YA Buddy Readers' Corner ♥ discussion

The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation.

Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.

Most of them.

The Atlas Six (The Atlas #1) by Olivie Blake will be one of our GBRs for March 2024.

Please read at your own pace, and hide any spoilers ☺ You are welcome to join at any time during the month ☺

Happy Reading Everybody!

Pre-Reading Questions -

Anybody got any thoughts on this one before we start?

Has anyone read anything similar to this before?

Anybody read anything else by this author previously

I’ve been meaning to read this for ages. Don’t know why I haven’t got to it yet!

I just have to finish the book I'm on that the library wants back, then I'll be on to this one! I've heard a lot about it and was waffling about whether I'd read it, but my coworker enjoyed it so I'll give it a go. :)

First quarter. Slow start, as we’re introduced to our six characters and given the most basic of details about the scenario they find themselves in. Don’t really picture the world they inhabit at the moment and while their behaviour is quite immature on occasion I’m guessing they’re meant to be older than teens. Bit of an odd blend so far.

Second quarter. Not one of the six, but it seems Dalton will be significant in some way. What they’re able to do is quite unsettling.

Third quarter. Moving closer to where things will run their course. Interesting character exploration but nothing is really happening.

Finished. Review on home page. Mixed feelings, but glad I finally got underway with this.

For the 1st part of the book I was kinda bored, but I get why she needed to explain more about the characters, they felt very complex from the 1st few lines

When we get more into the story itself, you understand why she takes so much time developing these characters, they are soooooo different from one another, they have very intricate feelings and I cant decide if I love them or not

Fernanda wrote: "When we get more into the story itself, you understand why she takes so much time developing these characters, they are soooooo different from one another, they have very intricate feelings and I c..."

(view spoiler)[“Libby was a hero. Parisa was a villain. Their goals were overarching, appositional.
Nico and Reina were so impartial and self-interested as to be wholly negligible.
Tristan was a soldier. He would follow wherever he was most persuasively led.
It was Callum who was an assassin. It was the same as a soldier, but when he worked, he worked alone.” (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[ Beware the man who faces you unarmed. If in his eyes you are not the target, then you can be sure you are the weapon.” (hide spoiler)]

By the 70% mark, the story gets some traction and it feels "lighter" (using lighter here cause thats one heck of a dense book), I LOVED the magical system and the fact that thy are all morally grey and not entirely likeable!

Review is on my page

End of Part Two (view spoiler)[ Well I’m hooked and need to see where this goes. Already judging who I dislike (Nico, Tristan,Parisa) and who I do like (Libby & Reina). Are they making Callum forgettable on purpose? (hide spoiler)]

Almost to the end of Part Five: Dalton’s test (view spoiler)[ Um, is he so powerful because he is two souls? I’m scared. (hide spoiler)]

End of Part Six: (view spoiler)[ Well, I'm deeply uncomfortable with all the moral compromises people are willing to make to stay in the Society they still know very little about. (hide spoiler)]

Karen wrote: "Second quarter. Not one of the six, but it seems Dalton will be significant in some way. What they’re able to do is quite unsettling."

It was almost too obvious that Dalton was important. I guess when you've got the six cleverest people on the planet working together, these observations are cake.

Finished
(view spoiler)[ I'm glad Ezra was who I thought he was. I guessed immediately it was him who rescued Libby, and I'm glad there's someone taking down the organization. But I'll just read the spoilers for the next two books. Like many, I didn't find the characters likeable or found myself caring about them; I just want to see this secret society brought down. Although if we could get a whole book about Gideon, count me in. That sounds like wild fun. (hide spoiler)]