REVIEW: The Atlas Six (Olivie Blake)

Book: The Atlas Six

Author: Olivie Blake

Premise: When the world’s best magicians are offered an extraordinary opportunity, saying yes is easy. Each could join the secretive Alexandrian Society, whose custodians guard lost knowledge from ancient civilizations. Their members enjoy a lifetime of power and prestige. Yet each decade, only six practitioners are invited – to fill five places. If they can prove themselves, over the course of a year, they’ll survive. Most of them.

This book sounded right up my street. Secret History but magic? Sign me up. Sadly, it left me not quite satisfied.

Most of the book was character driven. The magic was really cool and I liked exploring the different characters' magic. However, half of the characters seemed cold and I didn't care much for them. I wanted more from Reina as her powers were interesting but she didn't get much page time. It was clear who you were meant to like, which kind of ruined the "who's not going to make it" mystery.

The plot was slow with a couple of brief bursts dotted here. It did feel a tad repetitive at times with certain characters hashing over the same moral dilemmas and not realising when they were clearly being manipulated. Then suddenly in the last chapter, a massive amount of plot is dumped on you without warning. Personally, I would've liked some ground work done earlier so it wasn't just a sudden onslaught at the end to make up for lost time. A bit of mystery here and there to warm me up would've been appreciated.

Not sure if I'll continue this series.