"The Atlas Six" review

Overview

Title: The Atlas Six

Author: Olivie Blake

Subgenre: Dark academia

2021 Bingo squares: Found family (maybe?), Mystery

Recommended if: you like reading about “scientifically” experimenting with magic and/or psychological dramas

Not recommended if: you dislike reading about unlikeable protagonists, or want very high amounts of action

Stars: 4.5/5

Review

The Atlas Six follows six medeians who become candidates to join The Alexandrian Society, a secretive and extremely exclusive organization that invites only the best of the best to join its ranks. After a year of study, five of these six will become members of the Society. The novel focuses on their year of study and the competition that this exclusivity creates among the group as they fight not to be that sixth person, creating alliances and picking sides, taking advantage of the Society’s resources, and attempting to manipulate each other - while at the same time being brilliant medeians experimenting with and studying magic.

This is mostly a character- and situation-driven novel, with very little in the way of action scenes. Expect lots and lots of exposition, long passages of description, and a lot about what each character thinks of the others. All six of the students are given point-of-view chapters, so we get to see an event, and then we see the others remember it from their perspectives as well. If you want a very fast-paced, action-heavy plot, you might find yourself pretty impatient at this, but if you enjoy character-driven events, you’ll love it.

The Atlas Six is the first in an incomplete series, and it ends on a cliffhanger. Fortunately, there’s not too long to wait until book 2 - it comes out in October 2022 - but if you dislike reading incomplete series, you may want to wait on this one. I enjoyed the first book a lot, and I can’t wait to continue with the series!