I had been ridiculously excited about this book since I first saw someone mention it last year. Over the last twelve months I have developed a huge love for the dark academia genre and this seemed to tick all the boxes, and have magic too.

I adored this book. It was somehow everything I thought it would be, but also nothing like I expected.

It is a hugely character driven novel with less action and more contemplation, so it certainly won't be for everyone. There is deep exploration into each of the characters' thoughts, motivations and behaviour. The discussion of magic and its potential for the future of both their small world and the world outside is fascinating, with sacrifice and the idea of good and evil being a prominent point of debate.

The characters are an interesting group of people who are so easy to dislike one minute and want to wrap in a blanket the next. I can't wait to see what happens in the sequel.

Genre: #Fantasy #DarkAcademia #SciFi

Books: 1 / 2

Whilst reading this book I had a nudging feeling of reading/watching something similar before. And yeah, read a GR annotation later, it states that it is similar to #UmbrellaAcademy (I loved these TV series).

The Alexandrian Society is the most secret academy in the world, it holds ancient and dangerous secrets. Every so many years caretakes of the academy select six novices, in order to complete their studies and become Alexandrians, those who accomplish it will be granted wealth, fame, success or whatever it is they wanted.

All six participants are different, from different places in the world, with different backgrounds, goals and unique skill sets. But there is one thing that unites them....

Atlas Blakely is one of the caretakers, he founds all the students and offers something to each one of them, that they can’t deny. But knowledge has got its price, after initiation year they will have to pay it.

I had my doubts regards this book, because I rarely enjoy “very popular” reads. This one was an exception though. I had a hard time getting into it, because there is a complex magic system, everyone possesses different magic (it’s all very intriguing), fair amount of physical and mathematical explanations of what’s happening around.

After half of the book, I couldn’t put it down.

Characters, it completely different story. Long wait for “the adult problems” was worth it, we finally have a book to which I can somehow relate. And that’s so cool.

There isn’t much love going on here, but due to one of the characters wielding a seduction skill, expect some intimacy. As of love, author has left me hanging with a lot of questions and wanting to read second book ASAP.

Cliff hangers, last few chapters of this book are WooooooW.

Dalton and Gideon, I need to know more about them.

Really worth reading!

4.5

Dark academia has been making its rounds around the internet for the last few years or so, and I've seen a lot of hype for books like this one recently. I'm very happy to say that I do get the hype for this book and I will be continuing on with the series.

So let's go in to why this book worked for me. Olivie Blake's writing style is brilliant, very lyrical, and the dialogue between characters is very well written, if a bit pretentious, which, in all honesty, doesn't bother me at all. The six main characters in this book are, from the first page, very well established, and their individual personalities did come through. I rarely care a lot about the characters in books, but Blake did an excellent job in creating and developing these six.

There is not a lot of plot in this book, which I have seen criticisms for in other reviews. As much as I tend to be more of a plot based rather than character-based reader, this isn't something that always bothers me if the characters and writing style are developed enough to keep me entertained by the story. Therefore this element of the book didn't bother me too much, although I would have preferred if there were more plot points in this book, rather than the characters just going about their daily lives, not to say that I didn't enjoy this for the most part. The world this book is set in does thoroughly intrigue me and I'm looking forward to learning more about it, along with the magic system as it does seem very cool.

In my opinion, I do think that a few more things could have happened, and the book itself could have benefited from a few more descriptions, but other than that, it was brilliant and I would really recommend it.

Did somebody say Dark Academia? With Fantasy, some spice and parallel universe AND some serious morally grey characters?

Well then yes you have come to the right place as The Atlas Six has all of these elements and more. They hype (for me) is definitely real around this book and I cannot encourage you enough to read it.

From characters that you love to hate, ones that you are honestly thinking should be meeting a deadly end to the ones you want to protect at all costs. Yes I had all of these emotions when reading this book. Olivie Blake definitely knew how to write these characters and have you feel the emotion toward them.

I liked the differences in each of their abilities, the underhandedness and at times the damn right savagery of them. Believe me this book is not for you if you want a lightheartedness and cute romp - it’s dark, it makes you think, it honestly had me at times rereading pages to make sure I read it right. It was sublime and I loved every second - even the times when the nature of the book went over my head.

Olivie Blake has crafted a brand new world - with secret societies, parallel universes, magic, dream walkers - honestly this book was so many books into one.

I am excited to see where the next book takes us and I want Tristen and Libby to be end game 👀

This book fascinated me. I really enjoyed reading it.

