Atlas Six

Otts reviewed The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Gimmicky and drawn out

2 stars

Written like bad streaming TV: mandatory "plot twists" clumsily done, drawing things out artificially, a rushed final episode, and introducing a shadowy character in the last shot to laugh menacingly.

Frustrating, like most Dark Academia books. It’s got some interesting ideas and moments, but the writing doesn’t sustain them. The magic system and world-building are underdeveloped. Is it a rule in this genre that magic users have to be assholes?

Chungledown Bim reviewed Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Great until it's not

3 stars

What world building! What a magic system! What a premise, & setting, I can't wait to find out more!

...and after the book just sort of fizzles out & ends, I'm still waiting.

The characters are all disappointing, particularly the women. The (annoying) Madonna, the (annoying) Whore, & the one who is also there. The fellas aren't a lot better. I feel like The Atlas Six could have been The Atlas Two, which would have made for far more interesting & complex characters to have boring conversations with each other.

Why though, why have daily classes that are never involved in the story? What's in them? Do the characters sit frozen & silent until later that evening when a boring conversation between two ppl happens?

Still, there's a bit of fucking & definitely some Gay Yearning ™️ so I didn't hate it. Love a bit of YA magic academy, wouldn't …

What world building! What a magic system! What a premise, & setting, I can't wait to find out more!

...and after the book just sort of fizzles out & ends, I'm still waiting.

The characters are all disappointing, particularly the women. The (annoying) Madonna, the (annoying) Whore, & the one who is also there. The fellas aren't a lot better. I feel like The Atlas Six could have been The Atlas Two, which would have made for far more interesting & complex characters to have boring conversations with each other.

Why though, why have daily classes that are never involved in the story? What's in them? Do the characters sit frozen & silent until later that evening when a boring conversation between two ppl happens?

Still, there's a bit of fucking & definitely some Gay Yearning ™️ so I didn't hate it. Love a bit of YA magic academy, wouldn't read any more in the series though.

enne📚 reviewed Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

2 stars

Content warning minor plot spoilers

Very mixed feelings about this one.

The book bills itself as "Six Candidates: Five will be initiated. One will be eliminated." and a major plot point in this book is that these magicians discover eliminated means 🔪eliminated. Coming off of reading other "dark academia" books like the Scholomance series (aka 75% of your graduating class will die, possibly some even at breakfast, but it's better than the alternatives), it felt like this was very drawn out for the reader who knew this one murder was coming the whole time. There's some interesting worldbuilding being gestured at in the background, but most of it unfortunately stays out of focus while the camera is on the relationships of these six.

Ultimately, this is a book about six characters befriending and betraying each other in a quest to gain access to secret magical knowledge. However, when the focus is on the relationships, the motivation for WHY these characters are even here is very scant. One wants knowledge (and this is the only one that makes sense.) Two are there because they're obnoxiously competitive and the other one went. The other three honestly just seem like they're bored with life, which didn't end up feeling very compelling for me.

Susanna

rated it

Nov. 3, 2022