Rating: 91% | A- | ★★★★★ Warnings: + Sexual content + Violence Synopsis (from Goodreads): 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. Spoiler-Free Review: The Atlas Six was one of my favorite novels of 2021. Olivie Blake spins an unbelievable world filled with magic, science, and above all, the quest for magic. It's a timely book, exemplifying the dark academia trend online. This low fantasy world leaves the reader with one foot in the real world and one foot in the magical world, simultaneously anchoring them in something familiar and allowing them to explore another, completely mesmerizing world. The plot begins slowly but races through the second and third acts, building up to a hasty but still breathless conclusion that provides a strong jumping-off point for the next installment. "We are medeians because we will never have enough," Callum said hoarsely. "We aren't normal; we are gods born with pain built in. We are incendiary beings and we are flawed, except the weaknesses we pretend to have are not our true weaknesses at all." The two qualities that set The Atlas Six apart from other novels are its cast of characters and Blake's writing style. The cast of characters—the arrogant Nico, the underestimated Libby, the dangerous Parisa, the insightful Reina, the bleeding-heart Tristan, and the enigmatic Callum—make the story what it is, not vice versa. This novel is a masterclass in how to thread relationships together between characters and allow the threads to tangle, to form unsolvable problems that shove the plot forward. There are no villains in The Atlas Six, or perhaps they are all villains.
Blake's writing style has been criticized for being too complicated, but as someone who finds guilty pleasure in writing that tends towards the purple, I enjoyed it. I did have to re-read certain lines before they made sense to me, but overall I thought the writing style matched the overall dark tone of the novel and mirrored its opinions on elitism, the power of knowledge, and Machiavellian plots. For fans of dark academia, the TV show The Magicians (although admittedly I quit after the second season), and for those who harbor guilty wishes to return to the classroom, The Atlas Six is a must read. The wait for the next novel, The Atlas Paradox, is agonizing but will be, I'm sure, worth every second. I also have a Spotify playlist for The Atlas Six! Find it here.
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From the ArchiveWhile my main reviews are organized by seasons and I try to write reviews immediately after I finish reading, there are always stories that lose to the hustle and bustle of everyday life. From the Archive is a redemptive collection of mini-reviews of books I read in the past that continue to captivate me.
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