amandasupak 's review for:

The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake

3.25

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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3.25 stars 

Named characters: 89 (Many characters only appear once and vanish, which bloats the cast and occasionally left me flipping back to remember who was who) 

 

I rated the first 2 books in the series a 4.5 and 4 respectively. When I saw how poorly this one was rated, I honestly just had to know why. Olivie’s writing is still as sharp and interesting as before. She had a good ear for dialogue, which remained a highlight. So what dragged this book down? 

-          Motivational whiplash. Several core characters act against the personalities established in the first two books, so big twists land more as head‑scratchers than shocks. 

-          Idle protagonists. A few leads barely influence the main plot, making their chapters feel decorative rather than essential. 

-          Lingering mysteries. Key mechanics (how the Library actually works, for instance) are still a mystery after three books, so the ending feels more unfinished than tantalizing. 

Despite those flaws, Blake’s stylistic flair kept me turning pages. I’d call it a “worth‑reading but temper expectations” finale rather than the disaster its 2.85 Goodreads average suggests. 

 

Spoiler thoughts:
 

 

-          Extended monologues often devolve into “he said / he said,” especially in scenes with two male speakers; I sometimes lost track of who owned which paragraph. 

-          I didn’t buy Libby’s complete character change. Her earlier off‑screen brutality (the nuclear blast) was goal‑driven and impersonal. Compared to her cold‑blooded, up‑close murder of Atlas, Nico, etc. feels like a leap the text tries to justify but doesn’t pull off. 

-          Raina side quests were ultimately useless. She had several enjoyable vignettes, but with zero impact on the climax. A tighter weave with the main narrative would have given her arc weight. 

-          With Raina’s low impact on the plot it seemed like she was the most obvious character to kill off of the 6. So why Nico? I think it was because it would upset the readers more, and using that logic it was shoehorned into the plot when it really didn’t belong. 

-          Nothazai’s motivation reveal came way too late in the book. Unveiling his altruistic biomancer motives in the final chapters robbed them of emotional punch. A POV chapter earlier would have made the Library’s denial of access hit harder in the last chapter. 

-          There was so much going on with the politics and characters of the forum. With years between releases, re‑entering a dense web of factions and motivations was confusing.