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elderwoodreads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Went into this on the recommendation of a friend with not a lot of info and I loved it! The end really sold it for me and I loved how Blake played with different writing styles throughout. I really felt like I was in it with the characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Sexual content, Cursing, Drug use, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Alcohol, Pregnancy, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Violence
cooloquirk's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use
cassidylee's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
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
Listening to this audiobook was immersive and intriguing, almost consuming.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, and Sexual content
Moderate: Cursing and Medical content
Minor: Blood and Addiction
lucielockettreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
There were snippets I read and it did feel deep and philosophical, as though Blake herself was peering into my soul and wrote the words on paper. Then all the other parts, they just… muddled together. I started skipping pages and pages of waffle which of course is charlottes mania. But the message to do with mental health therapy and TAKING MEDICATION I hated. I study psychology and counselling at university and there is absolutely in my mind a support for therapy, and sometimes medical intervention where therapy is not effective enough, this story says screw therapy and screw my meds!
I understand that the FMC is bipolar and maybe that’s why she never bought it up but the therapist should of saw them signs earlier.
Also aldo and his father are a wonderful story and I actually enjoyed it mostly when they were talking to each other
Also also, sex doesn’t heal everything!!!!!!
TLDR; not my type of genre, which I learnt through reading this, and the writing style… some good moments but a lot was not, although that does relate to the FMC personality.
Check trigger warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Infidelity, Murder, Drug abuse, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Addiction
jbellomy's review against another edition
emotional
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
3.0
Torn. The more I think about it, the more I dislike it -- it's like if an early 2010s NLOG watched Garden State and thought, "hey, I bet I could make that angstier." The messaging is icky, the format is needlessly convoluted (form following function? Olivie Blake could NEVER), the dialogue in the first half is so so stilted and offensively twee. The male lead literally does the Augustus Waters thing, but instead of a cigarette, it's a joint that he *doesn't* smoke! (OKAY FINE he does it for a different reason. But in the acknowledgements Blake states that the first image she had of the character was ~a guy who's not smoking the joint he's holding~ and I'm like girl. You obviously watched/read The Fault in Our Stars and the most iconic, silly, parodied-to-death character quirk stuck in your brain and eventually your subconscious convinced you the idea was yours. HOW did no editor catch this. HOW.) (I know it was originally self published but dear god why didn't someone take this out of the final version.) However. There were some moments I really loved (e.g. the church scene kicked absolute ass). It's interesting that most of the negative reviews praise the first half of the book, but I much preferred the latter half. Blake captures the early throws of romantic obsession so well. There were scenes that fully transported me back to my high school relationship, which is wild since these characters are in their mid-late 20's, and, judging by the ending, Blake does not seem to be aware that their relationship is dangerously codependent. Troubling, but what can you do? They're so misunderstood and unique and they simply must let their freak flags fly/ignore all other flags, namely red ones, and dive head first into their all-consuming love! Seriously though, Regan and Aldo think they're hot shit because they've got quirky names and they're malnourished insomniacs and they're mentally ill and have special interests -- like half the book is them saying to each other how different from the rest of the world they both are -- but has anyone told them about the internet?? We're all in the DSM here. Maybe you're not different. Maybe one of you is just kind of rude, and one of you is just kind of mean, and that's fine, but it is not aspirational or romantic. BUUUUT at the same time, *I'm* a kind of rude, kind of mean, mentally ill obsessive freak, and I also get even more insane when I fall in love with someone, so, like, relatable content I guess.* I was an early 2010s tumblr NLOG. And I kinda like Garden State. I'm not going to read the Atlas Six because I cannot stand another second of Olivie Blake's clumsy pontificating about bees or math or philosophy or time or whatever she thinks will make her self-inserts sound smart, but I'm not leaving this book with 100% negative feelings. Tl;dr no regrets about having read this; would not recommend to anyone I respect.
*Regan is out here representing the neurodivergent trust fund babies who are fully incapable of holding down a real job. Though I do not approve of her male manipulator ways, gotta appreciate the rep. She just like me for real.
*Regan is out here representing the neurodivergent trust fund babies who are fully incapable of holding down a real job. Though I do not approve of her male manipulator ways, gotta appreciate the rep. She just like me for real.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual content, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Infidelity
Minor: Addiction, Suicide attempt, Classism, Violence, and Blood
nightfell's review
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book was written for all the pretentious readers, and while I respect all the small and complex ideas discussed in this book, I just didn't care. I wanted to like this book, but I felt no emotional connection to the characters and their love story. I would equate this book to looking at a famous piece of art that is revered by everyone and knowing that it is beautiful but not feeling attached or connected to it in any way.
The whole time I was reading this book, I couldn't understand why Regan was so infatuated with Aldo aside from her cycle of finding and dumping men. She seemed like the type of person her boyfriend, Marc, described her to be the entire book. I know he was supposed to be an antagonist, but I believed what he said about her, not in a spiteful or negative way, just as fact. I couldn't believe that she was give him the time of day, and I don't know why she was so deeply interested in him. Aldo was a cute character, but I'm not attached to him in any way, and I feel like his character was lacking in true depth. It was included towards the beginning, but neglected in favour of Regan's character arc, which was well done in an objective viewpoint but I didn't like her character as much, so I was frustrated reading.
I much preferred the first half to the second half, as the first part had many different narrators which was interesting to read. Once Regan and Aldo became romantically involved, there were so many unn sex scenes (in my opinion). It became very repetitive to read them having sex at random times which would have been fine, if not for the weird way it was written. It followed the abstract writing style of the book which made reading the sex scenes just too much for me.
Overall, it was good, I just didn't care.
The whole time I was reading this book, I couldn't understand why Regan was so infatuated with Aldo aside from her cycle of finding and dumping men. She seemed like the type of person her boyfriend, Marc, described her to be the entire book. I know he was supposed to be an antagonist, but I believed what he said about her, not in a spiteful or negative way, just as fact. I couldn't believe that she was give him the time of day, and I don't know why she was so deeply interested in him. Aldo was a cute character, but I'm not attached to him in any way, and I feel like his character was lacking in true depth. It was included towards the beginning, but neglected in favour of Regan's character arc, which was well done in an objective viewpoint but I didn't like her character as much, so I was frustrated reading.
I much preferred the first half to the second half, as the first part had many different narrators which was interesting to read. Once Regan and Aldo became romantically involved, there were so many unn sex scenes (in my opinion). It became very repetitive to read them having sex at random times which would have been fine, if not for the weird way it was written. It followed the abstract writing style of the book which made reading the sex scenes just too much for me.
Overall, it was good, I just didn't care.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity
Moderate: Drug use
Minor: Blood
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