I didn't read Book 1, but that wasn't the problem (it was easy to get into the world). The problem was that 30% in nothing had happened. There was time hopping and some projected stuff in some weird initiation, but honestly? It could have been 10 pages not 30% of the book. DNF.

While I liked the first book in the series, I really liked the second book. It still had its philosophical flare and deep meaning (that I feel as if I wasn't smart enough to pick up on everything that was presented). But there was further character development. We got to delve a little deeper into each while having an overall plot of getting Libby back. There was also an added element of the dark academia to this book that I felt the first one was missing and it made this one much creepier.
There were parts where it slagged in the middle and it suffered a bit from "middle book syndrome" but I am intrigued enough to keep going.

I do not recommend this book. The characters are not likable at all. They sit around and think about how great each of them are. Too much telling me about the characters through their own rather lofty opinions of themselves. How could some of these relationships be formed since the characters barely seems to interact with either each?

Let me first say that I everyone should go out and purchase 'Atlas Six' - the first in this series. It was such an incredible book, and I am SO grateful to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read the ARC for 'The Atlas Paradox.; I loved this - absolutely loved it, and I think it might just be better than the first, which just proves what a great author Olivie Blake is. And what a ride! An excellent thriller/story and I think anyone regardless of age (teen, adult_ would enjoy the twists and turns and the brilliant original plot. Wonderful, captivating writing gives this novel the depth and ability to pull in any reader. Vivid, descriptive story-telling, with interesting characters that have depth to them, and skillfully rendered, and I also enjoyed the relationships between the characters - very intricate and well-told! I highly recommend this author! She is definitely an auto-buy author for me, and I can't wait to own this novel in print.

This was a great follow up to the atlas six! So cool to be immersed back in this world! Can't wait for more from Olivie Blake!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

The Atlas Paradox is the long-awaited second novel to Olivie Blake's The Atlas series. And let me tell you – I'd been counting the days to this beauty! Once again, I got into this series after Tor picked it up, so I can't comment on how the first novel read when it was indie published.

The society of Alexandrians needed six new magicians to enter their doors. But they only needed five to succeed in their goals. Now the six, powerful and determined, are forging their own paths, creating new alliances, and breaking the rules.

They say that knowledge is power. But what if you had complete access to both knowledge and power? What would you do with the world, given that? Would you change it for the better? Or would you let all that power corrupt?

“To know what people really are and not destroy them is savagely remarkable. She has exceptional restraint.”

Sooo...I had been looking forward to The Atlas Paradox, and ultimately I'm feeling pretty disappointed here. I even took a week off before writing this review to give myself time to process everything that happened here. More specifically, to process what didn't happen.

Where The Atlas Six was all intrigue and change, The Atlas Paradox felt like a long story about six characters talking but doing relatively little. Given the high stakes we were promised, it's hard not to feel cheated.

Maybe I'm just feeling salty because of how my two favorite characters were treated. One was cast off, and while her story continued, it didn't feel like it moved forward much. The other seems to be losing her grasp on humanity.

Admittedly, the latter could be a really interesting setup for the next book if we actually go that route. However, I'm afraid to hope for that, as I still maintain relatively little happened in this book. I was speeding through, waiting for the next big thing to happen. Only, it rarely ever did.

I'll be the first to admit that every moment of significance requires setting up; otherwise, it lacks the weight. However, I would have expected at least part of the payout to show its face by the end of the book. Otherwise, there's little incentive to read the next, right?

Now that I've written all this out, it sounds like I'm trying to trash The Atlas Paradox. I'm not. It's not a bad book. It's just not the book I had hoped it would be! It was thoroughly average, and that is the biggest disappointment.

In my humble opinion, Ms. Blake could never do wrong. She’s such a way with words that her stories can’t help but come across as lyrics without the music, because it needs to be heard and paid heed to it. I love how she magically wove her plot line with the raw and authentic characters. So, I can’t help but fall in love with it more than I did with the last one. Overall, it was one perfect read for me. I’m already more than ecstatic to read the next instalment already haha

This is a continuation and we get deeper into who the characters are, what motivates them and more of the inner workings of their powers . I really enjoyed this even though I was confused by some of it. I love dark academia and this was such a stunning sequel.

Highly recommend

It’s hard for me to review The Atlas Paradox since it is the second book of the series. But all I have to say that this book was perfection. It takes place immediately after the first book. Nico and Libby are still my favorite characters. I literally screamed when I got accepted for an Arc. Thank you so much NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing story. I already purchased a physical copy a for my personal library. The cover is absolutely gorgeous.

