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paulaks 's review for:
The Atlas Six
by Olivie Blake
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Objectively this would probably be a 3 star at best but hear me out...
The Altas Six is an urban fantasy with a dark academia vibe to it, which is forced on to the story. This confused me at first but after watching an interview with the author I realised that she absolutely knows that. It´s just vibes and aesthetics. If you know that you can really indulge the experience.
Moreover, Olivie Blake chooses the hardest and most underground words from the English dictionary. As a reader with English as their second language this was just brutal. The vocabulary wasn´t needed at all and as a consequence slowed down my reading pace.
Talking about the pacing, I want to really praise Blake´s talents when it comes to pacing. Using shorter chapters at the end to create a rushed effect or using dialogue to loosen tension? Brilliant! Sadly, her strengths fell short in the long chapters and knowing when to describe or just mention scenes. For roughly 150 pages there was nothing happening that felt relevant or was well written, which is a bummer and made for a long reading journey.
Let´s talk characters: Just reading the synopsis knowing there will be 6 main characters should prepare you for the chaos and brain function needed to keep up with everyone. I´m gonna break them down for you and add my opinion:
The Altas Six is an urban fantasy with a dark academia vibe to it, which is forced on to the story. This confused me at first but after watching an interview with the author I realised that she absolutely knows that. It´s just vibes and aesthetics. If you know that you can really indulge the experience.
Moreover, Olivie Blake chooses the hardest and most underground words from the English dictionary. As a reader with English as their second language this was just brutal. The vocabulary wasn´t needed at all and as a consequence slowed down my reading pace.
Talking about the pacing, I want to really praise Blake´s talents when it comes to pacing. Using shorter chapters at the end to create a rushed effect or using dialogue to loosen tension? Brilliant! Sadly, her strengths fell short in the long chapters and knowing when to describe or just mention scenes. For roughly 150 pages there was nothing happening that felt relevant or was well written, which is a bummer and made for a long reading journey.
Let´s talk characters: Just reading the synopsis knowing there will be 6 main characters should prepare you for the chaos and brain function needed to keep up with everyone. I´m gonna break them down for you and add my opinion:
- Libby aka the inofficial main character. I don´t know if that was on purpose, I don´t think so. Libby gets a lot of time at the beginning. She is a physicist and has some power over waves or energy? Not sure but I think she was well fleshed out.
- Nico aka Libby´s second half. Yes, that´s basically Nico´s purpose, being the "rival" and having similar powers to Libby. Liked him but he deserved much more time.
- Reina aka the plant girl. She is a naturalist and can control plants? Reina was chilling the whole time which was hilarious in my opinion.
- Parisa aka gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss. She can read people´s mind and on top of that likes to use men for her own purposes. Parisa is the femme fatale in the flesh and kept the story intruiging.
- Callum aka the bad guy. He is an empath and can feel and control emotion. Besides that he is a narcissist and likes to think he knows how the world works. Underrated but a pretty consistent character with clear motives wether you like him or not.
- Tristan aka the mystery. He can see through illusions and is a walking question mark. We don´t know a lot about him but when he interacts with the others or we finally get glimpses about his background it´s really interesting. Probably the most intruigung one in my opinion.
Understanding all of that took me 200 pages minimum - it´s just way to much. Besides them, there are 4 more relevant characters which you can figure out yourself ;) I personally had a lot of fun with the characters even though I had trouble keeping Tristan and Callum apart, plus everyone is a walking stereotype.
Finally: Plot and story - Why the Atlas Six couldn´t convince me. I loved it though.
The novel is perfect for diving into a new world and getting distracted from real life. It´s just so much drama and unnecessary mystery to keep you entertained because there is nothing else happening. Literally.
Everyone is studying for basically nothing but for the sake of studying. Besides that they are just existing and waiting to get into the Society. That is boring and dragged out for too long. Necessary context isn´t given, especially for the magic system. The end hits you unexpected but left me unsatisfied. Furthermore, there are many different beliefs and ethics questioned and challenged which felt appropriate. The potential was there but it could use some - if not a lot - rewriting. Suprisingly, I was still enjoying it most of the time.
Finally: Plot and story - Why the Atlas Six couldn´t convince me. I loved it though.
The novel is perfect for diving into a new world and getting distracted from real life. It´s just so much drama and unnecessary mystery to keep you entertained because there is nothing else happening. Literally.
Everyone is studying for basically nothing but for the sake of studying. Besides that they are just existing and waiting to get into the Society. That is boring and dragged out for too long. Necessary context isn´t given, especially for the magic system. The end hits you unexpected but left me unsatisfied. Furthermore, there are many different beliefs and ethics questioned and challenged which felt appropriate. The potential was there but it could use some - if not a lot - rewriting. Suprisingly, I was still enjoying it most of the time.