The Atlas Six on the Beach

Hello again, friends. Welcome back for another review! This month, I am reviewing a book that my followers on Instagram picked—The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake. I wasn’t at all surprised this book was picked since it’s been a massive hit on TikTok. So, I was really excited and nervous to get into this highly talked about novel. To accompany today’s review we’ll be drinking a Sex on the Beach or a Six on the Beach for the purposes of my puns.

Sex on the Beach Recipe

2oz Green Apple Vodka*

1oz Peach Schnapps

2oz Orange Juice

2oz Cranberry Juice

Green Apple wedge*

*These are optional ingredients.

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add all ingredients. Shake for approximately 10 seconds. Strain over ice into a hurricane glass. Garnish with a wedge of green apple (or an orange slice if being traditional).

This drink was SO good. Traditionally, a Sex on the Beach has regular vodka, but for this week’s special ingredient I wanted to use green apple, so I opted for green apple flavoured vodka. During the novel, Callum describes envy as smelling like green apples, and since envy is a huge theme in The Atlas Six I felt like this would be a good addition for this drink. And holy smokes, the Sex on the Beach with green apple vodka was 10x better than the regular one. It’s also very slammable! So, I completely recommend this cocktail especially with the special ingredient if you can find it.

The Atlas Six Synopsis

(from book cover)

Each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to earn a place in the Alexandrian Society, the foremost secret society in the world.

The chosen will secure a life of power and prestige beyond their wildest dreams. But at what cost?

Each of the six newest recruits has their reasons for accepting the Society’s elusive invitation. Even if it means growing closer than they could have imagined to their most dangerous enemies—or risking unforgivable betrayal from their most trusted allies—they will fight tooth and nail for the right to join the ranks of the Alexandrians.

Even if it means they won’t all survive the year.

The Atlas Six Review

“Everyone wants a purpose, but there is no purpose. There is only alive and not alive.”

I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. I feel like whenever I try and read a book that is popular on social media I don’t like it, but this one holds up to the hype. It’s not the best novel I’ve ever read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. My two best friends were extremely nervous I wouldn’t like this novel after they recommended it to me multiple times, so I’m happy to report to them that their worries can go away.

OK to start off, I want to discuss the writing because I loved it. It is really beautiful prose that is perfectly poetic, if a bit flowery, and doesn’t pander. I hate when authors write like their audience is dumb, and Blake definitely does not do that. She does a wonderful job of balancing beauty with academic writing while also making it accessible to all readers. I will note that there are times when it comes off pretentious. However The Atlas Six doesn’t feel like what I call a “smart person book” AKA a book that only a handful of people can enjoy because it’s so pretentious, so take from that what you will.

Unfortunately, I do have negatives with the writing. The first of which is that the novel can be quite slow. There were a couple times that I found it a bit dense and dull and had to reread paragraphs. This isn’t a huge complaint as the more descriptive, almost scientific explanations of how the magic in this world works felt necessary to the world building it was just a bit much. I didn’t feel that this really took me out of the novel it just made the reading slow.

My next negative with the writing is that it was a tad more tell than show, which we all know is not ideal. This again is not a massive complaint for me as I like descriptive prose and it felt as though Blake was really trying to flesh out the world building. But it is something to note as a small negative. Overall, I truly enjoyed the writing and felt the author respected her readers without making the novel inaccessible and boring.

In relation to the writing, I loved the world building of this novel. It was comprehensive, fleshed out, and you could tell Blake put a lot of thought and planning into it. I felt fully immersed in this novel’s world, and honestly nothing took me out of it throughout the whole story. A lot of my above complaints about the writing are due to the emphasis on the world building, but as this is the first novel in a series I feel that Blake has done a tremendous job in laying the ground work for the rest of the series. The world of The Atlas Six is complex, cohesive, and unique, and I’m excited for what’s next for this world.

The characters are much the same as the world building—fleshed out, complex, and fun. I won’t say that the characters are wholly unique, but I enjoyed their quirks (and flaws) and how they develop. Some characters were definitely explored more, so I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get as much Reina and Callum as I did the others. But oh well, they weren’t my favourite characters anyway. I think there was a definite emphasis on the world building over the character building, but again as the first in a series I’m hoping that the focus switches to the characters more in the following novels.

My only other negative with the characters is that they were all douchebags. Loveable douchebags, but douchebags nonetheless. This could play into the pretentious attitude of the writing, but who knows. I’m choosing to believe that this was to further the idea that humans are flawed, which is a pretty big theme in the novel. The characters each have flaws as well as discuss the flaws of the entire human race frequently. This could seem overdone to some, but I enjoyed the exploration of this theme so I was happy with it.

My final comment on this novel is that it was slightly predictable. I actually thought the foreshadowing was done well, but a few of the twists and turns were definitely predictable. Some things were obviously intended to be predicted, but others I was a little disappointed in. This is probably my biggest negative of the novel, however I’m still intrigued with how things are going to play out in the rest of the series. Speaking of which, the second novel in this series will be out in a few weeks so get to reading! I know I can’t wait for it!

Overall, I really liked this one, but I can tell it’s definitely not going to be a book for everyone. Is it my favourite book of all time? No. Is it one of the better books I’ve read for this blog? Yes. So as always take this review with a grain of salt as I do my best to be objective but alas I am human, and if we’ve learned anything from The Atlas Six it’s that humans are flawed. As always, let me know if you read this book or try the cocktail as I highly recommend both!

P.S. My sweet angel friend has been writing novels, and even though I assume the 5 people reading this haven’t read them, her writing style is really similar to Blake’s and when she releases a book to the masses I would recommend everyone read whatever it is. So, shout out to Seph (even though her favourite character is Callum).

My Rating:

Thanks for reading! And, if you read the book or try the cocktail let me know in a comment or on Instagram. Also, if you haven’t yet read my previous reviews, I recommend reading The House in the Deep Cerulean Sea and The Invisible HighLife of Addie Larue if you liked this one!

Teghann

If you enjoyed this review please like or comment. Also, if you’d like to be notified of new posts subscribe below. Or, to be a bigger part of the community head to @bartenderwithabook on Instagram!