The Atlas Paradox picks up soon after the explosive ending that was The Atlas Six. Nobody quite knows where Libby is, but Nico, Reina, Parisa, Tristan, and Callum follow through with their initiation.

After initiation, the characters move around and pursue their interests of study, all with different goals in mind. Some of the five grow closer, while others fall apart.

Meanwhile, Libby is fuming over Ezra's betrayal as she finds herself in an unexpected place.

It's difficult to write an adequate review for The Atlas Paradox without spoiling major plot points, but I think the easiest way to go about this is to say that sequels are tough. I liked the direction this book took quite a lot because it brought about new dynamics and new stakes. I enjoyed the direction Libby's sublot took, and I found myself sympathizing with the characters far more than I did when I read the first book.

It's not the perfect book, but I had a good time reading it. I look forward to seeing how the story progresses in the next installment.

I listened to an ARC of the audiobook while reading along and it truly made the experience that much more enjoyable for me. All of the narrators are phenomenal at capturing the essence of their characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing me with an e-ARC and digital audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The Atlas Six was incredibly enthralling so I was ecstatic to get an early copy of The Atlas Paradox and continue following the lives of these six characters. Unfortunately, this book just didn’t live up to my expectations. What Olivie Blake does well is creating characters that are so unique, complex, and interesting and I enjoyed that aspect of the book. The Atlas Paradox, similarly to the first book, is slow-paced and character-focused. The first book ended on a cliff-hanger so I was excited to get to some resolution, but The Atlas Paradox felt like 400 pages of build up for a lacklustre ending that only sets up the third book in the series. At a certain point, you find yourself asking what’s the point? The How and the Why of this world and mission aren’t addressed until way too late in the book, I think the world/magic setup is poorly done. Overall, I do enjoy her writing and will be reading the third book in the series, this one was just incompatible with my preferences.

This book was a good follow up to the Atlas Six. Being the middle book in a series means we didn't get all the answers we were looking for but despite this the book was very enjoyable and has set the stage for what is to come next. The first book was a phenomenon and I don't think fans of it will be disappointed with this follow up.

How do you follow up a viral phenomenon? That is, at least in part, the question we must ask of The Atlas Paradox, Olivie Blake’s highly anticipated sequel to the popular dark academia novel The Atlas Six, a self-published fantasy debut that went so viral it won a publishing deal and dominated social media publishing discussion for months. Perhaps there was no way that anything that came after those kinds of highs could ever hope equal them, particularly not the middle novel in a trilogy, which can’t give us the answers we’re so desperately seeking.

To be fair, The Atlas Paradox isn’t bad. Far from it, in fact. It’s a deeply philosophical, extremely nerdy exploration of ethics and morality that ticks a lot of the boxes about what the whole idea of the dark academia sub-genre is supposed to be and do in the first place. Blake’s prose remains gorgeous, and her characters are realistically messy, running the gamut from sympathetic disasters to offputtingly self-obsessed jerks. But the pace of this book is positively glacial at times, and it’s often a textbook example of middle story syndrome, occasionally struggling to clearly articulate the reason for its existence. Thankfully, the novel has a killer (excuse the sort of pun?) ending that more than proves worth the journey to reach it, though it’s likely some readers will be annoyed about how long it takes to get there.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review! I'd like to preface that I devoured The Atlas Six. It was fast-paced and I couldn't wait to see what occurred.

In contrast, I felt that The Atlas Paradox dragged a little in comparison. This may be middle-book syndrome, but I had a hard time getting through the first half of the book. It felt like there was very little plot progression forward. While I very much enjoyed spending additional time with our characters, it fell a little flat because it didn't seem like anything was happening. That being said, Nico & Gideon stole the show for me, and I am VERY excited to see Libby's arc in the 3rd book.

Overall, I would recommend this book to people especially if they enjoy a heavy character-driven plot. Both books so far feel the same, which was disappointing but also expected. With the reveal of the end of The Atlas Six, I was hoping for bigger reveals in The Atlas Paradox. We shall see what awaits us in book 3.

I truly enjoyed this sequel! Six gifted individuals with very different agendas! While I don't love all the characters I love seeing how they all play off each other.

This one picks up right where The Atlas Six leaves off and takes us through year 2 at the Alexandrian Society. The writing is absolutely brilliant!! So many twists and turns! There's danger, rivalries, and conspiracies!! I can't wait for the next book!!