First of all a little warning, this is not an easy read. The writing is dense and there is a lot of very science-like talk about magic. The magic system is elaborate and the writer has gone deep into the way it works. Don't pick this up if you mind a slow read. I could only manage it in small sections, because it tired me more than some books do. I happened to like the slowness and the sciencey stuff so it worked for me but different people have different tastes.

Secondly the characters are all immensely dislikeable. This was something I loved about the book. It was so interesting how the writer could write such horrible characters and still get you to like them and feel empathy for them. One of my favourites was Parisa who was one of the worst. She was callous and manipulative and I ate up every moment of it.

The ending was the only thing that let me down a bit. And it was a big let down. The big reveal was told rather than shown and it felt really distant from the action. I was really disappointed because it would have been a really good reveal if it had been done better.

That said, it really set up some interesting stuff for the next book so I'm excited to see what comes next.

There has been a lot of buzz about this book following its success on BookTok so I was intrigued to read it to see if it lived up to the hype.

The plot was appealing; a spin on dark acedemia, 6 potential initiates to the ancient society in charge of the contents of the Alexandrian library. So far, so good - I had high hopes.

Unfortunately, it just fell completely flat for me. The writing was just over the top and took me a while to get used to, I found it quite jarring to start with. The characters were completely unlikeable. This isn’t a bad thing usually, but not only did I not like them, they didn’t intrigue me or make me particularly interested in what they were going to do at all. I found the plot quite dull and a bit of a slog.

I’m not sure why this book has resonated with so many readers and didn’t with me. As I said, the premise was promising and appealing but the execution just didn’t work for me. I’m sure it will continue to find success and that readers will love it where I didn’t.

I loved so much about this! The world building is fantastic and the setting is really exciting. I felt like it needed a really thorough prune, though. There's a LOT of character stuff (inner voice, dialogue and external commentary) and a lot of extraneous info. It could have been more punchy and fast-paced by brutally cutting it back. Enjoyed it though and will get the next one.

It is so so rare that ‘bookstagram/booktok’ books live up to the hype for me. I always expect too much, and I’m always disappointed. My feelings about ‘dark academia’ books are similar, especially novels that lack a certain self-awareness of the troubling elitism and toxicity of academia. I have a love-hate relationship with Tartt’s The Secret History, and when I saw another blogger (I forget who!) describe The Atlas Six as ‘The Secret History but with magic,’ I was apprehensive. As it turns out, my worries were unwarranted: the hype for The Atlas Six is well deserved. The world-building is incredible, the magical system so intricately realised that it's easy to lose yourself in the pages. My desire to learn more about the world and the characters (primary and secondary) drove me through the chapters faster than any other novel I’ve read in years.

The main cast – Libby, Nico, Reina, Tristan, Parisa, and Callum – were each unique, memorable, and compelling characters. Each POV is expertly crafted. I never felt the urge to skip over any of the chapters, which I (shamefully) admit I've done in another multiple POV novel where I found one character is a little dull. When dealing with multiple narrators, it’s often a challenge to, a) decide what character should tell what part of the narrative, and b) make each chapter as indispensable as it is intriguing, with no pointless repetition of plot points. Blakely makes this seem effortless, weaving voices in and out to form a beautiful and satisfying tapestry. (Is the tapestry metaphor overdone? Yes, but I’m using it anyway).

That all being said, if I knew these people in real life, I would avoid them at all costs. They’re a group of intensely dislikeable people. The choices they make are questionable to say the least: using magic to manipulate people’s memories and emotions, passing off infidelity as a form of liberation, and excusing elitism and other very bad things (intentionally vague because spoilers!) in the favour of personal gain, to list just a few examples. However, as characters, I hold a soft spot for each of them. Except for Callum. (Fuck Callum). But I did still enjoy reading his chapters. I like reading about morally grey characters who are both smarter than me and make choices I wouldn’t dream of. What that says about me, well, the less I think about it the better. Although, isn’t that the point of fiction? To find yourself in the shoes of someone so drastically different from yourself, to live a life you never could?

The Atlas Six will pull you in and stay with you after you finish the final chapter. If I have to say one negative thing, it's this: the novel ends on a cliff-hanger and the Atlas Paradox is not expected until autumn. It's going to be a long 8 months!

I would be surprised if anyone in the Bookish Communities that have not heard of this book yet. It even has the Marketing tagline "Tiktok Made Me Buy it" it is certainly a hyped book. It is worth the hype! It is dark academia fantasy at its finest. I absolutely loved this

First – We have Post Grads, and older protagonists in an academic setting! This makes me Post-Doctoral heart really happy. Personally to see older academically accomplished individuals in fantasy is so much fun. The competitive edge between them was a little unrealistic to me as in my experience the post grad environment (Particularly in science subjects). They are not particularly competitive environments and are more about building a cohort and a relationship, as you focus on your own private projects. However, I liked how the initial stand-offish, credential and metaphorical dick swinging, all played into how all the candidates built relationships over the book. It also allowed us to get to know each of them and for such a character driven story this was fantastic.

