Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

62 reviews

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I quite liked The Atlas Six. The characters are mostly just the right level of “everyone believes themselves the smartest in the room but are they really,” for me. The character backstories and their behaviors, both in the Atlas Six and those overseeing them and/or friends/associates of theirs are all quite well executed. The personality contrasts between the characters and the way their abilities interact with each other creates so much intrigue throughout the plot. That said, at least one character gets the short straw in characterization. Also, the plot for this first book in a series of three doesn’t truly conclude itself. It worked well for me but I can see why some would really dislike these characters and dislike how this book concludes. I’m definitely continuing into book 2. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Much of the intrigue and conflict of this book is about idealogical differences, theoretically and in practice. There is questions about the morality of their abilities. There’s questions about what access to/denial of access to knowledge means. Is it right or not for a privileged few to have access to certain types of knowledge over others. Things are not always binaries too. If this doesn’t sound appealing, no harm in skipping this.

walkingcha0s's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

arkonrad's review against another edition

The characters are mean and arrogant. The characters have spent the first half of the book judging each other. I didn’t even feel the intensity of the fight they had because of all the judgmental internal dialogue.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

I would not consider this a YA book. This is absolutely an adult book.

clairelisebella's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Violence

sinkitten's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Body horror, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Toxic friendship

cnannery19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

watsontheslytherin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Beautiful prose

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Chronic illness, Drug use, Blood, and Alcohol

monstrouscosmos's review against another edition

I really enjoyed the world building, and the exploration of each character as individuals as well as their group dynamics. the perspective taking of the chapters was also interesting, and the narrators all added nuance to their performances in ways I appreciated (especially during internal monologues). unfortunately Part 6 definitely got too trigger heavy for me, and I found the expositions started to get both much longer and much less believable. not the book for me, unfortunately! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

I put all the triggers I remembered in "moderate", though some would definitely be better described as "minor" or "graphic".

nclausel25's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship

amelianotthepilot's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I absolutely loved this book and think its now in my top of all time. It's a dark academia fantasy book that's got such heavy harry potter influences without being copy and paste it was delicious.

6 adults from around the world (literally) are chosen to be apart of the secret society that protects/uses the library of Alexandria. First off I was already impressed that the characters were actually diverse and from all over the world since most books seem to say things like 'you are the top most powerful in the world' and then they all come from NYC/the US which is definitely not realistic. This cast of characters comes from Japan, US, England, South Africa, and France. The story is told from all of their perspectives which is interesting and complex, giving you everyone's separate motivations, secrets, and personalities. Elizabeth "Libby" Rhodes is an anxious bookworm rule follower white girl from NYC and Nico de Varona is a Cuban wealthy privlidged golden retriever adhd sunshine boy from NYC. They are 'physicists' as they study physical magic (ie levitation, gravity morphing, etc) and have recently graduated from magical NYU lol. They are class rivals and love/hate each other but are also equally extremely overly powerful. Reina Mori is an emotionally repressed classicist booklover who works at a coffeshop from Osaka and is a 'naturalist' (can control plants) but she is more than just a normal naturalist she doesn't put any effort into manipulating plants, they just feed off her energy and emotions.  Tristan Caine is a anxious low achieving son of a mafia guy. He has worked his way up to corporate ladder with his powers and by dating a CEO's daughter he plans to eventually marry her and inherit the company. He is an illusionist (can create illusions) but not actually...it's more accurate that he can completely see through any and all illusions without trying. Parisa Kamali is a slut(positive) she is beautiful and uses her beauty and body combined with her power of mind reading to infiltrate anyone and get what she wants/needs. She is from Iran but lives in Paris and lol this is one of my biggest problems with the book is that her name is Parisa and shes from Paris. It's the only lazy thing in the book. Last but not least Callum Nova is the character we don't know much about. He is wealthy and good-looking and from South Africa where his family owns a rich international cooperation. His magic is empathy...

Overall the worldbuilding is very interesting,  a very small percent of the world is capable of magic but only simple things like prestigitation-esque (warming things, turning on lights, opening doors) and are called witches. Then an even smaller percentage of that population are qualified and magical enough to be called medians and attend magical colleges like magical NYU. Then an even smaller percentage are considered for the atlas six initiation. The Atlas Six are six people chosen from around the world to be inducted into the Alexandrian society that protects the library of Alexandria (which has moved around over the years and now resides in England as most stolen things go lol). The 6 must attend a year of within the society before collectively choosing 1 of the 6 to eliminate and then becoming initiates.

This book has it all truly, It's diverse, it brings up deep moral dilemmas such as who deserves to have access to knowledge, should everyone know everything or is that dangerous, would you kill for what you want most in the world, are evil and good so black and white, and the morals of fantasy elements such as mind reading and emotional control. It was truly delicious.

But what really had me even more full-throttle invested is the clear harry potter influence. Atlas Blakely, the man who chooses the 6 and the caretaker of the society, is clearly a Dumbledore character- he's older, aloof, reserved, and only shows up to inconveniently drop lore before unhelpfully disappearing, he clearly has an alternative perhaps evil motive. Then we have Nico. Nico is so obviously a James Potter it hurtssss meeee. Nico is an energetic golden boy who cares so deeply for his friends and will do anything for them. He so obviously gryffindor but is so obviously James in the way he is attractive and knows it, has curly black hair, taught himself difficult magic in order to shape shift and be able to help his best friend. Like guys its right there. And if that's not obvious enough, he has two roommates, one a shapeshifter who changes into a black dog and is annoying but everyone loves (cough cough sirius black), and the other a guy inflicted with a genetic problem who is not quite human and has horrible parents and a tragic past (see Remus J Lupin). And no these roommates arent copy paste wolfstar, in fact the romance doesn't seem to be between those two, but they are blatant enough for me and i ate that uppppppp. Furthermore, I think the 6 clearly fit in hogwarts houses (Libby+Nico in Gryffindor, Paris+Callum in Slytherin, Reina in Ravenclaw, and Tristan as Hufflepuff). Apparently the author used to write harry potter fanfic under the same name so I think these aspects are obviously purposeful.

I loved this book 10/10 loosing my minddddd at the end! I also don't get surprised very often by plots and this one really had me going. This is the first booktok book that I've actually thoroughly enjoyed and understand the hype.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Child death