A review by thehappylittleelf
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

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

3.0

I’m going to note something at the top here that’s probably going to be the most relevant part of this review. I’ve seen a lot of people mark this book as having great LGBT+ rep, and that characterization baffles me. There’s a lot of queer baiting, but no actual obvious queer rep. There’s a threesome with two women and a man and that’s about it. And it’s pretty explicitly stated that the sex is there to manipulate the other characters, not because there are genuine feelings — not even genuine sexual feelings! There’s some ship teasing with a character and his roommate, but there’s also “no homo” moments when that same character lusts after the busty girl. If you’re queer, make of that what you will. I just thought I’d point that out. There are way, way, way, way better books out there with queer rep if that’s what you’re looking for. There’s better Dark Academia queer books out there (May I point out Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo? That book is great).

Anyway! That being said: The review.

This book reminded me of Wonder Woman 1984. And if there’s a story you DON’T want people thinking about while reading your book, it’s that movie. Anyway, I thought of that crap movie because a lot of the dialogue was written to SOUND profound, but if you thought about it for two seconds, you realize it doesn’t actually say anything.

From WW84:

That is the truth. That is the only truth, and truth is all there is.You cannot be the winner, because you are not ready to win, and there is no shame in that. Only in knowing the truth in your heart and not accepting it. No true hero is born from lies.
(later in the movie)
This world was a beautiful place just as it was… and you cannot have it all. You can only have the truth. And the truth is enough. The truth is beautiful.

When listening to these speeches in the movie, I kept thinking, “What does that even mean????” It doesn’t mean anything. The writers just threw the word “truth” around because it sounded important.

And that’s how I felt with the prose in this book. It tried deeply, deeply hard to be smart, and yet barely any of it actually meant anything. It harped on things like, “Oh no, these characters don’t know how to starve but Parisa knows or some shit!” (not exact quote, but arguably better prose) 

It’s also very repetitive. The same points are talked about over and over and over and over and you’re left thinking whether the ending will make it make sense, but NO. The ending makes LESS sense. It’s sequel bait at its finest. 

The twist is pretty silly, IMHO. 

Really, this book isn’t meant to be read for the plot. It’s meant for you to pick your favorite pairing and talk about it on TikTok. And that’s okay. You will probably like it if you like characters having sexual tension with each other.  It’s just not for me. 

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