Overall, a great, memorable magical find, with lots of twists and turns and suspense. The main thread was simple - Six of the worlds best magicians are offered a place at the elite Alexandrian library. But only five will keep their place, with its accompanying power and prestige. The competition is on - and together they must choose the loser.

Its a long story (perhaps too long and a bit convoluted), so there is a level of commitment required especially as some of the concepts require a second read but overall the story has big impact. Lots of cool, magical characters with multiple shades which made them believable. No one character is all good or all bad and each has an interesting back story, providing motivation for their actions and decisions. Magic was creatively explored, with each character wielding a different facet. A lot of thought went into creating this world and the way magic is displayed. Loved the many original and creative concepts and the way the characters interact with each other. Even now I can see certain scenes playing out like a movie.

Looking forward to the sequel!

I didnt expect to love this as much as I did. Dark academia is hit and miss for me usually but I loved this.
The audiobook is incredible as well. It was easy to get lost in the world.
The magic system is really interesting. We learn more throughout the book. But never in an info dump way. Just enough to help things in a moment make sense and stop you from getting lost.
Although I understand how it works. Well at least enough to not be confused. I probably would be terrible at explaining it.
The characters were all morally grey. But each one felt different. I found I never got them confused which has happening in the past with multiple POV books.
The Ezra twist left me intrigued. I really need to know where his part is going. Things are definitely not as they seem with Atlas Blakely. But Dalton also I'm unsure of.
Then there's the disappearance of another character and a side story of Nico and Gideon. All things I'm interested in knowing more of in the next book.

From the synopsis, I found the idea of this book extremely exciting. Six magicians but only 5 of the special people can be chosen to join the elite Alexandrian society. It started off with great promise but then started to drag. Some if the characters were very uninteresting from the very start, especially Callum whom I found really irritating.

I ploughed on with the book until the very end expecting some momentous event to take place but alas it was not to be. I believe there's going to be a sequel but I'm afraid I won't be reading it after this poor experience.

Okay… first of all, huge whoopsie on my account - I’ve posted on my instagram twice about this book. The first time was when I read the book and I explicitly said my review would be out closer to release date. Then around release I posted again saying my review was posted earlier, go find it … my bad!

So, here we are. Massively past release and comfortable my review is out there waving to the world. Like I said, whoops!

I read The Atlas Six at the end of 2021 after buying the pretty independently published edition (pictured above) and I’ve since acquired the Waterstones, Fairyloot and Illumicrate editions. A few weeks ago I attended the Olivie Blake event in Manchester that Black Crow organised - it was great to hear Blake talk about the book, some little tidbits ready for book two and generally fangirling over everything. She has a great sense of humour (quite dry, a bit dark and sometimes self deprecating) and I loved how honest she was about anything and everything.

The Atlas Six was a stand out read for me in 2021, it was something different and I was ready for it. While it follows several characters (the book has illustrations of each too which were a nice touch) and it took me a while to get to grips with all of them, I loved the magic system and the mystery of the society which kept me reading. The character interactions were fraught with tension and let me just put this simply - none of these people are especially ‘nice’ - you get an insight into all of their thoughts, sexualities and judgements through the multiple POVs - a technique which kept me from getting comfortable - and they are all sneaky and plotting against each other.

While I truly enjoyed reading The Atlas Six I would be lying if I didn’t get a smidge overwhelmed with some of the science and methodology descriptions - it was a bit of an info dump in places which made the story go through moments of slowness and a feeling that nothing was progressing but it got there in the end. It felt like it was trying to answer the meaning of life in some places which is a very heavy topic! Good job the characters were entertaining and offered relief while they snarked each other out although a few less POVs would have been welcomed. I don’t think I could choose a favourite as we barely got to know them - I do enjoy anti-heroes and all of these people had powers that were in various stages of mastery- learning about each ones magic abilities was a highlight but I’d have liked even more depth so I can psychoanalyse a little bit more ha.

At the event mentioned earlier, Blake commented that changes have been put in the finished editions from the version I read so I’m looking forward to giving this a re-read a bit closer to the release date of book two and I’m hoping I’ll get a bit more to grips with the science ready to fully follow along!

All in all, a great read from my perspective but just prepare yourself for that heavy subject matter. I’d love to post more thoughts on this after I’ve read it again so I can really get into the characters but it will definitely be spoilery!