The prose is so exquisite. It can seem pretentious and flowery but it just suits the atmosphere so well. Creating such diverse, sexy, fierce and devious characters, who are torn between perpetually wanting to kill each other or sleep with each other and I was living for all the tension! I loved them all and hated them all, and wanted to climb into the pages and give them the good slap they needed.

Due to the focus being on the inter-personal relationships, the plot is slow but I really didn’t care. There was so much going on between the characters and in there own internal monologues that I was happy just getting to know them more and more and watching how all the relationships develop. The ending was a little predictable to me. There were some very clear and obvious elements for foreshadowing, but again I was just enjoying this so much I didn’t so much mind.

Lastly, that magic system was Science based!!! We know I love a good science based magic system, especially when its actually half decent science, or at least looked at more than a couple of Wikipedia articles as sources based science. I was living for the technical elements of this book. i loved how all the different aspects of power worked and how they were rationalised within how we understand the world scientifically. I loved the twisting of known Scientific Theory to add magical elements. This just made me want to explore this world even more. Ok I am always going to want more, I want to know more about this world, the magical politics, magical accounting, magical science all of which we were given brief glimpses of, but I always want more magical minutia in my books.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I can see why it can be polarizing if you love your heavy action packed plots, or you are not a fan of the show off heavily flourished academic style of language these characters use when attempting to prove they are the biggest and the baddest of them all, then this isn’t the book for you. But if you love magical schools that are filled with drama but are looking to see a more adult cast swinging their weight around, with all the anxiety, imposter syndrome and bravado that entails I think you will love this one.

A very interesting take on the dark academia, full of interesting magic and moral dilemmas. You will need to give this your full attention.

I'm generally not adverse to multiple voices in a book as it doesn't take me too long to adjust to the system and it is interesting to see events progressing from different points of view but this one has a few too many for me and the chapters for each are generally quite short. This type of book is something I can easily demolish in less than a day but I kept putting it down for a break. That said, I did enjoy the overall concept and the characters themselves were very varied and creative. I would've liked more background info on some of the societies enemies but understand that this was more to establish all the different characters and the world itself. Time progression was a bit strange but again easy to adapt to.

Overall it was good enough for me to keep picking it up to finish as I did want to know what happens but there were just a few too many voices for me to really enjoy it.

The atlas six-Review
Author: @olive
Genre: Dark academia/Fantasy
Age rating: NA but older Young Adult reader could definitely read it
Page Count: 384 pages
Publication Date:8th of March 2022 (8/3/22)
The hype is real for a reason!!
Thank you to @netgalley / @Pan Macmillan /Tor for providing me with this e ARC before publication
Blurb;
The world's best young magicians accept the opportunity of a lifetime.
Six are chosen. Only five will walk away.
The Alexandrian Society is a secret society of magical academicians, the best in the world. Their members are caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity. And those who earn a place among their number will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams. Each decade, the world's six most uniquely talented magicians are selected for initiation - and here are the chosen few...
- Libby Rhodes and Nicolas Ferrer de Varona: inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds.
- Reina Mori: a naturalist who can speak the language of life itself.
- Parisa Kamali: a mind reader whose powers of seduction are unmatched.
- Tristan Caine: the son of a crime kingpin who can see the secrets of the universe.
- Callum Nova: an insanely rich pretty boy who could bring about the end of the world. He need only ask.
When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they must spend one year together to qualify for initiation. During this time, they will be permitted access to the Society's archives and judged on their contributions to arcane areas of knowledge. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. If they can prove themselves to be the best, they will survive. Most of them.

Review;
The atlas six is a epic NA fantasy, with a dark academia setting what more could you ask for? The story was interesting with a strong plot line. The start of book introduced us the charters and their abilities which was great to see, throughout the book I was just wondering what would happen next which was so cool as I enjoyed it more. The second half of the book was where I could not put the book down and was devouring it page by page. I was constantly trying to understand the book fully but felt I wasn’t quite which made me want to read it more and more.
The six main characters were so intriguing to learn about some were just down right awful, other I grew to love and some I didn’t love but understood more. They were all unique and this is what made them a great part of the chosen atlas six.
With astrology being part of the magic system/world building it was quite complex I did take a few short break when reader but always wanted to know more. Reading about the plot was amazing as the more you read the more you understood and felt rewarded. The mixture of plot twists and story lines made the book interesting.

