A review by ethias
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

2.0

Hmm. This is kind of a strange one to me.

I think it was engaging and interesting in parts. I do not think it was an enjoyable read.

The beginning was long and utterly dull, boring and hard to not skim.

A small section in the middle was very good, very engaging and I had a good time. That was the best portion of the book.

The ending made everything that happened in the preceding 300+ pages pointless. It felt like nothing that happened, nothing the characters said or cared about or mourned or decided or contemplated, mattered at the end. The same thing would have happened regardless of what they had done it seems, so what was the point exactly? The entire dilemma of who they would kill, how they would kill them, how they would live with themselves, what was worth murdering for, just…. Didn’t matter. No one got killed, no one had to kill. What was the point?

Also… Besides Nico and Reina, who actually had a substantial goal or desire here? It was so wishy washy and we never really learned anything of substance regarding why most of them even chose to do this.

Speaking of Reina, it was DEEPLY obvious she was the least favorite character of the author. My god. Absolutely no role in the book whatsoever.

I feel like I was told approximately 5 million times how cool, sexy, smart, and powerful all these characters are and I never actually felt any of those things, and only saw them a few times. It felt like a bunch of pretentious assholes salivating over themselves and each other for 400 pages with nothing to show for it at the end.

Some arguably nit picky things:

Why did we have to be in London of all places. I’m so bored. We could have been in Egypt but nooooo.

It kind of bothers me that the only black character was from a crime family and his last name is Caine…..and he’s the only one that’s described as physically intimidating by the other characters… I don’t know… I know I’m overly sensitive and the name was almost definitely a coincidence and not on purpose but it did bother me a bit as I was reading. Not every book has to have all the representation, not every book has to have great and perfectly done representation, that’s impossible. I just wish more sensitivity readers would be hired before books were published.

How come the setting, the LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA, was basically NEVER discussed. Such a cool setting utterly squandered.