I LOVED THIS BOOK! Admittedly this isn’t my usual genre but I’d heard such good things I just had to request it and give it a go! Olivia Blake is phenomenal and this is such a great book. The characters are all so well developed and you can empathise with all of them. The storyline that one would be eliminated, oh my gosh. I will definitely be reading more of Blake’s work.

Note to self: Must not fall for overhyped books again. 2.5 stars from me

What I liked:
Atlas Six has a great concept with characters that could be good if they weren't so boring.

What I didn't like:
There isn't a single character fleshed out properly.
The dialogues can only be described as 'pseudo-intellectual banter' and they more often than not not go anywhere, or they don't add anything to the story.
There are too many loose ends and orphan threads stifling the story..
The book uses frustratingly self-indulgent language and it is lengthy at places.

Very dissapointing. Shame ... I had high hopes for this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.

This book was so intricate and complex. The magic was amazing and characters likable. I was excited to read this book and can't wait for the sequal

This took me several times of picking up and putting back down to finally get through. Im glad i persisted, i love dark academia and secret societies. The setting was perfect and it was so atmospheric. Was it protensious? oh my god, yes. Was it elitest? 100%. Did the author use big words just for the sake of it? YUP. Did i love it anyway? You can bet your ass i did!!!

The Atlas Six didn’t quite live up to the hype for me but I can understand why it so popular.

There’s an interesting and diverse set of characters but a couple of them were so unlikeable it made it hard to form any connection. The book is told from lots of different points of view, this worked better than I’d expected but sometimes the limited time you spent on each person meant the character and their relationships with the other characters didn’t feel fully developed,

The premise also has a lot of promise, there were lots of plot points that really grabbed my interest - The Alexandrian Library, a secret society, dark academia, magic! All these elements kept me reading and at times the story did grab me and keep me engaged. However, the ending felt rushed and the twists were predictable. As the first in a series you expect there to be some cliffhangers but there were so many loose threads by the end that it almost felt like the book was unfinished.

I also found the writing difficult at times, there were often long divergences to the point where I’d forget what the main point was in the first place. It just felt like it needed more editing to tighten it up a bit, perhaps they didn’t want to change too much from the indie version but it would have benefited from it.

Although I didn’t find it quite as brilliant as I’d been led to believe, there are lots of positives and I’m intrigued enough to read the next book in the series.

After seeing this book trending on TikTok, I knew I had to request it to see what the hype was about. It was so good!

I haven’t read many dark academia books, but this one had me hooked. I don’t even know how to sum up my thoughts and feelings of this book. It’s told from the pov of the 6 main characters: Libby, Nico, Tristan, Reina, Parisa, and Callum. This did mean it was hard to keep track of each person's goals at some points. It was interesting to see directly into their heads, however, there were still quite a few twists I never saw coming.

The Atlas Six was described as six magicians competing to fill five places in the Alexandrain Society. But so much more was going on. There were multiple different schemes and various characters formed several different alliances. throughout the book.

‘He had made no attempts to stop himself, and there was no recovering from what he now understood he craved.
Which was, quite unfortunately, Elizabeth fucking Rhodes.’

I was immediately attached to Nico and Libby and was rooting for them throughout. They both have the same power, but without each other, they don’t push themselves and feel incomplete. Tristan grew on me and by the end I loved him. I feel like I still want to learn more about Parisa and Reina, and hopefully I can do that in the sequel! Callum is a dark horse and probably my least favourite, but we’ll see what happens next! Pretty much all of these characters are obsessed with each other and I can’t wait for this development in the sequel.

‘The day you are not a fire is the day the earth will fall still for me.’

There were times I was confused but I eventually understood what was going on. Overall, this was a good read and it’s definitely deserving of all the hype.

What an amazing book! This book is seen everywhere now & the sprayed edition is gorgeous. It was so entertaining.

I was intrigued by the concept of The Atlas Six - a secret society focussed on knowledge which recruits 6 new members once a decade, and whittles them down to 5. I love dark academia and there was so much buzz around this title, I was excited to have the opportunity to read it.
Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations.

Almost the first 20% of this book is spent introducing the characters. By the time we had met the 6 initiates, I had forgotten most of what we had learnt about the earlier ones because we had been whisked around other people and places.
However, once they arrived at the society I was excited for the plot to begin!
Except… it didn’t. About 70% is where it felt like the story actually got going, and I’m mostly disappointed because there was actually a decent plot, but it just took so long to start, and was let down in so many other ways, that by the time it did come I was so frustrated by the book that I couldn’t properly enjoy it.

The characters are almost universally unlikeable - except perhaps Nico - and while they may have been designed that way, it doesn’t make for a story I find myself invested in. When the big twist came, I didn’t care enough about any of the characters to be horrified by it. They are also utterly miserable. Constantly guilty, angry, bored. There’s no joy in the story. Ever. At any point. Even in moments when some kind of positive emotion would be expected, the characters continue to be glum, guilt-ridden, and mistrustful of one another.

The other thing that I couldn’t get past was the language. When speaking to friends about the words used in The Atlas Six the general consensus was: either you spend half the book looking up words you don’t know, or you do know them and are frustrated by their usage because it’s just not quite right. The example that comes to mind is when someone is ‘defenestrated out of a window’ despite the fact that defenestration is literally the act of throwing someone or something out of a window. It feels unnecessarily dense and unfriendly to the average reader and, again, makes it difficult to get into the story and properly enjoy it.

Overall, while I enjoyed the premise of The Atlas Six, I felt like it was severely let down by several aspects of its writing, and I will not be continuing the series despite, what could potentially have been, an excellent ending and a great twist.

I really couldn’t get into this at all. I gave up after a few chapters. I just found the narrative to be confusing.

Loved this story!! Absolutely could not put this down.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It feels like a drag and a waste of what seem like a fascinating cast of characters. The pretentious dialogue was probably its downfall for me.

Overall I really enjoyed this story. I especially appreciated the interesting worldbuilding and complex magic system. Sadly not all of the characters had the same depth to me personally. Some of them I could remember easily and others I got confused, Also, the passage of time was a bit unclear.
I would recommend this to fans of Ninth House and The Diviners!

This book is my newest obsession!

To be totally honest before picking up this book I did not understand all of the hype around it. However, I was quickly reminded that there is always a reason why certain books are so popular and this one certainly lived up to its reputation.

It was everything that I wanted from a book - well paced, excellent plot, characters that are actually well developed. It is smart and brilliant and no doubt my new comfort read.

If you're uncertain on picking this one up, please don't hesitate to give it a chance. It is one hundred percent worth it!

Thanks to Netgalley for this awesome ARC.

The Atlas Six is a gorgeous, character-focused dark academia that’ll leave you desperate for the next book in the series.

A secret magical society filled with rare and lost knowledge recruits new members every ten years. The Alexandrian Society is a guaranteed pathway to power, and they’re only interested in the best. Six talented magicians are chosen by the mysterious Atlas Blakely. They must spend a year together working towards their initiation. After that year is up, five will move forward, and one will be eliminated. Libby, Nico, Reina, Parisa, Tristan, and Callum are this year’s recruits. Relationships will be forged, loyalties tested, and they’ll have to consider what they’re willing to become to achieve their goals.

Olivie Blake crafts a lush, magical world full of dark secrets and morally grey characters. It’s a slow-paced, character-focused read with descriptive, flowery writing. That might sound like a bad thing, but it perfectly builds up the dark academia atmosphere. Even with the slow pace, it’s difficult to put this book down; you need to know more. The characters are three-dimensional. Their desires and insecurities play off each other wonderfully. They’re pretentious, overdramatic, unpleasant, and yet, so compelling. Even when you hate them, you can’t help but want to know more. And they’re all so horny for each other? Amazing. The Alexandrian Society has a deeply unsettling aura about it, but the power it holds is alluring. If this sounds like your kind of read, trust me, you’re going to love it.

The Atlas Six is a good book, a complex story and characters and I am looking forward to the next one. As with a lot of initial fantasy books in a series, there is a lot of world-building and before I knew the characters I did find the multiple POV a little tiring but it was worth the initial slog!

Excited to see what comes next.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. It had all the themes that I normally love, but after the introduction of the initial characters I found my mind wandering and I couldn’t focus on the story at all. I’m disappointed as I thought this would be a five star for me but I ended up DNF.