While I was at times I was wondering why chapter were so long this was mainly due to me being a person who likes short chapters. The book was always engaging and think if you were to buddy read it the book would be perfect for this as you can talk about the plot with them. I will defiantly be picking up book 2 and can’t wait to read what happens next.

Rating;
4 stars
• TRIGGER/CONTENT WARNING
• Anxiety
• Blood
• Cheating
• Death
• Degenerative disease
• “Encourgement” of suicide
• Suicide thoughts
• Mention of Incest
• Kidnapping
• Mention of Mass-shooting
• Sacrifice
• Marriage and sexual relations with a minor

I am obsessed with Olivie Blake’s writing and worldbuilding. It is heavily marketed as dark academia, rightfully so, but I can see readers across multiple ages and genre taste enjoying this novel.

We have many amazing characters who all get their own POV which makes it so easy to fly through the pages and get invested in their arcs.

If you’re like me and read the self-published edition, I definitely urge you to read this new one. There are a few changes that will be setting up the next book of the series 👀

Every 10 years 6 people with extreme and unusual magical abilities are selected to potentially join The Société to protect the former Library of Alexandria. But only 5 of them can make it through at the end of the year and one must be eliminated.

As they find out more about what the Society is and what that elimination means, they have to work that through.

I found this to be a very slow read and not at all what I was expecting. It was essentially just ponderings on the nature of the universe, time, memory and magic. Very little actually happened in this book.

The 6 person multi pov also made me struggle to get into it, as I didn't feel like I had enough time to get to know anyone before jumping POV. Not helped by when they first got together and they referred to each other as things like 'the blond South African' and I had no idea who was blond or South African!

I picked this one up a little nervous given all of the hype that has surrounded it. Happily, it more than met my expectations. I found the writing really accessible, which is always a plus when talking about cerebral topics and thought that the plot was clear and straightforward. I loved the overall vibes of the book and thought that the characters were all very interesting in their own ways, although I do think that certain characters were given more page time than others, which was a shame. Overall, I really enjoyed this and will be anxiously awaiting the sequel.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I loved this book so fricken much! It deserves all the hype it had received on tiktok! The characters, the plot and the setting were all so loveable and so well written.

Where do I even begin with this book? What a ride this one was. I'd seen this book all over social media, and it was SO hyped I was nervous. That feeling when you think a book might be for you, but how can it possibly live up to the hype!?

It is undoubtedly ambitious, and it so nearly pulls it off; Dark Academia with a magical secret society at it's heart, lots of mystery, a whole host of unlikeable characters... this is entirely character driven, so if you need a plot (there isn't much of one for most of the book) or if you need to 'relate' to the characters, then this isn't going to be for you. But if you enjoy sassy, self aware, dark and brooding characters then oh boy does this have what you want!

The plot twists are more 'reveals' than twists, but they work with the tone of the story, and the character development had me fully invested. What hooked me from the get go was the magic, which isn't just magic... it's philosophy, it's possibility, it's what could be achieved if we had the ability to harness natural forces. It's clever; intelligent without being difficult, thoughtful but presents you with the answers so you don't have to work at it. It's a delicate balance and it worked for me.

Now I can't wait for the sequel, I'll definitely be picking up book 2.

4 entertaining stars

Five out of Six students will be initiated into The Alexandrian Society. With membership to this elusive society up for grabs, the six initiates must decide the price they’re willing to pay for knowledge and the influence and power it may give them in their future plans to dominate or reinvent the world.

The Atlas Six is an extremely compulsive story, where it is beyond easy for the reader to immerse themselves. The characters are either loveable or relatable, the academic environment is top-tier dark academia that is rife with a thirst for knowledge and competitive undertones students everywhere across the world will understand.

I think what made me fall in love (*cough, obsess, cough*) over this story, was the well crafted balance of intellectual depth and believability. This secret society felt tangible, the merger of knowledge and magic was quite frankly mind-bending and the characters were viscerally flawed, vulnerable and oh so fascinating.

The one thing many should know before going into TA6; this book reads like six character studies. This is a book where the story unfolds THROUGH the characters and their perspective, rather than the story happening to them or the reader following it with them (hopefully that makes sense, if not, lets just pretend it does…)

The book alternates between the core six - Libby, Nico, Parisa, Reina, Tristan and Callum. They are such compelling characters and going through the motions of liking or loathing them, or even a little bit of both sentiments, was a complete rollercoaster. Libby felt like an embodiment of insecurity and childlike innocence that was easily relatable. Parisa is a very charming and charismatic character. Even when she’s doing wrong, you can’t help but like her. There’s an honesty to Callum that is extremely off putting but by the novel’s end, I understood him. Nico is endearingly humorous and clearly has the biggest heart out of all of the initiates. I couldn’t settle between whether I found Tristan the sexiest (after Parisa) or if he was the most tragic. However, out of them all, I still feel like Reina is a stranger.

