Reviews

The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake

winterbelle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

hollys_library's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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

3.0

“The truth is I wrote this trilogy from a place of rage” yeah respectfully, that is extremely obvious in this book especially. I didn’t need the acknowledgments to tell me that after having spent at least half the book feeling like I was being ranted to. I understand the rage, and I share the same opinions! But I already share them. I don’t mind when sociopolitical commentaries are a bit on the nose, I even like it when they’re just little things scattered throughout, but this just felt like it was a sociopolitical commentary above all else, hardly caring for the story at all anymore. Surely those sorts of themes used in a series like this should be used to inspire hope, determination to keep up the fight? Whereas by the end of this it just felt like there was no hope left, and the way we’d got there meant I didn’t even care by the end. It’s a shame, because I really enjoyed the first book, and quite enjoyed the second. 

booktalkcorner's review against another edition

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I really wanted to like this because I LOVE the way Olivie Blake writes, but this book just didn’t do anything for me. I expected more character development by the third book in this series or at least an interesting plot, but I was bored on both fronts. 

I’ll probably end up finishing it at some point since it’s the last book in the series but that won’t be anytime soon. 

ok7a's review against another edition

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

2.0

kayleev6's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

3.5

ellajayne's review against another edition

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If you ever need an example of an author with no plot ideas trying to hit a word target, let this be it. 

shubunkin_reads's review against another edition

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

2.0

nerdydreamer107's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

3.75

casual's review against another edition

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5.0

Right after I finished this book I wrote this long review, then ended up deleting all of it because I felt like I needed to simmer on this one a little longer. Honestly this one is a controversial five star for me. I definitely understand the very mixed reviews on this finale and the series as a whole, but I think overall this series is very niche. It's heavy character study, philosophy, and really digging in deep to what power and knowledge and hunger can do to corrupt someone. This series is mostly vibes and disaster bisexual shenanigans, and I can 100% see why that's not everybody's cup of tea, but honestly, I loved it. I originally was going to give this a 4/5 because of some of the critiques I have for it (some of the interiority went on too long in high tension moments, the Ezra Six passages felt out of place and felt like frustrating take-aways from the main story), but I had such a genuinely fun and engaging time reading this book that off my experience and love for these characters alone, I'm giving it five stars. The main six are a perfect example to me of what I love in flawed, dynamic, messy characters, and their endings, while heartbreaking, made a lot of sense in the context of the plot and I felt like Blake did a fantastic job of never shielding these characters from the harsh consequences of their actions. It truly is a flew-to-close-to-the-sun type of story. This series has cult-classic vibes to me in that it's not going to be everybody's cup of tea, but it was definitely my tastes for sure and I see myself coming back to this series again and again.

booksbydann's review against another edition

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4.5

well, that was a lot of damage

...

4.5⭐️

Doing the right thing, the necessary thing, would always come with pain.

Olivie Blake nunca deja de sorprenderme. Honestamente no me esperaba el 90% de las cosas que tienen lugar en esta tercera parte. Cada cosa que pensé que podía llegar a pasar no pasó. Al terminarlo sentí que no había cumplido mis expectativas del todo y ahora, dos semanas después de terminarlo siento este sentimiento más diluido. Al escribir esta reseña y poder ponerme a analizar con detalle varios aspectos del libro pude apreciarlo más incluso. Este libro me parece excelente, a pesar de que no fue lo que esperaba pude entender sin problemas cada decisión que fue tomando Olivie. La autora tenía la opción de terminar la trilogía con una final que satisficiera a los fans de sus personajes y no lo hizo, en su lugar tomó decisiones arriesgadas que para mí lograron darle un buen cierre al ciclo que se inicia en el primer libro.

Entiendo por qué este libro puede no funcionar para algunas personas, y a la vez no. Porque no dejo de pensar que este tercer libro mantiene la misma esencia y línea de los anteriores dos.

La trilogía The Atlas no es una trilogía que sigue un arco de lucha entre el bien y el mal, no hay héroes ni villanos, hay personajes grises, hay personajes corrompidos por el poder y conocimiento. Esos personajes son el corazón de The Atlas. No hay un plot sólido en este tercer libro de la misma forma en que no lo hay en los dos libros anteriores. Acá lo que importa son los personajes, sus crisis, sus reflexiones y las relaciones que entablan en el contexto de un mundo globalizado y corrompido.

Olivie en los agradecimientos lo dice claro:

What even matters, I asked myself in exasperation, if the fucking world is ending? And why should we bother to go on?
The answer, of course—the answer that took me three books to write—is that the world is not ending. The world will live on. We mythologize ourselves, it’s what we do as humans, but ultimately we are expendable


So I thought: okay, I’ll write a book where the whole story is just … six people. The relationships will be the plot, because relationships are all that matter. [...] The way each character would be their own unreliable narrator, because as in life, the lies we tell ourselves are just as important as the truth. [. I knew it would require a particular audience, one that was willing to go along with a story that was part thriller, part prolonged philosophical rumination; as a reading experience, it would call for fluid, shifting sympathies and total submission to a pulpy web of ethical derelicts masquerading as magic nerds.

Fragmento muy largo, lo sé. Pero así como dice Olivie, ésta es la esencia de la historia. ¿Qué pasa si les das a 6 de las personas más poderosas del planeta el poder de cambiar el mundo?

Creo que cerrarlo donde los personajes tengan un final feliz y donde volvieran a ser los de antes hubiera sido muy poco fiel al tono de la historia, los personajes quedaron profundamente cambiados por sus experiencias en la sociedad y el conocimiento que esta les dio, así que no es sorpresa que sus propios traumas y conflictos internos fueran los mayores desafíos que tuvieron que enfrentar acá. Entonces para mi la forma en que terminó es la única forma en que podía terminar. 

La razón por la que esta trilogía me gusta tanto y se consolida como una de mis favoritas es porque estos libros son un estudio de la condición humana. Cada uno de los 6 personajes son muy diferentes los unos de los otros, cada reflexión e interacción que cada uno nos aporta es única. 

El arco de los personajes en este libro me encantó. Incluso aunque Tristan terminó de caerme mal en este libro, el camino que toma este personaje me pareció tan real que me fue imposible no entenderlo. No coincido ni me parecen correctas la gran mayoría de las decisiones que toman los personajes. Pero esa es la magia de Olivie, ponerte en la piel de ellos y obligarte a entender las acciones de cada personaje.

Libby siempre fue mi personaje favorito y ver el desarrollo que tuvo en este libro me pareció alucinante. Ella y Parisa me parece que tuvieron el arco más interesante y complejo de la trilogía. Sé que Libby en este libro fue excesivamente problemática pero ME ENCANTÓ. Libby en este libro es la personificación de ¿Qué tan lejos estas dispuesto a llegar por lo que queres o crees correcto? Su arco de corrupción me pareció sublime. No es un giro de 180° como lo que hicieron con Daenerys en la serie de Game of Thrones, sino que el arco fue completamente acorde a su personaje. Honestamente eso fue, lejos, lo mejor del libro.

The Atlas Paradox sigue siendo mi libro favorito de la trilogía pero The Atlas Complex no deja de ser un libro fenomenal. Pretencioso, confuso y brillante, tal cual como Olivie Blake nos tiene acostumbrados con sus historias.