2/5 stars

Thank you so much to Netgalley for granting me access to an eARC.

This might be the most disappointing reads of this year--I'm so upset that I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did when I read The Atlas Six. I just want to say, before I continue on with this review, that I think Olivie is a very talented author and her writing is immensely rich and descriptive. I think my biggest issues with this novel stems from the way it progresses and it's lack of plot.

Very early on it became evident to me that there just... wasn't a lot going on. Usually I'm a big fan of character-driven novels, which is what I found the most appealing about TAS, but there was also a lot of plot-driven things that I really enjoyed in the first book that weren't even remotely present in the second book. Not only that, but the only characters that I was remotely interesting were Libby, Tristan, and Nico, and with that being less than half of the cast of characters we read about, it really wasn't a novel that kept my attention. Even if I'm reading about characters that I don't necessarily enjoy, I like to att least have my attention kept, and it wasn't kept in this book.

I'm not sure if maybe dark academia just isn't my genre, but regardless, it was a huge miss for me. I'll probably discontinue with this and just cherish the time I had when I read TAS.

4/5⭐️

Much like the book itself, this review is going to be all over a place and a little confusing but bare with me.

Man, where do I even start? I guess I’ll say that I did genuinely enjoy this book. It was slow for the first little bit but the second half was addictive. The plot was interesting, I never knew what would happen next and I was continuously on the edge of my seat. I felt like every page turned was an opportunity for some new relationship or plot point that I could never see coming.

That being said, Olivie Blake never fails to make me feel simultaneously smarter and dumber than I am. One second I’m like, “oh I get it, wow look at me go” and then I turn the page and go “what the hell am I reading here?” Similar to The Atlas Six, this book is not for those uninterested in theory and academic literature (it is EXTREMELY heavy in both). If it weren’t for the characters and storylines that I love, I probably would have given up because this book makes me think harder than a book you read for fun should. I often found myself having to stop reading and sit there for a few minutes to try and process all of the information I just read.

However, if Blake knows how to do anything, it’s write complex characters that were undoubtedly my favorite part of this book.

I know this is an unpopular view in terms of likability but ever since I read the first book, I liked Libby and I think it’s mainly because I see myself in her a lot (anxiety-ridden, academic performance reliant girl who just wants to be liked). I felt she got a lot of shit from other characters in the first book so I really liked how all of them acknowledged how her absence set them off balance in this book. The only thing I wanted from her in the first book was a backbone, and boy did she grow one in this book - this was the start of Libby’s villain origin story and I am HERE for it.

I also really enjoyed how Raina and Callum were expanded upon as characters in this book, since I found them a bit one dimensional and boring in the first. I kind of… like Callum now? I thought he was one of the funniest characters in this book, besides Nico of course who will always be a lovable idiot. Tristan is still meh for me.

Parisa is and always will be that bitch who I would do anything to be with. She is so smart and manipulative and unapologetic and UGH WOMEN.

Gideon, oh my sweet Gideon. He is the best, I love him. Even Parisa, who doesn’t like anyone, can’t help but like him. Also, NicoGideon supremacy.

The queer pining in this book was TOP NOTCH. The Atlas Six had a lot of references to queer relationships but this book really solidified a lot of them for me - Nico and Gideon, Tristan and Callum, Libby and Belen. Give me more. All I need is a Parisa/Libby endgame and I can die happy.

So where does that leave us? I have no idea. This book was confusing in almost every way but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Do with that information what you will.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me an ARC of this book! All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I loved Atlas Six, so I kind of had high expectations walking into this. Overall, I really mostly enjoyed Libby's story. I found myself hoping the other chapters would go by faster. Not a fan of Parisa or Callum at all this time around.

Personally, I found that this book was good but not as great as the first installment in the series. I feel like it was a good setup for the following (and final?) book, but I found that parts of the book could have been whittled down more and could have been more concise. The writing is still beautiful in true Blake fashion. A very soild 4/5 stars.

Fantastic! I love how truly immersive the world of The Atlas series is. Between our six main characters and three main side characters, there’s so much story to cover in this sequel—almost too much but thankfully there seems to be a third installation coming. The beginning is slow, allowing us to catch up and set the stage for each characters trajectory. Once that initial set up has passed, it’s nonstop plot until the end.

My favorite part was the switch up of character pairings. We truly get to see everyone react and, while they may not appreciate it, become closer as a whole. I absolutely loved it and impatiently wait for more!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.