The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
★★★☆☆
The Atlas Six tells the tale of six uniquely powerful magicians invited to join a shadowy secret society to learn how to truly harness their talents. They’re promised power and wealth beyond their wildest dreams…. If they can survive the first year that is.
Fans of magical realism, dark academia and YA will all find something to love in this book. Part grown-up-Harry Potter, part The Secret History, The Atlas Six has all the usual tropes one would expect:
⁃ Mousy brunette who doesn’t know how special and beautiful she really is? Check.
⁃ Cloistered and elitist boarding school setting? Check.
⁃ Good vs Evil? Check.
If you’re already a fan of the genre, this will be a familiar and fun read, albeit not particularly ground-breaking. Blake does an admirable job at trying to offer Harry Potter fans a more sophisticated series to get our teeth into and the initial premise is fascinating.
However, as a group we felt that the characters were too constrained by their archetypes which meant that they often lacked depth and could never really find their own voice. There were also quite a few plot points and world building that deserved more time than Blake allowed, and several plot points felt thrown in as an act of desperation to protect certain character arcs, rather than let the characters grow organically. “Show don’t tell…but also tell us a little more” was the point we all kept coming back to. Finally, fair warning: the audiobook makes it quite difficult to keep track of all the characters due to some questionable acting choices- we recommend getting a physical or digital copy of the book and reading it instead.
Overall, this is an intriguing beginning to a new series with a lot of potential but the foundations are shaky, and quite a few things need tightening up before it can truly win its place as the next big fandom. The next instalment is already available for pre-order online, and rumour has it Amazon has bought the rights to the tv show. With that in mind we’re hopeful Blake will be able to find her feet on more solid ground for the next book in the series. Until then you can find us in the drawing room sipping absinthe with Parisa and Tristan.
