters that we are clearly meant to dislike and mistrust because of the power they have and how they choose to wield it. I think I enjoyed Nico's perspective the most out of the six. I really liked his relationship with Gideon, and the protectiveness he feels towards his friends. I'm pretty lukewarm on the rest of them.
Plot
It's not that this book doesn't have a plot at all, but most of it is characters talking and interacting with each other. The plot is truly minimal, in my opinion. There's a lot of focus on them studying, getting to know each other, and experimenting with their magic. If you like books that have very strong vibes, this might work for you. I don't think it's character-driven either—there's no meaningful growth for any of the six points of view that we get. It's possible that this happens in later books, and I'm curious to see if the sequel will have more of a plot as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Violence, and Gaslighting