I ended up DNF'ing this book it really wasn't for me. The execution of the story was quite boring and didn't keep me engaged and it felt awfully clumsy. I rarely stop reading books for any reason and prefer to plough my way though but I read to 70% and just couldn't continue as I felt myself going into a reading slump. I know this book is an extremely popular title but in the case I just can't see the appeal and have come to terms with the fact that it's just not the right fit for me

Wow!! What a bunch of characters! I really loved reading them interact with such development. I really really enjoyed the plot and can’t wait to read the next instalment

After multiple attempts, I couldn't get past the half way point with this book. I do understand why it's been such a popular book as in theory it has so many things in it to grab an audience, and especially an audience which is of the BookTok era.

Not one for me, however.

Absolutely loved this. A dark academia/fantasy that doesn't compromise character building. Loved/hated all of these characters!

Amazing Tik Tok sensation did not let me down! Characters and story were well written and brought you in straight away, waiting for more!

I really enjoyed this book, especially as the storyline was pretty original and like nothing I have read before. I am now hooked and can't wait to ready the next part of this saga. The storyline kept me guessing and I'm intrigued to see how it is expanded upon in future books

The Atlas Six is one of those books that is so hyped but it is definitely worth it! I really like when a cast of characters all have different abilities, especially magical, because it makes the plot so interesting. I found the pacing and structure a little off, so it's not perfect, but it's definitely an addicting story and made me want to pick up the second book right away. Libby and Parisa are definitely my favourites because I love complex female characters! I'll be interested to see how the tension transfers in the rest of the series. I like the magical dark academia vibes and I really flew through it.

I fell for the TikTok campaign with this one - it was everywhere and I was so looking forward to reading. however, a book with no substance and characters/plot that was just meh

I got about 200 pages into this back in May and then put it down thanks to a reading slump. However I was not going to end 2022 without finishing this and I'm so glad I finally picked it back up. The book was not the reason for the slump - every time I pick it up I'm hooked into it and I can't wait to get the second book and read that!

I really enjoyed the idea of this book with the Alexandrian Society and seeing how each member is chosen to join. Throughout I continued to enjoy the book until the author decided to include the cheating trope which was not at all necessary to further the plot. I came close to dnfing the book for that reason alone, the only reason I didn’t was because I was quite a way through, but will definitely not be continuing the series

DNF.

I really did not enjoy reading this book and had to put it down. While the premise of the story really interested me I could not get passed the writing style which I found to be pretentious and not in a fun way

This book has been absolutely everywhere and frankly I’ve been intrigued to see if it lived up to the hype. I think i went into it with too high expectations because although it was good, it was mediocre for me. I found the characters quite flat, some were completely forgotten or pushed to the side. The whole mystery of what happens to the 6th person wasn’t interesting to me as I could tell what would happen (they kill the 6th etc). I was however very interested by the ending and having Ezra come into it. So i will be reading the sequel, but I’m not sure if I’ll reread this again.
Thank you for the eARC! I ended up buying a physical copy anyway.

An interesting take on a magical school, 6 are chosen and only 5 will be initiated. Whilst I found the concept interesting, I didn’t feel that the book met its full potential and I can’t put my finger on what it was. The plot seemed to take forever to really start and, by the time it did, I didn’t really feel anything for any of the characters - most of the males were arrogant and self-obsessed and the women were just annoying.

This is clearly part of a series, however, I don’t feel invested enough to bother with the sequel. Mind you, this was still an okay read, edging more to a 3 star (good solid read) rather than a completely disappointing 2 star.

I feel that if the book really grips you, then your socks could be blown off by this series, but it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t see any of the hype around this book, but it sounded intriguing so I went for it. A little tough to get into the flow of, but certainly interesting and captivating enough to warrant some interest in the next book.

I wasn't sure if I'd like this one, but I really wanted to. Unfortunately, while at time I found myself engaged and wanting to keep reading, I also found it pretentious and at times just didn't care for it at all. I actually forgot I'd picked this up and with so many characters, I couldn't even confidently name one. It's just not stuck with me but I'm sure this book will appeal to many

It took me a long time to get into this book. It was the kind of book that at times, felt like it was perhaps a little bit too intelligent for me. That is the best way I can describe it. I found the story to be very interesting for the most part and I have not read anything similar before so I really liked that. I didn't fall in love with any of the characters so that would be the big thing that let the book down for me. I love to feel a real connection with the characters and this book for me, was a lot more about the story but even that was difficult to get into because a lot of it didn't make sense to me at first. By the time I had slugged my way through to the end of this one, I was feeling a lot better about it. I did listen to the audio version of this for the most part which could be why I didn't feel the connection I wanted to feel. I would like to re-read this at some point before I read the sequel and see if my feelings can be changed.

I'm disappointed with this one, I was expecting to love it due to the hype but I just felt confused throughout. But I might have tried to read this too quickly, so I don't entirely blame the book. I've since read The Atlas Paradox and enjoyed it so I definitely think I'll give this one another try one day.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC to review. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved the storytelling, narrative voice, and the worldbuilding was so lush. Easily one of my favourite books of this year.

