Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

71 reviews

nicoledelairs's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0

What a great read! I love a good multiple POV story and this did not dissapoint. I fell in love with some of these characters and have complicated feelings about the others. The relationships between everyone is unique and there are some interesting developments that I would not have guessed from when we are introduced to them. 

Blake has done a wonderful job writing these characters as complex people who each have a distinct voice. The characters' abilities and how those effect the way each of them thinks adds depth and a creative twist to their POVs that I really enjoyed. 

Parisa's chapters were especially interesting to me because they give us some small insights into the other characters' minds from a different mindset. Her scenes in Dalton's mind were some that left me with the most questions and some of what I am most excited to see play out in the second book.

I found the pacing to be great. Since the book takes place over the span of

about one year, there's bound to be time skips. I thought that the time in between the events we get to read felt natural, like the reader is given enough information to understand that some amout of time has passed but it doesn't feel rushed or skipped over. The reader knows that the characters have been busy during these times, but it doesn't feel like we are missing out on anything

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, and Terminal illness

midnacine's review against another edition

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

5.0

"Magic has aspects of nature, nature has aspects of magic, and to take one away from either is a corruption to both their forms."

The writing style of this book makes me wanna change the writing style of my reviews. That's how you know a book is good- when it undeniably influences your day-to-day decisions and ultimately leaves you consumed.
I'll be honest: I didn't expect to love this as much as I did. At moments, it was really hard for me to concentrate on the prose, as it's very much in the style of all those classics you're forced to read in high school. However, once I got attached to the characters, I was hooked.
I love the integration of magic with science, philosophy, and morality. Though challenging for me at times, I did find myself lingering on quite a few of the existential questions and really thinking about myself in the situations the Six are shown to be in. Namely: would I be willing to do whatever necessary, no matter the cost, if it meant accessing knowledge and power forbidden to the majority of human existence? Honestly, I'll never know.

And just to get it out of my system, here's the more academic portion of my review:
Reading Atlas Six was like looking at scrambled pieces of a puzzle: you know they'll all come together to make a cohesive picture, but until you have all of the pieces it's impossible to know in what orientation, exactly, the picture will be. Olivie Blake does an impeccable job of casting her very own magic over the reader to keep them on a proverbial seat, never revealing too much information at once to let them piece together the puzzle on their own.

I think the writing is absolutely gorgeous and has an amazing balance of seriousness and humor. It definitely took ~~big brain~~ to read it but I can't wait to see what happens in the second book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, Death, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, and Torture

Minor: Child abuse, Body horror, Terminal illness, Grief, and Cursing

frantically's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense 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

4.75

This book is just: "You don't know anything about physics? Sucks to be you 🖤" for almost 400 pages.

I had no clue what this was about going in and I was pleasantly surprised! Usually I'm not the biggest fan of urban fantasy but this one was so well done, it just all felt really natural (and it gave me hardcore WINX-Vibes, if anyone else understands that lol). 

BookTok has made me really apprehensive about a lot of the books recommended there — morally gray characters are just lazy Kaz copies, enemies to lovers is just straight up abuse, etc., but this book actually had interesting, multifaceted morally gray characters and I enjoyed that so much.

For much of the book, there isn't a clear villain, a clear force that has to be fought again and that offered a lot of space for characters development and introspection, which fantasy books often don't have enough time for but I absolutely adore it.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book! I hope it won't be just a duology, as there were so many possible storylines mentioned in this one and I hope they all get their space to be properly explored.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Sexual content, Violence, Death, and Infidelity

Moderate: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Terminal illness, Child death, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail

anaya_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.75

I wanted this to be a five star and it was so close but the ending was a little anticlimactic compared to its lead up. This does not change the fact that this book was amazing. The characters aren’t loveable. But that’s what makes them real. They have depth and flaws and hopes and fears. The author was incredible with making them intellectually similar but personally different. The writing was also beautiful and interesting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Violence

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief, Terminal illness, Violence, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Abandonment, Cursing, Alcohol, Bullying, Child death, and Death

Minor: Child abuse, Vomit, Classism, War, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

lynnannwalsh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Drug use, and Adult/minor relationship

sohma4uesugi's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

I had to force myself to finish this and I am exhausted. There is just so much without anything at the same time. The sentences are wordy and over the top in a way that is heavy and clunky. Instead of saying “she was shocked by his reply”, the text is that “she was aghast at the perversion of the transaction.” Just… why? Everything simple that should be easy and flows is so over the top that it falls flat beneath the weight of its self. 

There is no immersion into this world. My eyes kept jumping forward begging it to be over with faster. I would reread sentences several times and still be confused in the next paragraph.

Interesting characters were largely ignored and the uninteresting characters were heavily focused on. The artwork, though beautiful, strangely did not match the characters each section was named for, which didn’t make sense to me. 

It felt like whole chapters were missing and the ones that were there dragged on forever and a day. Anything interesting was just simply dropped the next page in infuriating regularity. The last two chapters of the book seemed like they were written for another work entirely, in that they were interesting and actually held my attention. 

To go from talking in tiring detail about the complexities of stopping time to calling someone a useless fuckboi just because they could in the next sentence was jarring and not in a way to bring humor or relief from the vast complexities the text tried and failed to reach. 

The concept was super cool and I wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, I did not. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

I read this book in two days. I'm still coming down from the high of finishing it, so I'm not sure if it was technically good, but I know I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters are spectacularly interesting. Reina and Callum could use a bit a fleshing-out; but Libby, Nico, Parisa, and Tristan were amazing POVs. Libby was obviously meant to be the audience avatar, since she is the first POV, and it's no secret that most of the target audience is likely to be women of academic background and/or anxiety/ MI.

There were definitely enough clues along the way where I saw the Ezra twist coming. I'm much more interested in the mystery of Dalton.

Faults few and far between in my opinion include: lack of depth to Nico's character, plot relying heavily on the miscommunication trope (although there is some reason for it), and a bit of pseudointellectualism since I didn't buy into the sci-fi explanations and philosophical arguments.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Murder, Sexual content, Infidelity, and Kidnapping

Minor: Death of parent

omfgeleanor's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Terminal illness

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Child abuse, and Child death

by_the_wade's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Sexual content, Gun violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Murder and Emotional abuse

Minor: Grief, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Violence