This year I decided an initiative. Because too many people are wanting to go back to the magic school created by a TERF this time of year, the first book review every September is going to be reviewing a different magic school in rebellion.
Well, this isn’t EXACTLY a magic school. But it is still academic. The dark academia BookTok has freaked out over.
Six powerful magic individuals get selected to be taken under the wing of Atlas Blakely at the secret magical society, the Alexandrian Society. This gives them bountiful magical knowledge at their fingertips paired with the opportunity to grow their magical abilities further. Along with pursuing their other personal intentions of course. But things take a turn when it is revealed that not all of them will be selected, and then turn even further when they discover what dark methods they must take to secure their place amongst the magical elite.
For some reason, I read this book over a very long time, reading a section between other books I was reading at the time. This was meant to be a buddy read that ended up in a chaotic mess as people read this book faster and slower than each other. This is not a book to read the way that I wound up reading it. it became a blur. This may have made my opinions of this book decrease significantly.
This book was a full on mystery of discovering intentions and the complexities of alliances and intentions. It felt a lot like politics on a minute level, especially with stakes being revealed and amplified as it turns to a game of survival. It was entertaining to see the many ways alliances were made and broken. Then maybe this can’t be compared to politics. It felt like reality TV without the surveillance. Big Brother made magical. (I have never seen an episode to know fully what it is like).
The six main characters were hits and misses for me. Some of them were very strong, like Nico. Others had blurry intentions or became observers for most of the book, mainly Reina. And others had very twisted ways of thinking that became near captivating, those two beng Callum and Parisa. It was great to see such an array of people and their POVs, but it would have been nice if they were all more consistently great. The morally dark grey ones were the most entertaining, and I wished to love the others equally or more.
Because of my reading style I don’t remember the full details of the plot or the way that magic got studied and developed. The main part I remember is the ending, the last quarter or so. And that was a REALLY powerful quarter. Seriously eye opening and genius. It brought everything together so much that it almost didn’t matter that the rest of the book was a blur.
It certainly captivated me enough to read the next book.
The Atlas Six gets a score of 3.5/5. I wish I didn’t read it the way I did so I could appreciate it more.