A review by sophie1_xox
The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake

adventurous challenging 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? N/A

3.0

 Summary:
This book truly gave me mixed feelings. I absolutely adored the Atlas Six - the characters that you love to hate, the clever plot, the uniqueness of the setting. Dark academia vibes all the way! Just, something about this one didn't hit. It may be that I was reading it whilst starting full time work and therefore couldn't sink into it (I read half of the Atlas Six in one day whereas this took me 18 days). It may also be that I had not reread the Atlas Six beforehand and therefore was thrown off by essentially catching myself up throughout the first half. I don't know. At the minute, it's sitting at 3 stars for me. When the final book comes out, The Atlas Complex, comes out early 2024, I will do a reread and see if my review improves (it's unlikely to hit 5 stars though).  
Characters:
Where to even start with the characters. I guess we should tackle them each one by one.
First, Libby. She is the one that I most related to in the Atlas Six and I feel like her character development was severely stunted in this one.
It felt like it meant to be a gradual turn, however suddenly seemed to do a complete 180 at the last second which felt really jarring.

Parisa didn't really have any development in this book which was super disappointing.
Her character in the first one really caused me to challenge my views on female sexuality and how she is not a worse person for how she chooses to exert power over others, compared with the rest of the initiates.

Reina had negative development. She spent the entire book,
since the first initiation task, angry at Nico without ever talking to him and if there's one thing I hate more than an unnecessary pregnancy trope, it's miscommunication.

Callum I really enjoyed in this book. The events of the first one really seemed to catch up with him and I love his self-awareness and witty sarcasm. He was probably one of the only things that kept me reading this book.
Nico was fine. Pretty confusing but his relationship with Tristan was fun and I love the
ending that he got with Gideon (about damn time!) although I don't know if there's supposed to be love towards Libby? Maybe that's the point and readers are supposed to be as confused as he is with regards to his feelings.

Lastly is Tristan and I enjoyed his character arc. Learning more about his specialty, as well as touching on some family issues and his feelings towards the other initiates was really fascinating to watch.
Atlas. WTF man. I don't even know how to feel about him.
Dalton was interesting but I have to say, I was super confused about everything that happened to him. Hopefully the next one gives some clarity on that.

Plot:
So I'm just generally confused as to what the plot is supposed to be. It feels like not much happened in 400 pages.
 Was the whole point just to watch Libby get back to her timeline? Gideon's plot was interesting and there's the whole thing where they're basically gods but not?


I was super confused and honestly felt like I was reading just for vibes.

Overall:
This book was fine. I'm going to read the next one to see if it clears up any confusion. The character development in some places was great and in others it felt like it stagnated or reversed. The plot was very similar to the characters in that the last book set up Atlas as a bad guy but that is
very incoherent with the ending of this one.
Honestly, this felt like a trip and I'm hoping the next one doesn't drop me off a cliff for a come-down. 
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