Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Atlas Six

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Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

134 reviews

cluckieduck's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.0

The hype lead me here, but all I can say is that I think this book was trying to hard to be something grand. A lot needs to be tightened up - it just kept going in circles, filled with redundancies rather than fleshing-out the characterization or world-building that was deeply needed. That being said, it was good enough that I'll continue with the series to see where it leads.

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apocalypsereads's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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midnacine's review against another edition

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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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bookgirllife's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

The Atlas Six was such an interesting read. It was everything I wanted it to be and more, and yet not at all what I thought it would be. There is this delicious darkness to this book. It discusses themes of intellectualism, censorship of knowledge, and power as a concept through the lens of magic.

Olivie Blake’s writing is very effective in this novel. The tone and tension she creates propel the storytelling forward. The Atlas Six is primarily plot-based and as such, it requires a balanced, restrained movement to keep the readers engaged and interested. Blake delivers on this in spades. Her capability in describing the minutiae is reason enough for this book to be as celebrated as it rightly is. The writing is fairly accessible, even if all the concepts tackled in the book aren’t necessarily so. I was drawn into the world if the Alexandrian Society. Everything from the setting to the magic of the Library was very well described in order to create a very particular effect.

The most compelling part of this book was without a doubt the cast of characters. There is not a single character introduced without some purpose, which I loved. Not even background characters are inconsequential to the story. The Six were each quite meticulously crafted, and their dynamics with each other were loaded with different forms of tension (and well timed reprieve). I do wish there was a little more time spent developing the character arcs throughout the story. It’s clear that they are changed by the end, their actions and the outcome weighing heavily on them in their own ways. Were they likeable? That’s up for debate. But were they interesting? Absolutely!

The world building in The Atlas Six left something to be desired in terms of completeness. Some parts are really good, like the Library and the specialities of the Six. But the magic system in the book is still unclear as a whole. Also not entirely certain on the distinction between witches and medeians. Honestly the incomplete world building was the only reason I didn’t give this book a 5 star rating.

The themes on the other hand (and their execution) deserve a 5 star rating of their own. This book poses some very important questions in academia. Who should have access to knowledge? Censorship or commodification of knowledge makes it a privilege with limited access. I also thoroughly enjoyed the tidbits of quantum physics in this. There are also very interesting themes of morality and power. This book reminds me of the Lord Acton quote “power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It is very relevant to the magic in this book and the medeians themselves.

I think The Atlas Six is sneakily philosophical. It draws you in with an adult fantasy dark academia set up but it truly delivers on the academia front. Blake often launches the characters into thought exercises and moments of intellectual development in particular interest to a specific character. I understand why some people felt this was not exciting but I loved that aspect. More so, I thought it was completely necessary to build character growth.

I would highly recommend this book to any fantasy lover with a particular inclination towards academic settings. The ending feels very unresolved but sets up the second book perfectly, which I cannot wait to get my hands on now. I really enjoyed this book, probably more than I initially thought I would. I couldn’t put it down once I picked it up.

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librarianlayla's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

4/4.5 stars

A dark academia murder game that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.

You know a book is written well when you can both admire and loathe the characters within. There were some areas that were a little trudgy to get through but overall the high stakes pace of the story held throughout.

I cannot wait to see how this ends.

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miraileah's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

3.25

3.25 (Originally rated at 4, lowered to 3.25 11/9/22). I’m reeling, I loved this and was stressed the entire time I was reading. A lot was said, but at the same time I feel like the author didn’t say anything. I quite enjoyed it, but I don’t find that any of the great theses I was expecting were made or came true. All the characters seemed a lot more self important than perhaps they have a right to be, but knowing that while I was reading and accepting that as their traits made the experience fun and interesting.

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