Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Atlas Six

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

137 reviews

impoty's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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

5.0

I got spoilers for the end of the book (my own fault), and still I was surprised by it, in a good way. It makes you think and use your mind and braincells a lot, which makes it even more interesting.

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rnbhargava's review against another edition

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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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okaychanly's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

In The Atlas Six, Olivie Blake crafts a world that fuses dark academia with magic and science, creating an intriguing backdrop for a character-driven story, but I found her writing style pretty tough to get through— it often felt like she was trying a bit too hard to sound smart. The multiple perspectives are cool in theory, but a lot of the characters ended up sounding rather similar in an effort to convey sophistication and intellectualism. On the subject of characters, I feel that Reina in particular deserved more of a presence (because I really feel like we didn’t get to know her), whereas Callum, (though arguably the least likable one of the bunch), needed to be further fleshed out.

My biggest gripe is that everything happens and yet, nothing at the same time. I was hooked by the premise and the central mystery, but I wish the character relationships had been explored more. There's a lot of philosophical talk and thought exercises, but the whole group dynamic was never truly focused on. The pacing felt off, too; there was this built-up mystery around the inevitable initiation process and the costs of magic, but then the big twist at the end came too quickly and concluded with a rather confusing cliffhanger. Overall, while Blake’s imaginative world is captivating, it sometimes overshadows the character depth and clarity of the story, making for a bit of a mixed experience.

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