A review by beckyyreadss
The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.0

The first book in this series was book club’s choice of the month for September, when I read it and it ended on cliffhanger, I knew I was going to have to read the next one in series.  

This book is based on the Alexandrian Society who are the caretakers of lost knowledge from the civilizations of antiquity, and they are a secret society for the magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, knowledge and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only six of the most talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiations. In the last book, we meet the newest initiates: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona are the unwilling halves of the unfathomable whole, who can control every element of physicality. Then there is Reina Mori, she is a naturalist who can speak the language of life within itself. Parisa Kamali is a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious and navigate worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova is an empath easily mistaken for illusionist and he can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through any illusions to a new structure of reality – it's an ability so rare that neither him nor his peers can fully grasp its powers. All of them now must pick if they wish to preserve the world or to destroy it. The Atlas Six is revealed for what it is, and it is headed by man whose plans to change life as they know it is already under way. But the cost of knowledge is steep and as the price of power demands each person to choose a side, which alliances will hold, and which will see their enmity deepen?  

This is another book where I was ignoring the hype on BookTok and was glad to ignore the hype on BookTok. I still don’t get the hype of it. I think my main issue with this book is I hated all the characters; I am all for rooting for the main character within a book. Due to this book having all six POVs, there wasn’t a good person who you knew was going to be safe. Libby should have just actually died instead of disappearing. Nico was still two-faced but then took Libby’s people-pleasiness and then just was trying to be friends with everyone. Reina has finally got some personality but now she wants to be a God and create a new world. Parisa drove me up the wall with how bitchy she was – the mean girls called, and Regina George wants her personality back. She was all about being open about sex and things which is all great but then she has all these love triangles and still sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. Callum still gives me a headache and I'm confused with what his part was in his book expect for the fact that he didn’t die. Tristan was the only one with his head on his shoulders last book, but then he lost his head in this book because Libby was gone. It felt like some characters were more favoured so had more of a personality and then others were literally there to remind us of information we already knew. I felt like the storyline and world building was a bit all over the place especially with the whole time-travelling and let’s make a new God.  

The book was a bit calmer, where I felt like everyone had lost their head in this book. I loved the multiple POVs, I just wanted more from them. I was more interested in Gideon’s drama which hasn’t really progressed since the previous book.  

Gideon and Libby are probably the only reason I might pick up the third book, just to see what’s going on and if Gideon’s drama is every resolved.  
Expand filter menu Content Warnings