A review by ssellwood
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

As a premise, the Atlas Six sounds amazing, dark academia fantasy, with 6 powerful mages being inducted into a secret society. The highlights include interesting magic theories, a broad mix of characters but I think what holds it together is the tension, both plot wise and romantic, with some good twists. However, I felt let down by the writing style. There is quite a lot of time spent discussing different broad themes like morality, knowledge and power, and while these are good themes, I felt the style was a bit overwrought and try-hard, with some chapters feeling very dense. Also, while I understand that mystery is a large part of this plot, it felt like a lot of some character's backstories and magic theories wasn't discussed so some characters were a lot easier to understand than others.
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