Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

56 reviews

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, Cursing, Death, and Violence

stllyltc's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious reflective 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

5.0

I finally got through it, and it was most definitely in the latest parts where everything seemed to fit together, even though some mystifying areas still exist—a fact that made me love it. To be honest, I find that it wasn't my cup of tea in the first place, but by just continually reading it, especially that there are more than six characters involved, it is a challenge that you are rooting for; you might end up rooting for one or none, but it won't matter; it's a different kind of play in relationship dynamics that we don't find commonly. Often I have the obsessive urge to read the next installment just to find out what happened after, but this one was not the indulging type where it makes me go cray cray, but it gave both thrill and mystery that is enough to binge over for some weeks. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, and Grief

risaleel's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Blood, and Death

booksemmahasread'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Child abuse, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

tinyjude's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Stalking, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, and Sexism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Incest

revengesrose's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Suicide attempt, and Incest

Minor: Death, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Sexual content

booksthatburn's review against another edition

I was initially drawn in by the premise, a group of magicians brought to the Library of Alexandria have a year to decide which one of them will be eliminated and which five get to stay for another year. The cast of characters is pretty diverse (though a bit of that initial feeling of diversity was dampened when I realized all of them seemed to have English as their first language, which instantly shrunk the practical candidate pool. Part of the story questions the validity and methods of the entire enterprise, so that leaves some wiggle room for explaining why the candidates aren't actually very diverse (only six total, and two are from the same school in the USA?). Additionally, this could have been the library of Atlantis or Boston and it would have had just as much relevance to the plot. The latest incarnation of the "Library of Alexandria" is physically located in London, in the UK. It became clear pretty quickly that "Alexandria" is just a name, and an indication of thousands of years of whatever this thing is (or at least a claim to that long legacy). There are vague descriptions of the category of study and experiments which the candidates are pursuing, but most of the story is actually a very intense and complicated web of power plays and personal dynamics between the six candidates and the two Alexandrians who oversee them (mostly one of them). There's a pretty intense sex scene about halfway through which I actually didn't mind, but it felt like a sudden shift in tone from the rest of the book. 

The characters seemed initially pretty interesting, but there's very little description of how their powers actually work. There are discussions of magical theory which I enjoyed, but they were usually couched in ways where the magic is actually secondary, which made them feel unmoored from the world being built. 

It's six (sometimes eight) people in a house, talking to each other and slowly changing how they feel about one another, which is not what I was expecting in a book about "magicians living in the Library of Alexandria".

Ultimately I stopped because it became clearly stated that the whole thing is a slow burn trolley problem, and I don't like trolley problem situations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Classism, Murder, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Suicide

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Grief, Sexism, Violence, and Gun violence

Minor: Child death and Fire/Fire injury

em_of_swags's review against another edition

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

thought the magic system and motivations of the characters were pretty interesting but the amount of sexuality made me uncomfortable (yes I know this is an adult book, it could have been violence ok?) and I didn't fully grasp the clear line of the plot

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Murder, Violence, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Mass/school shootings, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Death

Minor: Terminal illness

thaliareads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense 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

5.0

Really interesting concept and a diverse cast of characters. I do sort of wish I had read it as a physical or e-book the first time instead of listening to the audiobook. It was a bit tough for me to separate the characters at first since the way I listen to audiobooks while I'm doing other things I sometimes missed when a switch in character was announced. However, this is my personal experience and overall I really enjoyed the narration of this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Gun violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Grief, Terminal illness, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Death, and Torture

Minor: Alcohol

The main plot does involve the six initiates protecting the society which does involve fairly detailed fighting with enemies who try to break in

this extends to torturing and killing some of those who made it through the wards.

. Minor spoiler

one of the initiates had a sibling who died from an incurable terminal illness.

Large spoilers

One of the characters had to watch his mom die in a mass shooting and relive that day over and over again. Additionally, the initiates realize that while there are six of them - they won't have to pick one of them to leave - they have to pick one of them to kill. There is some graphic sexual content in multiple instances. Some is a M/F pairing, the other instance is a M/F/F threesome.

avie_j's review against another edition

dark 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death, Violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Mental illness, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Sexual violence, Rape, and Grief