I really liked each of the six’s magical gift, and the idea that if they simply banded together, they could be something spectacular. And yet that’s where the dark academia vibes come into full effect. I was fascinated with the academic rivalries (and the different types). On one hand, from the get go, the dynamic of Libby and Nico was electrifying. You have these two academic rivals for years put in a position where they can either continue to compete or combine efforts to survive. I really loved seeing their dynamic bounce between hostility and banter with a deep rooted understanding of the other due to their history.

Then on the other hand, as hollowing as it felt at times, I must compliment the way dislike between certain characters was done - especially the “if you’re not with me, you’re against me” type. All of the more competitive or negative relationships really catapulted me back to high school, when some classmates took a deep rooted dislike for each other… for no apparent reason other than their own completely-warped-and-entirely-incorrect judgements. It was intense and full of melodrama and I. Couldn’t. Get. Enough.

That is a quick summary of what I felt of the core six, because in truth, I could be here far longer if I broke down each of them. Beyond the six, there’s the caretaker of the society Atlas Blakely, his supporting colleague Dalton Ellery, as well as Libby’s boyfriend Ezra Fowler and Nico’s not quite human roommate, Gideon. I’m really, really, really looking forward to learning more about these four in the coming sequel!

I really need to commend Olivie Blake for capturing suspense and intrigue through the mystery of the story and the different kinds of magic. I couldn’t foresee where the story was going, and when I thought I had, my theories were completely toppled on their head. The story’s climax and ending tied all the threads together to answer the questions raised whilst also masterfully setting up the sequel. It has been a while where I’ve been left in such an impatient flux for a sequel, which clearly shows how much I enjoyed this. I’m following every crumb for news of the books and the Amazon TV adaptation, I’ve managed to get my hands on an go 2020 paperback to compare it and I’ll be meeting Olivie Blake in the flesh come April! That’s how invested I am in this series!

So, to sum up:
Chemistry between the characters? Yep.
Interesting characters in of themselves? Definitely.
An intricately crafted world that achieves just the perfect balance of magical realism and fantasy? And is the embodiment of dark academia? Undoubtedly.
An exciting but slightly torturous cliffhanger? Regrettably.
A spellbinding new favourite series and obsession? Certainly.

All in all, if you like the alternating perspectives of Six of Crows, the vibes of schemers scheming schemes of The Cruel Prince or the writing style of Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education, then I guarantee The Atlas Six is not to be missed. It is one of the most alluring books published this year!

Thank you so, so, so, so much to the publishers for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for this honest review.

I LOVE LOVE LOVED this book. Olivie Blake is a master at writing in a mythical and magical way that is not pretentious.

I loved the all the main characters although I feel like we didn’t get enough of Reina.

Libby is my favourite character and I truly think she was given enough attention to be bounds ahead of the others.

Nico was funny and badass at the same time.

Gideon gives me horrendous vibes and I will be coming back to this after the next instalment.

the atlas six is probably one of my favourite contemporary fantasy novels of all time. it is a gorgeous dark academia book that spins characters to life. olivie blake breaths life to people and it is an unmissable book.

when you are given characters so fleshed out and so alive, it is hard knowing that whilst you can root for them all, not all of them can win. the atlas six is a compelling, tension-filled competition in a bid for initiation into the secret and magical alexandrian society.

if you're anything like me, you probably still wince at the mention of the library of alexandria and the knowledge that was lost in the fire. therefore, to have a novel were not only is it still thriving an full, but it is magical too probably made me one of the most excited people on the planet.

libby, nico, reina, callum, tristan and parisa are some of my favourite characters i have ever read about. they are fleshed out, morally grey, hungry for success and knowledge and i loved that. in particular, libby & parisa dug themselves deep into my heart and i never, ever want to let them go. to see women so unapologetically competitive and intelligent was a beautiful thing to read.

ALSO the way that they all have tension with each other was an absolute breath of fresh air. i have read so many books where i would have loved that kind of tension between the characters and olivie blake DELIVERED. i didn't know WHO to root for so i decided to root for every single one.

i cannot wait for the next book. i am frothing at the mouth at the thought of it. i am so so so so so excited.