Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake

47 reviews

anton13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.75

Reason it wasn’t a 5 star read was bc it was a bit slow to me. Now that could’ve been my fault for not being fully in the book when reading a lot of the time but still it felt a bit slow. Nonetheless the story was amazing and the twists and turns had me shook. I don’t know how I’m supposed to survive till next year before I get to read the third book but I’ll have to manage. I love this world and the idea that there’s magic and secret societies with so much knowledge. I can’t wait to see how their journeys will continue. And also the end😱😱 no way! I wanna say this: FINALLY!! And: it made me so happy and so intrigued for the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Addiction, Confinement, Death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Child death

jeyjeyyy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

Really liked the first one, this one not so much. Maybe my taste has changed, it’s been a year after all, or maybe it’s just not as good. For me this book is too pretentious, like it’s trying to info dump on purpose. If I wanted to read something hard to understand, I would read an actual physics book or a philosophy essay. This book is trying to be that, while being a fantasy book and a Secret History variant, but it doesn’t do it well. The characters are trying so hard to be morally grey and nuanced, but they’re just unrealistic and most of the time annoying. Nobody talks or behaves like they do. I get that it is part of the point, that power has made them insane and detached from the world, but it’s honestly tiring. The only relationships I liked (Tristan and Callum, Libby and Nico, Gideon and Nico) were overshadowed by stuff I had no interest in, and honestly, most of the links beteen the characters didn’t really seem to make sense or have any purpose. Too much unnecessary and uncomfortable sex too. This book wants to do too much and therefore does nothing well.
 I will say, though, some quotes in there were really smart and beautiful, shame they had to be mixed up in what was mostly an inefficient and quite boring story. 
 Olivie Blake is obviously a smart and talented writer, I just wished this book had clearer purpose. It is also quite niche so maybe it wasn’t for me but yeah, I wasn’t a fan. 
Ps: Shoutout to Belen for being the best character ever. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Blood, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, and Murder

klavanger's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Classism, Murder, and Alcohol

dododenise's review against another edition

challenging inspiring mysterious 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

4.5

Oh my god?!?
I enjoyed reading the first book more but holy shit I still loved this one so much.  
I mostly was less convinced by all the philosophising this time. That was the part that really got me into the first book. But now I got into the character dynamics and the chaos of it all. I also actually like some of the characters now and considering they're all designed to be assholes that's an accomplishment. And I was rewarded in my favourite shipping!! I didn't dare to hope for it because so many characters are set up to potentially have some romantic and/or sexual relationship. 
Honestly, their relationship dynamics were all over the place and I was here for it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Alcoholism, and Cursing

Moderate: Racism, Misogyny, Violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual content, Colonisation, and Death

nadiaherondale's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Although I didn't love it as much as the first one there is no other way to say it that this world building, the dark academia and the characters of this book are enchanting, trapping. It's a book you just can't put down. 
During the first one I was so obsessed with Nico and Libby's cosmic dance of soulmatism (and I still am, after all I picked The Atlas Six up expecting a whole academic rivals to lovers slow burn) that I obviously put the other characters in the background. The Atlas Paradox helped remedy that, and honestly, I loved it. I loved exploring Parisa, Reina, Tristan and Callum more deeply, their motives and the independant research, and even others like Dalton, Atlas and Ezra (although fuck him).
Honestly I can't wait for the third one to see how every plot point (and there are a lot, Olivie Blake tends to go on tangents) is resolved

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Stalking, Sexism, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

icieri's review against another edition

mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Violence, and Death

taryn_g's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death and Murder

Minor: Death of parent and Child death

sydapel's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-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

2.0

Look, I'm not here to be a hater. Olive Blake clearly has talent and I'm happy to continue reading her books. But this was a slog to get through. The first half was alright, once I got used to Blake's writing style (reads very like fanfic, which makes sense), but when you get to the second half and barely anything has actually happened?? While I'm not going to pretend I don't love the aesthetic and the character dynamics she employs, the lack of on page action and stagnant characters (only two of them actually get to do something in this book) is really really frustrating. She also has so many different plot threads going that I used to think she knows how to tie up, but I'm not so sure anymore. Here's hoping for a robust editor in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism

Moderate: Murder, Death, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Physical abuse and Misogyny

itsheyfay's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Ableism, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship

aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense 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

 

this was my multiverse of madness

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Toxic friendship, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Blood, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Mass/school shootings, Sexual content, Blood, and Terminal illness

Minor: Colonisation, Cancer, Death of parent, and Classism