Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

56 reviews

itsheyfay's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Kidnapping, and Suicide

Moderate: Death of parent, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Child death

Minor: Terminal illness

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, Death, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Alcohol

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

ok7a's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, and Death of parent

brittney_reads's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Sexual assault and Child death

katvou's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Grief, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Child death, and Death of parent

nmcfall24's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Love the dark academia setting but the book had so much potential that was unfulfilled. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Child death and Sexual content

Minor: Blood, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

pvbobrien's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: Blood, Death, Kidnapping, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Sexual violence

melissa_rueff's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Very interesting read. I wish they made more clear lines on the romance between characters, I’m very confused. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Confinement

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

takarakei's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.5

I did a combo of listening to the audiobook (full cast, a narrator for each POV) and reading a physical copy, which was fantastic!

This is definitely a predominantly character-driven novel, but the characters are so interesting and lushly written that it often feels like so much is going on anyway (even though it isn't really).  It's one of those books where you feel like you can't really trust anyone as they all have ulterior motives (morally gray). It's very mysterious in their motives coming to light, and learning more about all the characters magical abilities.

I do really wonder though how much the next books will be character driven though because this book feels like a big set up for some major plot things to happen (ie: preventing the destruction of the universe?). SO I do kinda think/hope the storyline will move a bit more out of the character's heads just to really let this story unfold.

Also def everyone is queer, like there's no question in my mind that this will develop in the next books...

I cannot wait for the continuation of the series!
3/5🌶

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Hate crime, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide

Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, Terminal illness, and Child death

Many of the above moderate TW are described in past tense (fairly vaguely) as part of character's background stories.

I'm including the suicide TW as clearly others have noted it, but there is not actual suicide that happens... it like almost happens, and I can't really explain that further without a lengthy discussion. Incest or weird vibes from an older sibling to one of the MC (spoken about in past terms vaguely)