Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

58 reviews

crownoflaurel's review

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dark mysterious 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

3.75


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cecinamo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-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

Great read! The story was so intricately written, with loads of mysteries and interesting subplots. All the characters were so unique and facetted. They were so well written! The magic was a little confusing sometimes, I think I only understood towards the end of the book what ‘wards’ were. Sometimes the book also dragged a bit, but I didn’t mind that. I definitely look forward to the next book! 

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tomas_lw's review against another edition

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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

4.5

Fun premise, exceptional characters, pretty good execution.

The plot is simple and fun. Six magicians with exceptionally powerful specialities are selected to join a secret society. But only five can actually join at the end. Cue intrigue, sex, betrayal, magic weirdness, love, hate, death and other fun things.

Over all the book was a great read.

I do have som complaints though.

First of all the author seemed to almost forgot entierly about Reina for almost the entire book which was disapointing since her opening chapter made me really attached to her. I really hope she gets more to do in the next book.

And the ending of the book is very out of left field and exposition heavy. It felt like the author at the last time decided to turn the book into a trilogy and rewrote the ending to set up the sequels. It's a bit heavy handed and not entirely satifying. So lets hope it pays of in the next books!

Also, the book could have had a bit more things happening as most of the book is either characters talking with or thinking about the other characters. Don't get me wrong, I love all these characters and the talking and plotting is terrific, but the pacing of the book could probably have been better with some more action in the middle.

Overall, a great read as I said above and I'm definitely getting the rest of the series ASAP.




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caseymac's review

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

5.0


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jaynovara's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

4.25


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therealsouls's review

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

3.75

3.75 stars

<img src="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/af/77/8a/af778aa445f7a4971c89c9c4f570a4bf.jpg">

The Atlas Six is set in the future generations and recounts the story of 6 entirely different magicians, called medeians, who were offered a position at the Alexandrian Society, a secret society composed of only the most skilled medeians. The Alexandrian Society includes powerful secrets and knowledge to be revealed, preserving ancient copies of documents of philosophers, scientists, etc. These 6 invited medeians come from all over the world with entirely different abilities, each one of the best at what they do, according to Atlas Blakely. (the man who invited them) 

These include:
  • The rival physicist duo Nico and Libby
  • The naturalist Reina
  • The telepath Parisa
  • The empath Callum
  • Tristan. Who spots illusions.

This book is the epitome of "with great power comes great responsibility". It taught me that whatever the case, we must be ready to handle our power, for the heavier it is, the stronger a grip it demands.

Let me just say...

this book had so much potential.

So much conflict, so many opportunities, and so few of them used. The characters attached me to them, the plot ached me for more, the magic system intrigued my mind, the mysteries demanded my investigation.

But very few interesting events actually did happen. It felt like such a waste! You've got the perfect recipe already, Olivie Blake, so why improvise? Why drag us on with the pacing? Why make us spend... what... 14 euro for the next book, making us thirsty for more? I can rant all day about these things, promise.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the characters and the set-up, but I do feel that it could've been executed better overall. Props to you, Olivie Blake!

also nico is hot

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onthesamepage's review against another edition

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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. 

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risaleel's review against another edition

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

4.25


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themiscyra_anna's review against another edition

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

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tinyjude's review

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

Reading the first pages I didn't have many expectations but I was nicely surprised by the complexity of the characters. Now I am kind of curious about how will the story continue, although the revelation made me feel like the antagonist turned into a simple caricature of a villain (hopefully their motivations and personality will be further explored so they feel more complex and interesting)

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