Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

11 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.

theresamothinmyroom's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Drug use, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Terminal illness

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".

tinyjude's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

Reading the first pages I didn't have many expectations but I was nicely surprised by the complexity of the characters. Now I am kind of curious about how will the story continue, although the revelation made me feel like the antagonist turned into a simple caricature of a villain (hopefully their motivations and personality will be further explored so they feel more complex and interesting)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, Stalking, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Incest

booksthatburn's review against another edition

I was initially drawn in by the premise, a group of magicians brought to the Library of Alexandria have a year to decide which one of them will be eliminated and which five get to stay for another year. The cast of characters is pretty diverse (though a bit of that initial feeling of diversity was dampened when I realized all of them seemed to have English as their first language, which instantly shrunk the practical candidate pool. Part of the story questions the validity and methods of the entire enterprise, so that leaves some wiggle room for explaining why the candidates aren't actually very diverse (only six total, and two are from the same school in the USA?). Additionally, this could have been the library of Atlantis or Boston and it would have had just as much relevance to the plot. The latest incarnation of the "Library of Alexandria" is physically located in London, in the UK. It became clear pretty quickly that "Alexandria" is just a name, and an indication of thousands of years of whatever this thing is (or at least a claim to that long legacy). There are vague descriptions of the category of study and experiments which the candidates are pursuing, but most of the story is actually a very intense and complicated web of power plays and personal dynamics between the six candidates and the two Alexandrians who oversee them (mostly one of them). There's a pretty intense sex scene about halfway through which I actually didn't mind, but it felt like a sudden shift in tone from the rest of the book. 

The characters seemed initially pretty interesting, but there's very little description of how their powers actually work. There are discussions of magical theory which I enjoyed, but they were usually couched in ways where the magic is actually secondary, which made them feel unmoored from the world being built. 

It's six (sometimes eight) people in a house, talking to each other and slowly changing how they feel about one another, which is not what I was expecting in a book about "magicians living in the Library of Alexandria".

Ultimately I stopped because it became clearly stated that the whole thing is a slow burn trolley problem, and I don't like trolley problem situations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death and Fire/Fire injury

anniereads221's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

4.5
I wanted to come back to this book to review because why not and maybe I will do more reviews like this, probably not though.

The characters are all pretentious assholes, there I said it, but they all have their flaws and things that make you like them a little bit at least.

Though I did expect everyone to kiss in this book or be a thing, I was like these two should date, not these two. but whoever gets with who I am just having a good time that is for sure.

I resonated with Libby more than I thought I would, but her anxiety really came through and her just asking all the questions to be absolutely sure of something, that is me all over.

The only character that I ever had trouble liking out of the main 6 was Callum and I am hoping for that to change in the second book because there is definitely more to him than we get to see. But if not oh well I will continue to root for the others over him. no biggie.

Give me fantasy elements, dark academia and asshole characters that have to interact, and I am probably gonna have a great time!! I am excited to see where this series will take us too next

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sohma4uesugi's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

I had to force myself to finish this and I am exhausted. There is just so much without anything at the same time. The sentences are wordy and over the top in a way that is heavy and clunky. Instead of saying “she was shocked by his reply”, the text is that “she was aghast at the perversion of the transaction.” Just… why? Everything simple that should be easy and flows is so over the top that it falls flat beneath the weight of its self. 

There is no immersion into this world. My eyes kept jumping forward begging it to be over with faster. I would reread sentences several times and still be confused in the next paragraph.

Interesting characters were largely ignored and the uninteresting characters were heavily focused on. The artwork, though beautiful, strangely did not match the characters each section was named for, which didn’t make sense to me. 

It felt like whole chapters were missing and the ones that were there dragged on forever and a day. Anything interesting was just simply dropped the next page in infuriating regularity. The last two chapters of the book seemed like they were written for another work entirely, in that they were interesting and actually held my attention. 

To go from talking in tiring detail about the complexities of stopping time to calling someone a useless fuckboi just because they could in the next sentence was jarring and not in a way to bring humor or relief from the vast complexities the text tried and failed to reach. 

The concept was super cool and I wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, I did not. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

bookishgoob's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I went into this with high hopes, and in the beginning i was worried those hopes were too high. I felt like I had hyped myself up too much to enjoy what was in front of me. However, after some time with it I realized I hadn’t necessarily hyped myself up too much, I was just far too impatient to let the story unfold. The way that the characters each had their own perspective added so much depth and life to the story. The fact that I could hate and love these characters added an element of me being there with them. I loved that these characters weren’t two dimensional what so ever, even the side characters had dimension and purpose. The way that the story unfolded and came together at the end was a perfect mystery answered with a slight cliffhanger for what’s to come. I enjoyed every moment of this book, from the dark academia aesthetic, to the moral ambiguity each character had. I felt like I related so much to libby and reina, and loved parisa and nico. I couldn’t stand callum the whole time but his character still added so much to the story. The questions my mind was going over of “Is he wrong because I think he’s wrong or is he actually morally wrong?” was a constant on the forefront of my mind. People say that they hated the “pretentious” language used, like it wasn’t the entire point. It’s a secret society. Of course it’s pretentious. Anyway, I am so excited for book 2 and I am finding myself feeling so impatient for it! I highly recommend this book if you’re in the mood for secret society, rivals to lovers, and hot people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Gore, Infidelity, Torture, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence, Hate crime, and Kidnapping

kelleykamanda's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

Amazing, amazing characters. The complexity of them is just great writing. The plot though was tough and lacked significantly. I will still read the second novel though because I truly fell in love with the world and the people in it. Hoping to see some better editing since it will have gone through a more traditional publisher. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Blood, and Car accident

oliviafendrich's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book was quite interesting. The characters' interpersonal relations largely drive the narrative but are skillfully easy to keep track of. Get ready for lots of dialogue! This book could almost be described as a long string of conversations. It's well-written, though repetitive on occasion. I'd recommend this book to anyone who's a bit afraid of fantasy, as it's not overcomplicated. Some good romance, and well-paced. Hoping to check out the rest of this series, and Blake's other works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child death, Violence, Grief, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Sexism, Terminal illness, Vomit, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury