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A review by evebananas
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
The concept of this book had a lot of promise. The characters were very unlikable at the beginning and showed some growth and I ended up liking most of the main characters. The ending was extremely unsatisfying, and I find myself frustrated that I read nearly 400 pages of this without any closure at all.
Most unsatisfying was the complete lack of plot. The book constantly talks about how the characters are so important to one another and the whole overall "plan" but nothing ever happens. There's some drama, and some sex, and some more philosophizing about nothing. Nothing actually happens in this book. The characters don't actually form any important relationships with each other, and it's very clear that the author has some favorite characters. Reina has no importance, and might as well not exist. The writing is pretentious for no reason, and says nothing of importance while taking up pages and pages for a single conversation. I don't need to hear Callum wax poetic for the hundredth time with Tristan shrugging the whole time. There is no purpose to the conversations they have.
We also never really get answers about the magic system. Why do people have certain specialties but can apparently do other magic too? One character in particular is said to have a certain power that he hasn't even demonstrated in the scenes that the reveal references, and that power is never important despite being supposedly very rare.Why does the Society set up this elaborate way to gain more magical power by killing one of these initiates when they could just kill regular medeians? What's the difference between a medeian and a witch?
Overall, I would NOT recommend this book. There are far too many dark academia/fantasy books with interesting themes to waste time on Atlas Six.
Most unsatisfying was the complete lack of plot. The book constantly talks about how the characters are so important to one another and the whole overall "plan" but nothing ever happens. There's some drama, and some sex, and some more philosophizing about nothing. Nothing actually happens in this book. The characters don't actually form any important relationships with each other, and it's very clear that the author has some favorite characters. Reina has no importance, and might as well not exist. The writing is pretentious for no reason, and says nothing of importance while taking up pages and pages for a single conversation. I don't need to hear Callum wax poetic for the hundredth time with Tristan shrugging the whole time. There is no purpose to the conversations they have.
We also never really get answers about the magic system. Why do people have certain specialties but can apparently do other magic too? One character in particular is said to have a certain power that he hasn't even demonstrated in the scenes that the reveal references, and that power is never important despite being supposedly very rare.
Overall, I would NOT recommend this book. There are far too many dark academia/fantasy books with interesting themes to waste time on Atlas Six.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Murder, Sexual content, Child death, Kidnapping, Suicide, and Violence