Thank you to Tor for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Plot: 1/5
Characters: 1/5
Writing: 1/5

I wish I could just write ‘a whole lot of pretentious nonsense’ and hit post but I know it’s unfair to say such things without any explanation so that’s what I’m here to do! It’s rare for me to dislike a book with such passion. This is an extremely popular book so clearly something it about it appeals to other people, but none of it appealed to me.

The Atlas Six is fantasy dark academia with the premise of the six most talented and promising medeians (which are just university educated magicians) in the world being invited to join the elite Alexandrian Society. The catch is, there are only five places. Being in this society unlocks all the doors to power. Apparently, it’s a society trying to be the ‘caretakers of knowledge’ and do good in the world but in the book all we see them do is hoard knowledge like a dragon hoards gold. They have all these rare and ancient texts, books on any subject that could cross your mind and they just sit on it being high and mighty. It felt like the book wanted to discuss the idea that it’s dangerous when a group of people control knowledge distribution because knowledge is power. But on the other hand, sometimes knowledge is dangerous in the wrong hands but what gives someone the right to decide who has access to what? I don’t think it did a particularly good job of exploring this idea though. There was another group opposing the Society which popped up a couple of times to say what they’re doing is wrong but beyond that the main characters barely questioned the way the Society works, they were too busy being obsessed about themselves and their powers.

The point of view shifted between the six main characters- I found them all obnoxious. The experience was pretty much just, “Oh no, it’s another Parisa chapter”. At the beginning I thought Reina was interesting, she had the ability to make plants grow, but I feel like she made barely any impact in the story compared to the others. I found Libby plain annoying, and Nico was alright, but I didn’t really care about him. They both could physically manipulate their surroundings. I will say I did like Libby and Nico’s dynamic because they were competing and supposedly hated each other but also knew each other better than anyone else and trusted each other the most. But like everything else in this book, it didn’t really go anywhere. Callum was just supremely obnoxious; he was able to manipulate people’s emotions and I feel like he was just too arrogant for his own good. Tristan probably left the biggest impression on me only because I liked his journey of understanding his powers. Parisa was such a nightmare and I feel like she was hogging a big chunk of the chapters. She was a telepath and extremely beautiful (as we kept being reminded) and she uses her powers to seduce people, sleep with them and take advantage of/ manipulate them. I’m not saying that’s wrong but with telepathy the sky’s the limit, there’s so much more she could be doing with it and isn’t. We just have to endure chapters and chapters of Parisa thinking she’s the coolest, smartest person in the whole world who’s oh so beautiful and it’s exhausting. The relationships between the characters also felt very shallow.

Reading this book feels like jumping between the minds of six self-absorbed, annoying, chosen one wannabes and it’s extremely frustrating. I can’t believe I managed to read the book until the end. It was trying so hard to have edgy, morally grey characters and ended up with a bunch on unlikeable, arrogant people drunk on their own power.

Most of this book was just sophisticated rambling, fancy words and pretty sounding writing and if you actually stop and think about the meaning of these words or what they’re adding to the wider development of the characters or story you’ll quickly realise that there is none. The characters also have a lot of long, pretentious conversations trying to sound all dramatic and philosophical but it’s really just nonsense and empty words.

This was a part I highlighted on my kindle when I was reading, it’s about Libby’s dead sister. I think it illustrates my point about the writing style pretty well. I remember when I was in high school I used to always use the word ‘juxtaposition’ when I wanted to sound extra fancy for no reason and I feel like that’s also what the author was doing. Bear in mind, the entire book is written like this and it gets frustrating very quickly.

“It was such an uncanny juxtaposition, so acutely timed: the familiar sliver of youthful ennui (ambivalence in a strapless dress) and the empty chair next to her parents.”

Here’s another example of what I mean (I just picked a random page of the book for this).

Callum rose to his feet with a nod. “What are we celebrating?”

“Our fragile mortality,” Tristan said. “The inevitability that we will descend into chaos and dust.”

It felt like the author decided if she used enough long words and complicated sentences, she would fool the reader into thinking it was a smart book with a deeper meaning for smart people to understand when the book had no plot.

Yes, the book really didn’t have a plot. Barely anything interesting actually happened, it was mainly the characters playing mind games with each other and being full of themselves. For some reason I was holding out for an amazing plot twist that would save the whole book and give everything that happened some meaning. Then the plot twist came and it was far from amazing- it was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read. I don’t want to go into spoilers, but I felt extremely cheated as instead of giving the book meaning, the ending made the book even more meaningless than it already was.

In summary, I really didn’t enjoy The Atlas Six and I don’t understand why it has gotten so much hype (I’m starting not to trust books that have gained popularity from TikTok) and it’s really not something that I would recommend.

The plot and synopsis of this book gave me so much hope but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I found it really slow and not in the slow burn way, just slow. I couldn't really tell you about what happened in the first half of the book.

I feel like the book had too many subplots that weren't fleshed out enough for them to be beneficial. I think they confused the plot a bit rather than aided it. I'm hoping in the next book these will be explored more so that we can learn more about what's actually going on in this book.

The magic in this book was really interesting so I ignored my doubts for the majority for the majority of this book about the characters and the writing style and read to the end. I'm really confused by this book because whilst at the time I felt like I didn't really enjoy it, I read it really quickly and looking back on it now, I feel like I enjoyed it and can't wait to read the next one. I think the book and the series has really high potential so I probably will pick up the next one.