I finally read The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake which has been a dark academia staple and book recommendation for years now. It feels like everyone and their dog has read this on bookish social media, which is certainly true among the accounts I follow who read DA, so it was about time I picked it up. I am torn apart from this book, and not all in the best ways.

The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilisations 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.

I want to punch something so bad. That’s probably not what you expected to read, but it needs to be said. Similar to my emotions for Where Sleeping Girls Lie, once the plot really kicked in and things became a whole lot more intertwined, complicated, emotional, and tense, I was addicted. So much so that the last chapter (which is criminally 60 pages and full of so much action and so many revelations that I could not contain myself and was verbally cussing out characters as I understood the direction the book was headed in) could not have been read any faster. I feel whiplash from The Atlas Six because I was not all that interested or immersed in the first 200 pages and then I got slapped with that ending.

While I calm down (because I am writing this having just finished the book), let me give a little more commentary on the pacing and tension of this novel. The Atlas Six is, unfortunately, paced a little strangely. Some people might like it a lot, but I think overall it is quite slow to get into things. The characters aren’t really all that likeable or relatable in the first half of the book, the competitive aspect of their interactions come across almost juvenile to me, and the topics and tidbits that each person learns while at this society aren’t touched upon all that much unless it is part of the main topics of learning. In all honesty, I was ready to DNF it, and the only reason I didn’t is because I was buddy reading this. Thankfully, due to my indecision with continuing to read the novel, my buddy finished it first and convinced me to power through.

Let me tell you, from chapter six onwards the pacing shifts, character ties become more complicated, and everything reaches a peak. It felt like I was reading a completely different book. I think that’s part of why I felt so violently passionate about it while I was speeding through the last few chapters because I wanted this from the entire read. I wanted the dilemmas and complexities and pressure to bubble over, splash, and burn, and we only get that when characters get personal and messy. We only get that when the juvenile elements of the story fade, replaced with a far more mature, dangerous part of the story.

Undoubtedly, I will be continuing this series with The Atlas Paradox, but I still have my reservations and admittedly my disappointments with The Atlas Six. The beginning is so inconsequential to the second half of the book, the pacing near stagnant, and overall it feels so lopsided that I am surprised I got through it. I am sad to acknowledge that so many people would have missed out on that ending and trajectory of the series because the beginning was so slow. If you have tried to read The Atlas Six or are on the fence about it because of what you have read and heard from others, then consider this: you will be underwhelmed for most of the book, but the ending and gateway into the next book is incredible. It doesn’t make up for it but it serves to point out the higher potential for the series. I hope when I write my review for The Atlas Paradox that it will be positive.