A review by spellvexit7
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This is a book about scheming.  So little happens as much of the narrative takes place inside of the characters' heads, sometimes spilling out into dialogues where they assess and scheme against or with one another.  If you're really lucky, they'll do some magic.  I was impressed that despite the fact that so little happened, and so little was really revealed or explained, my interest was held throughout.  Burden that glacial narrative with six self-absorbed, rather hard-to-love characters, and that's a pretty big literary feat.  Blake really can write.  I honestly would have rated this higher but for the underwhelming ending.  There was no payoff, simply a hollow "to be continued..." cliffhanger that I found maddening after being tantalized by so much table-setting for some 80-90% of the novel.

If you're going to write a book, at least resolve something by its end.  This first book amounted to a big tease that honestly soured me to reading any more installments of the series.
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