Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake

11 reviews

amelianotthepilot's review against another edition

5.0

gah i love this series

yet again another intricate insanely interesting dark academia story following our six 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Stalking, Alcoholism, Sexism, Murder, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Gun violence, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Domestic abuse

alicelalicon's review against another edition

mysterious slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Sexism, and Alcoholism

aseel_reads's review

challenging dark 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

4.0

On a technical level, this book should probably get a 3 something rating (because there was no real plot and the writing was so overly long and complicated and should have been edited) but I really liked the characters (except for Reina tbh) and connected with a lot of the gut wrenching sentences delivered by people like Callum, so it gets a 4 instead 
 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Gun violence, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Murder, and Sexual harassment

carefulfearanddeaddevotion's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.75

OMG!! This series shot to the top of my favorite book series ever, it's only second to TRC. Love love love the writing, love love love the characters. I say this with nothing but love, I'm not sure there really is a plot here lol. But, as we know, I am a characters over plot ass bitch and I didn't even realize that I'm not sure anything much happened until I started writing this review.

I loooooved Belen (and her and Libby <3), so I  am a little disappointed she (Olivie Blake) killed her. She was just felt like a plot device and a waste of a good character.

Also, I know I said I love the characters, but I do not like Reina. Or at least, I feel like we didn't spend as much time with her, her motivations, her feelings, as we did for the other characters. And then when started spending more time with her, I did not really like what I saw. I guess really my only criticism of the series is that she doesn't feel as 3(4)D as the other characters. I don't even think she's 2D. Even when she started her whole "I'm a god" thing, I was like "oh alright, i guess...when is the POV gonna switch?" She just feels very bland, especially compared to the others. Unhappy about how the thing with her and Nico went? Like it was just so frustrating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Gun violence, Death, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexism, Stalking, and Terminal illness

frantically's review

challenging reflective slow-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

2.75

was so focused on the girlies i completely missed the gays (this was so boring)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Alcoholism, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death, Murder, Violence, and Child abuse

Minor: Gun violence

aliyachaudhry's review

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

soniajoy98's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Death, Cursing, Alcoholism, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Stalking, Child abuse, Gun violence, Antisemitism, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Sexual content, Murder, and Racism

Minor: Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Confinement

queenie_ofthe_void's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Ultimately not impressed. I just finished 10 minutes ago and feel extremely disappointed. The first book left off with big implications for the second, but it feels like nothing really happened. There was too much internal monologue, too much 'miscommunication' trope, and too much emphasis on POVs that ultimately weren't necessary or interesting. The character alliances in the first book were thrown out on a flimsy plot point just to further the miscommunication between the group, which is the only fuel for plot progression. All of this I could have let pass (solely because I love the characters) if I felt it led to a pay-off, which it didn't.

The narrative of Tristan-Nico-Libby focuses on trying to get Libby back. It is Tristan's singular motivator of the book. And Nico's torment over her absence is obvious but his focus on Gideon helps his character progress. We get a glimpse of Libby and Tristan reuniting in Scotland. But in the end there's no climactic reunion between Libby and Tristan OR Libby and Nico. This was their entire plotline of the book and it was left open-ended. And not like a cliff-hanger, but in a way that I feel there was no climax at all. Part of this, again, is time spent on relationships which prove fruitless, like Belen-Libby, Ezra-Atlas. These POVs are not our main characters, and its just time spent away. There's too many characters and plotlines to juggle, and they are disproportionately balanced.

For me, what started out as a story with intriguing morally-grey characters, suspense and intrigue, eventually turned out to just be tedious and disappointing. Might read the next book for the reunion scenes mentioned in the spoilers. Might just Google it. And maybe I just forget. 

Edit 5 minutes after finishing the review: I just read my review of the first book and forgot to mention the increased amount of pseudointellectual bullshit in the internal monlogues. Way too much freshman 101 class theories and not enough character interaction to make up for the increased use of the miscommunication trope to keep the plot going. Honestly I had high hopes for this book...

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Grief, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

ttumbletree's review

dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

marareading's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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

3.25

This is a fun edition to the series. I liked the beginning. The middle felt choppy and a bit disconnected. Because of the tropes used, which are some of my favorite (in keeping this spoiler free I will not mention said tropes in this review) it felt like we were missing a lot. So much was happening off page and it didn't feel smooth and pulled me out of the story unlike book one. However by 75% I was back in the flow and really enjoyed it. The new characters were fun, and creative. I LOVED the ending. The character arcs are super interesting right now. This series is unique, and incredibly well thought out. Very good overall. Very excited for book three 🙌🏼

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Death, Bullying, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence