The Atlas Six (The Atlas #1)by Olivie Blake
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Synopsis:
The much-acclaimed BookTok sensation, Olivie Blake's The Atlas Six--now newly revised and edited with additional content.
• The tag #theatlassix has millions of views on TikTok
• A dark academic debut fantasy with an established cult following that reads like THE SECRET HISTORY meets THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY
• The first in an explosive trilogy
The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation.
Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.
When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.
Most of them.
People were such delicate little playthings.
This is the most difficult book to talk about. On the one hand, I literally don’t understand a thing that happened. On the other hand….it was a masterpiece but I still don’t understand a lot that happened.
Look, I want to wax poetic about how much I loved this-but I just didn’t. Did I immensely enjoy it? Yeah, absolutely. Was it epic in some parts? Yup. But did it blow my skirt up? Not hardly. That is to say, there was no real ship. I don’t know if anyone I like will live. No real action happened, but the end was freaking amazing and I was right in my feels. You tell me.
Every now and then, Libby achieved a look that successfully withered his balls, and this was one of those instances. It was the kind of look that reminded him she’d set him on fire the first time she’d met him without even batting an eye.
He’d like her more if she did it more often.
And the beginning-I’ll admit I was HYPE at the beginning, which is generally the opposite of what I say, but I think that this author is either a true master in mind-fuckery which, fine, okay, cool, but fuck with someone else because I like my ships pure and if you did that just to bait me, no- I won’t ever truly like you as an author. It’s fair to say-that upon finishing-I did not care if my ship did not sail, though, because the author did at least achieve enough of a bond to satisfy me in a deep friendship that I can get behind AND some strong treachery that leads to supreme moral grayness. (not the same people and not in that order, even-just facts).
“….You think you’ve met me before, other versions of women like me, but you have no idea what I am. You think my looks are what make me? My ambitions? You can’t begin to know the sum of my parts, and you can stare all you like, but you won’t see a damn thing until I show you.”
And, also, I’ve seen this compared a LOT to Deadly Education (okay, fair), but wrong. The beginning was so on the nose I thought I may combust, but one of these is not like the other and I must say, as far as comparisons go, for those who love DE and LG on the level that I do, this is a gross injustice to Atlas Six because there is literally no competition. To be fair, though, on the other side of the realm, A6 stans would say this far surpasses the latter. Again, I am, of course, correct like always, but you can lean to whatever side you like. They aren’t the same…but if they were, in theory, in competition-Atlas Six would be the sad Augustus Gloop that floated down the chocolate river for trying to achieve the impossible. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.
“Don’t envy me, Reina,” Parisa advised softly, turning to say it in Reina’s ear. “Fear me.”
Now that that nasty business is put aside, I will end with the derision of people labeling this pretentious. I guess I see that perspective… but in that vain, what is pretentious when writing a book, anyway? Like what is pique pretentiousness? I’d say (again with this fucking comparison), if we’re going down the what-if road, Novik always writes with an unparalleled pretentiousness. But no. I don’t see it that way. There’s an innocence in her heroine (and same with Uprooted, if memory serves) that, while she’s an asshole (just back to El here lol), she wants, ultimately, to be liked. Compare that to Libby and you have a match. I know it’s deeper than that, but I think there was enough levity of characterization among the 6 that I never felt like I was being made to feel beneath the writing or belittled. Again, just my opinion (and seriously, I understand what pretentious means and I literally see everyone’s point, and I don’t even think Novik writes with any loftiness, just a beautiful-if not wordy-flow, thus making my point about wordiness somewhat akin to pretentiousness, if you liked that take), but I really thought that, yes the writing wasn’t always the easiest to connect to, but there was heart behind it if you wanted to feel or see it–
He had such a talent for finding women who put themselves first. It was like he was some sort of sniffer dog for emotional fatality, always able to dig it up from the one person in the room who would have no trouble making him feel small.
Regardless, what Tristan needed most emergently was to believe in something; to stop staring at the pieces and finally grasp the whole. He wanted to revel in his magic, not wrestle with it. He wanted something, somewhere, that he could understand.
-and anyone who can enrich their story with heart is okay in my book. I’m one to reach out and grab any opportunity to find relatability, and maybe that’s just something within me-a defensive mechanism-that helps me to relate and enjoy 90% of the books I read. I didn’t spend 1-20 dollars on a book to sit and judge it the whole time (well lol), I just wana immerse and enjoy. And if there is a pretentiousness to every book read (I do truly think there is, in some form, for most every author) then so be it. No, not every book is equal, not every book is pretentious. But I see it a lot more than what is called out, and I found this book to be on par with what I read and, honestly, if I hadn’t seen it in reviews (yes, further implicating I’m of a romantic notion of naivety here) that word wouldn’t have even popped in my head.
CHARACTERS AND MY SCALE OF MADNESS
Nico-If harm befalls him I would rage honestly
Libby– Again, the rage is strong-bonus points if my children end up together with that ace banter
Parisa– I wouldn’t be happy if something happened to her-I grew to care for her
Tristan– I don’t see…a happy future…but I hope for it. He’s very sweet. I see great power but not sure what his path is. Perhaps to save them all, in the end (if needed) somehow
Callum– I mean, be gone. I did not care for him one bit, but he did add some flavor that’s for sure.
Reina– Who?
(Sorry, only the real ones will get that joke lol *Arielle, back me up here…*)
So, all in all I did enjoy this book on a level I’m unaccustomed to. It was a challenge for myself in that I like my neat little formulas and I, as a rule, tend to need to know certain things (ARGH) or have hope they will turn out as I like…but we can’t always get what we want, now can we, and I am okay with that (though it took me a while to reach that point). And if my little non-rant pertaining to pretentiousness caused you to raise your eyebrows to your hairline, I only said it in defense of the book because I’d hate for someone to skip over their next favorite read because of one review that may have scared them. Call me soft-hearted, but I’m always going to defend a book to its bitter end…and I guess that’ll never change. This was a good book-it didn’t become an instant favorite like many do (yes, I have a plethora of all time favorites-I’m cool like that), but I will be waiting eagerly for the end alongside many rabid fans.
“Isn’t it? The day you are not a fire,” he said, “is the day the earth will fall still for me.”
FRAN SCALE:
Cassie-Honestly, I think you’ll be disappointed. But you’ll wana like it so you probably will lol. Though, this holds zero candles to El and Orion-Just sayin’.
Arielle-I mean, sure. Probably. You’re weird. I’m weird. This book is weird AF. Fuck knows.
Jen-LMFAO no.
Anna-You read it already so. lol
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Altogether not at all what I would have expected…but also completely what I expected based on the mercurial reviews littering the booksphere.
All in all a delightful and different read.
RTC!
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