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A review by tampojo
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
dark
mysterious
tense
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
If I could choose one word to describe this book, It would be “disappointing”.
Although it has an interesting premise, I find that unfortunately, it didn't really deliver. That's not to say that this book had no redeeming qualities; each character had a unique voice, personality, and view on the things around them. They read differently from each other, so I didn't feel like I was reading from the same narrative for the whole book. There were some moments that were at least slightly interesting or funny, but that being said, let's get into the things I didn't like.
Starting with just the intro to the book, and we’re already off to a bad start. The intro is basically just a massive info dump, which is really not the best way to start a book. The author goes on trying to explain the origins of this secret society, but ends up jumping around from topic to topic, then circling back, then jumping again, overall making the prose feel rather clunky and unnatural. This clunky prose is unfortunately prevalent throughout the entirety of the book, making reading it rather tedious. When all this information about the society and the magic system and whatnot are dumped on you at the beginning of the book, it makes it a lot harder for the readers to remember it all. In my opinion, it's better to integrate that information throughout the book naturally as the information becomes relevant.
As many other people have already pointed out, this book feels very pretentious. The dialogue feels forced, and doesn't have a natural flow, with a lot of the lines feeling like they were written with the sole intent of being “quotable”. It feels like the author desperately wants the characters to be “cool”, but unfortunately, they are just annoying. Don't get me wrong, I love complicated characters who have unlikeable personality traits, but these characters severely lacked depth and were just not compelling in any way. Overall, they were not fun to read about, and I found that I honestly didn't really care what happened to them either way.
Additionally, this book is just plain boring. For a majority of the time, I was just waiting for something to happen. I feel like at least 70% of this book is just one character talking to another character, without anything actually happening or any actual introspection from the characters, and when there is introspection, it reads as a pretentious, circular rambling with no real point, that adds no real depth to the characters. There were very few times throughout this book where I actually felt compelled to keep reading.
There are setups and references to many interesting premises, such as astral plains, time travel, and different dimensions, but they are never elaborated on fully, so instead of adding depth to the plot, they just complicate it. The magic system as a whole didn't feel very fleshed out, the specifics and limits of each character's powers feeling very vague. The ending specifically felt a bit rushed. Instead of having layers of the plot all line up to some sort of logical conclusion, it felt more like the author just wanted to write the most unexpected thing she could think of, the “twists” coming completely out of the blue with no actual connections or foreshadowing in the rest of the plot. This book lacks cohesiveness, making it an unsatisfying read.
Maybe I’m being too harsh, but overall, I think this book is at best forgettable, and I would not read it again or recommend it.
Although it has an interesting premise, I find that unfortunately, it didn't really deliver. That's not to say that this book had no redeeming qualities; each character had a unique voice, personality, and view on the things around them. They read differently from each other, so I didn't feel like I was reading from the same narrative for the whole book. There were some moments that were at least slightly interesting or funny, but that being said, let's get into the things I didn't like.
Starting with just the intro to the book, and we’re already off to a bad start. The intro is basically just a massive info dump, which is really not the best way to start a book. The author goes on trying to explain the origins of this secret society, but ends up jumping around from topic to topic, then circling back, then jumping again, overall making the prose feel rather clunky and unnatural. This clunky prose is unfortunately prevalent throughout the entirety of the book, making reading it rather tedious. When all this information about the society and the magic system and whatnot are dumped on you at the beginning of the book, it makes it a lot harder for the readers to remember it all. In my opinion, it's better to integrate that information throughout the book naturally as the information becomes relevant.
As many other people have already pointed out, this book feels very pretentious. The dialogue feels forced, and doesn't have a natural flow, with a lot of the lines feeling like they were written with the sole intent of being “quotable”. It feels like the author desperately wants the characters to be “cool”, but unfortunately, they are just annoying. Don't get me wrong, I love complicated characters who have unlikeable personality traits, but these characters severely lacked depth and were just not compelling in any way. Overall, they were not fun to read about, and I found that I honestly didn't really care what happened to them either way.
Additionally, this book is just plain boring. For a majority of the time, I was just waiting for something to happen. I feel like at least 70% of this book is just one character talking to another character, without anything actually happening or any actual introspection from the characters, and when there is introspection, it reads as a pretentious, circular rambling with no real point, that adds no real depth to the characters. There were very few times throughout this book where I actually felt compelled to keep reading.
There are setups and references to many interesting premises, such as astral plains, time travel, and different dimensions, but they are never elaborated on fully, so instead of adding depth to the plot, they just complicate it. The magic system as a whole didn't feel very fleshed out, the specifics and limits of each character's powers feeling very vague. The ending specifically felt a bit rushed. Instead of having layers of the plot all line up to some sort of logical conclusion, it felt more like the author just wanted to write the most unexpected thing she could think of, the “twists” coming completely out of the blue with no actual connections or foreshadowing in the rest of the plot. This book lacks cohesiveness, making it an unsatisfying read.
Maybe I’m being too harsh, but overall, I think this book is at best forgettable, and I would not read it again or recommend it.