Full review on my blog 08/04/2022: https://inkandplasma.com/2022/04/08/the-atlas-six/

Character - 10
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 7
Plot - 9
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 8
Enjoyment - 9

Rating: 8.57 / 4 stars
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The hype around this book was real, and when I first started it I was nervous it wouldn’t live up to it. But it did. It felt like Middlegame meets All of Us Villains, both of which I loved, and I really enjoyed this intriguing, character-driven dark academia fantasy – even if I did desperately want to punch of of the characters in the face.

Thanks to Tor for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.

I’ll be the first to admit that in the early chapters of this book, I was a bit worried that I was going to hate it. There was a lot of information and a lot of intelligent concepts for my puny brain to handle. Then I blinked and I was over halfway through the book and having the best time ever. The dark academia style magical world was really interesting, though I’m sure that some of the logic of it had flown over my head. I didn’t mind that too much, though, as I understood enough of the concept to know what was happening in the book even though it was significantly smarter than me.

For me, the biggest drive was the characters – for good or for bad. I loved a couple of the characters to death, and one of them I hated so much I wished only death for him. At the start of the book I only really liked Reina, but slowly Libby and Nico won me over with their inseparable rivalry. They can’t cope without each other and hate that. It’s my favourite dynamic. I was slow to warm to Parisa and Tristan, but eventually loved them too. I never warmed to Callum. Fuck that guy. The rest of them? I hope we get a five way poly relationship eventually, because they’re all terrors and deserve each other.

This book is hard to explain. It’s Middlegame-meets-All of Us Villains, and has the same claustrophic puzzle-y atmosphere as Gideon the Ninth during Canaan House. I can’t wait for the second book, but I already just know I’m going to have to reread it to catch all of the details I missed the first time. The plot is competitive and fantastical first, then took a left turn I did not see coming and kept me engaged enough to read the whole thing in one sitting. I don’t want to talk about this book in too much detail, not because it was bad (it absolutely was not) but because I think you should all go into this book blind and let it wash you away.