Scan barcode
midnacine's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
"Magic has aspects of nature, nature has aspects of magic, and to take one away from either is a corruption to both their forms."
The writing style of this book makes me wanna change the writing style of my reviews. That's how you know a book is good- when it undeniably influences your day-to-day decisions and ultimately leaves you consumed.
I'll be honest: I didn't expect to love this as much as I did. At moments, it was really hard for me to concentrate on the prose, as it's very much in the style of all those classics you're forced to read in high school. However, once I got attached to the characters, I was hooked.
I love the integration of magic with science, philosophy, and morality. Though challenging for me at times, I did find myself lingering on quite a few of the existential questions and really thinking about myself in the situations the Six are shown to be in. Namely: would I be willing to do whatever necessary, no matter the cost, if it meant accessing knowledge and power forbidden to the majority of human existence? Honestly, I'll never know.
And just to get it out of my system, here's the more academic portion of my review:
Reading Atlas Six was like looking at scrambled pieces of a puzzle: you know they'll all come together to make a cohesive picture, but until you have all of the pieces it's impossible to know in what orientation, exactly, the picture will be. Olivie Blake does an impeccable job of casting her very own magic over the reader to keep them on a proverbial seat, never revealing too much information at once to let them piece together the puzzle on their own.
I think the writing is absolutely gorgeous and has an amazing balance of seriousness and humor. It definitely took ~~big brain~~ to read it but I can't wait to see what happens in the second book!
The writing style of this book makes me wanna change the writing style of my reviews. That's how you know a book is good- when it undeniably influences your day-to-day decisions and ultimately leaves you consumed.
I'll be honest: I didn't expect to love this as much as I did. At moments, it was really hard for me to concentrate on the prose, as it's very much in the style of all those classics you're forced to read in high school. However, once I got attached to the characters, I was hooked.
I love the integration of magic with science, philosophy, and morality. Though challenging for me at times, I did find myself lingering on quite a few of the existential questions and really thinking about myself in the situations the Six are shown to be in. Namely: would I be willing to do whatever necessary, no matter the cost, if it meant accessing knowledge and power forbidden to the majority of human existence? Honestly, I'll never know.
And just to get it out of my system, here's the more academic portion of my review:
Reading Atlas Six was like looking at scrambled pieces of a puzzle: you know they'll all come together to make a cohesive picture, but until you have all of the pieces it's impossible to know in what orientation, exactly, the picture will be. Olivie Blake does an impeccable job of casting her very own magic over the reader to keep them on a proverbial seat, never revealing too much information at once to let them piece together the puzzle on their own.
I think the writing is absolutely gorgeous and has an amazing balance of seriousness and humor. It definitely took ~~big brain~~ to read it but I can't wait to see what happens in the second book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, Death, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, and Torture
Minor: Child abuse, Body horror, Terminal illness, Grief, and Cursing
frantically's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
fast-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
This book is just: "You don't know anything about physics? Sucks to be you đź–¤" for almost 400 pages.
I had no clue what this was about going in and I was pleasantly surprised! Usually I'm not the biggest fan of urban fantasy but this one was so well done, it just all felt really natural (and it gave me hardcore WINX-Vibes, if anyone else understands that lol).
BookTok has made me really apprehensive about a lot of the books recommended there — morally gray characters are just lazy Kaz copies, enemies to lovers is just straight up abuse, etc., but this book actually had interesting, multifaceted morally gray characters and I enjoyed that so much.
For much of the book, there isn't a clear villain, a clear force that has to be fought again and that offered a lot of space for characters development and introspection, which fantasy books often don't have enough time for but I absolutely adore it.
I'm looking forward to reading the next book! I hope it won't be just a duology, as there were so many possible storylines mentioned in this one and I hope they all get their space to be properly explored.
I had no clue what this was about going in and I was pleasantly surprised! Usually I'm not the biggest fan of urban fantasy but this one was so well done, it just all felt really natural (and it gave me hardcore WINX-Vibes, if anyone else understands that lol).
BookTok has made me really apprehensive about a lot of the books recommended there — morally gray characters are just lazy Kaz copies, enemies to lovers is just straight up abuse, etc., but this book actually had interesting, multifaceted morally gray characters and I enjoyed that so much.
For much of the book, there isn't a clear villain, a clear force that has to be fought again and that offered a lot of space for characters development and introspection, which fantasy books often don't have enough time for but I absolutely adore it.
I'm looking forward to reading the next book! I hope it won't be just a duology, as there were so many possible storylines mentioned in this one and I hope they all get their space to be properly explored.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Sexual content, Violence, Death, and Infidelity
Moderate: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Terminal illness, Child death, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail
librarianlayla's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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
4.5
4/4.5 stars
A dark academia murder game that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.
You know a book is written well when you can both admire and loathe the characters within. There were some areas that were a little trudgy to get through but overall the high stakes pace of the story held throughout.
I cannot wait to see how this ends.
A dark academia murder game that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.
You know a book is written well when you can both admire and loathe the characters within. There were some areas that were a little trudgy to get through but overall the high stakes pace of the story held throughout.
I cannot wait to see how this ends.
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Child abuse
uranaishi's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Grief, Terminal illness, Violence, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Abandonment, Cursing, Alcohol, Bullying, Child death, and Death
Minor: Child abuse, Vomit, Classism, War, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury
iridescentjuniper's review against another edition
dark
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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, and Sexual content
Moderate: Child abuse and Cursing
Minor: Death and Suicide
caitlin033's review against another edition
challenging
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Suicide, and Child abuse
thoughtsontomes's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
3.5
I am conflicted about this book. There were parts that were pretentious and bit muddled but I do think that’s intentional. The characters, while mainly unlikeable, did grow on me. Sometimes their dynamics with each other didn’t make a lot of sense to me - it felt like I was missing something. The magic didn’t quite make sense and for a dark academia about magic I was expecting it to be a bit more detailed than it was. But ultimately I’m intrigued enough to continue and my rating of this may change over time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Child abuse
sa_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the book and will definitely be reading the sequel but something about it…disappointed me in a way? I feel like I was both over and underwhelmed by it.
The world building, while solid, sometimes went over my head which was part of why I rated it lower than I thought I would. There were many times when I had to reared sections of the book before I stared to grasp what was going on.
Some of the characters - for the majority of the book - just weren’t all that likeable. For me personally, I mean. In all honesty I really only liked Nico, Libby and Reina. Though Paris’s and Tristan did start to grow on me, that was only towards the end of the book.
Plus I was doing my exams while reading this so that impacted how I felt about the book. There were times I wasn’t really invested because I knew I had other things I should be focusing on. If I read this some other time, I probably would’ve rated it higher.
The magic system was interesting, though. And I am eager to read the sequel.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Violence
Minor: Child abuse
merlinduh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse and Child death
educatorgams's review against another edition
dark
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
3.0
The world building here is amazing, I enjoy magical realism slotted quietly into a contemporary setting. The shifting point of view really helps to move the plot along while keeping you from sympathizing and identifying too strongly with any single character. Each of the six main characters has good and bad points and the story does a great job of exploring them as three dimensional individuals while maintaining the intrigue of a secret society and all the drama you would expect from the chance to join a secret organization guiding the world’s leaders.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Murder
Moderate: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Gun violence
Minor: Sexual assault and Child abuse