Review: "The Atlas Six" by Olivie Blake

Quick Summary

Type: Novel, book 1 of Atlas series

Genre: Fantasy, dark academia

Back Cover: "Each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to earn a place in the Alexandrian Society, the foremost secret society in the world. The chosen will secure a life of power and prestige beyond their wildest dreams. But at what cost?

Each of the six newest recruits has their reasons for accepting the Society's elusive invitation. Even if it means growing closer than they could have imagined to their most dangerous enemies - or risking unforgivable betrayal from their most trusted allies - they will fight tooth and nail for the right to join the ranks of the Alexandrians.

Even if it means they won't all survive the year."

Read Time: 3 days

Rating: 3.25 stars

Review

Dark academia has been the big trend recently, so I was excited to make my first foray into the genre. Unfortunately, I wasn't super impressed by this book.

First, the good. The author is excellent at building tension and suspense. There was a sense of it throughout the entire novel. What disappointed me, however, is that for all of the build-up to something big and horrific, there was no payoff. The big and horrific thing didn't actually happen. We slowly learn, alongside our characters, that one of them needs to die (frankly, a little predictable a plot twist, but not enough to take away from the growing suspense). And then, someone dies - but does she? We have maybe two seconds in which we think she might be dead, but then all possibility of the reality of her death are dismissed. She's not dead, it's an illusion. And on top of that, since she's missing (not dead), no one else has to die.

But besides the lack of a satisfying payoff to the suspense, most of the story was very enjoyable, full of intrigue and an interesting mix of science and magic. I enjoyed, for the most part, learning about the backgrounds and motivations and personalities of the different characters. The exception was Callum. From the beginning, it was obvious that Callum was the one who was supposed to die because his POV chapters only served to make the reader dislike him more. Every other ambiguous or prickly character had POV chapters that made them more sympathetic (see Nico, Tristan, Parisa). Not Callum. Callum has a horrible power, uses it in selfish ways, and has absolutely no personality or motivation beyond immediate self-service. Very clearly this was the man chosen to die - in fact, it's confirmed in one of Ezra's POV chapters. I'm disappointed that Callum didn't die - it leaves open the possibility that in the next book, all six will survive. But I'm also disappointed because if he had died, I still wouldn't be satisfied. I'd be glad not to have to read his chapters again, but frankly I was hoping for a devastating choice, not an obvious one. I saw character growth in all the characters except for Callum, and that was disappointing.

Given how this book ended, I'm not super motivated to pick up the next one. But maybe the next one will improve, so I'll stay open to the idea of reading the sequel.