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.

This book appears to be very much a marmite book but that’s often the case with books that have been hyped and when people go in with pre-conceptions about what it should be like.

I try and go into everything I read with an open mind and all I really knew about this one was that it was Dark Academia, which having loved Nevernight and A Deadly Education, I knew I was here for.

First up, it’s important to know that this is a multipoint of view book. All of the characters are so intriguing that I think it is necessary to get into each of their minds to unpick what is going on but I know that not everyone is a fan of switching heads so often. The cast of characters is diverse so there’s bound to be one who’s sections you want to skip forward to - but don’t.

Second, the book starts a little slowly. This is an adult title, and I’m currently doing a writing course for children and young people where the focus is very much on letting the reader know up front what is going on. Here we get introduced to each character in turn along with the mysterious Atlas but they, like us do not yet appreciate what we are getting in for.

I showed a friend the back of the book and they said the stakes weren’t high enough if five of the six get to walk away, but if you like more than one character the stakes even then are plenty high enough imho.

The magic in this is dynamic, and political and definitely has the potential to be manipulated.

In fact much manipulation and double crossing happens and who doesn’t love that in their fiction?

As you might expect with a story about knowledge it does get cerebral at times (and the tiny font in the ARC didn’t help my Long Covid brain). I love books that challenge me and make me think but the timing has to be right. That’s why I restarted this book a few times because I knew it was a story that would be more demanding for me as a reader, I was definitely intrigued from the first line’s of Libby’s section (just after the prologue). Demanding does not mean unenjoyable it just means be prepared to brain.

A great idea for a story; magic at a higher level, dark thoughts and some romance too.

This was an enjoyable read, not too light as there is a lot of scientific thoughts about the basis of magic, which nearly lost me sometimes. But, nevertheless, the characters are interesting, the setting is perfect and the story leaves you wanting to read more.

Thanks to the publisher for approving my request. Unfortunately this didn't gel for me. There wasn't enough distinct characterisation to support 6+ POVs, and the way magic works in the world is confusing and unexplained. The story only really picked up in the last chapter, and the middle section was particularly slow, akin to 'Dangerous Homework: the novel'.

The Alexandrian society only seeks the very best magicians: each decade six very different talents are invited to study in the Alexandrian library for a year in competition with each other, only five of them will become members of the society at the end. Hand-picked by Atlas Blakely, Nico, Libby, Parisa, Reina, Callum and Tristan will have to decide how much they are willing to sacrifice for life-long access to a wealth of knowledge and power .

The Atlas Six is very much a character-driven book, which switches POV frequently and allows us insight into the the perspectives of all six initiates. The different kinds of magical abilities of the candidates and how characters worked together to solve problems were intriguing. Some of the characters received more attention than others, and I did have favourites, but all six managed to pique and maintain my interest. I loved the academic setting and the premise of a sentient library that grants people access to select knowledge only. And I loved that at the heart, this was a story focused on interpersonal relationships: the scheming and manipulating, and the alliances these six form as they compete for their places in the society and learn what is required of them.

This book definitely deserves the hype it has received, and I've already per-ordered the sequel. Dark academia at its best! Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me with an electronic copy in exchange for a review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

While the story was a bit slow to get going, particularly with so many characters to follow, I was hooked by the end and am completely intrigued to see where the story goes in the next book. We could have done with spending more time with certain characters (such as Reina), and the twist was a bit of a curveball, but I liked the way the world was set up and hope we get to see more in the next book.

I really enjoyed the whole aesthetic of this book.

All the characters were flawed in their own way and it made for an interesting dynamic when reading. Half the time I didn’t know who I was routing for or if any of them.

I actually loved the multiple POV (this is not something I usually go for) it works so well for the storytelling style.
I enjoyed the mystery of the book, this did make for frustrating times while reading as you don’t have all the answers and even once finished there are still many more questions to be answered. But it really encapsulates the feeling of the group who equally are without answers in the society.

There is something very enthralling about this book and I would recommend to anyone looking for a dark academia inspired mystery.