I was really hoping there would be more plot in this book. It really just is the characters brooding and simmering in their own self pity. The only interesting character was Libby. The writing was a bit choppy. I will still continue with the series but I am hoping for some more action in future books with some better writing.

Fun to be back in this world. Definitely out of comfort zone with this series, but I enjoy the character-driven narrative, the academic world, and the descriptive writing. Looking forward to part 3!

As per usual, Olivie Blake tends to write books that go WAY over my head. They're cerebral, philosophical, and I feel like my brain is going to burst. Atlas Six is the perfect example of this, and it continues in Atlas Paradox.

The brain breaking is a good feeling, though. I can feel the words teasing my brain, just out of reach of understanding then BAM! you get it.

I think Olivie's a super talented author and one to watch for.

Slow. I LOVED the first one but this was so ridiculously slow. I’ve been reading this for two months and am determined to finish it…but it’s hard. I want to love it but I’m having such a hard time with this one.

Blake has such a way with writing compelling characters. Even characters I disliked from the first book either get their chance to shine or pull a complete 180 in my mind and I end up loving them. Everyone is so fleshed out and realistic with clear motivations and goals that explain their choices and thoughts and they are amazing! I cannot wait to read the third book.

A bit of a disclaimer, I wasn't a huge fan of book 1. I found the characters unlikable and couldn't connect to any of them enough to actually care. That being said, The Atlas Six held my attention enough and ended in a way that I was eager to read book 2.

The Atlas Paradox starts out very slow. It was a bear for me to get through the first fourth of the book. After that, the story moved along pretty well. There isn't much of a plot as I strongly believe this is a transition book more than anything else. The dynamics between the characters are still there, but some of the tension is lacking. Where book 1 seemed to bounce between rage and lust, it doesn't have quite the kick in Atlas Paradox.

This is a very heavily character driven book. About halfway through I started to realize that the book isn't about what but who. The focus in more on the characters than anything else. As someone who loves a good strong engaging plot, I struggled with this. There isn't much revealed or even exciting moments in the overall story. Overall, it was an okay book for me. This has to do more with who I am as a reader than it does with the story or the author. I would recommend The Atlas Paradox to fans of the first book. A lot of the same mysterious elements are there.

It was worth the wait to submerge back into this world, but I hope the next book (and there had better be a next book) comes more quickly. Yes, it’s slow at times and the characters are not very likeable, but that just adds to the energy of the story. Definitely read The Atlas Six first.

Olivie Blake is such an intriguing storyteller! I needed to read it twice in order to capture the subtleties and complexities that were crucial to the plot, and it was such an enjoyable ride. It is the perfect continuation of The Atlas Six, and I really enjoyed how the characters were developed and how the world expanded in this next novel. It was a bit difficult to get into in the beginning, but I really enjoyed Blake’s style and how I was so enthralled with what was happening while being conflicted all throughout the book.

Oh, what a let down.

I am one of those people who found the Six a unique blend of thought provoking and story-driven. I just couldn't wait for Paradox. I was expected the book to pick up with the same intensity that the last end on.

Did it you ask? Well let's just say like a lead balloon flies. 🎈. What I got was a slow-moving story and when I say slow, I mean almost meanderingly slow. It turns from a plot-driven story into purely character-driven. Take Libby away from this group and the become rudderless; take her away from the main plot and the story become disjointed.

Because the author decided to include 2 more characters into the purview of this story, the waters become almost muddled with too many character stories. These backstories continually pulling the reader away from any forward progression they may have gained.

So while this book and series overall had potential, it lacked focus thus loosing any appeal it may have gained after the first book

** Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the opportunity to review this advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion **

The Atlas Six was a 4-star read for me, which is why I requested this ARC. I often don’t care for cliffhangers or obvious series starters, so it was significant that the first book made me excited to continue the Atlas series. Sadly, I will not be continuing it any further.

Here’s the thing. I THINK the story in Paradox was interesting. To be quite honest, I couldn’t totally follow all of it. I’m very confused about who is and isn’t alive (and not in a mysterious-maybe-death-event intentional way). I have little to no idea what order anything happened in. The beginning of the book was pretty good. The ending was interesting to read. However, everything in the middle was just, like, if you were standing near someone blowing bubbles, and the bubbles were drifting past you, and each bubble had a little scene from the past year playing in it sort of like that scene from Cinderella, and they didn’t come in any particular order or show anything particularly significant. We’re dipping in and out of banal conversations, some are repeated from different perspectives, they make reference to interesting events that have happened but that we the reader did not actually get to read, some of the conversations are even just memories that a character is recalling. The first few chapters introduce a bunch of ideas that I’m excited to see play out, and then we don’t hear anything more about them until the end when everyone is like “oh yeah I spent the year working on that.” The chapter narration takes so long to cycle through that I can’t remember what was happening with each character by the time I get back to them - especially because for some reason, nobody interacts with anyone else in this book. (This is a very slight exaggeration.)

Anyway, I find it hard to recommend this to people who enjoyed the Six. I guess if your favorite thing about it was the pondering about physics, then you will be pleased with Paradox.

I was excited to read The Atlas Paradox because I quite enjoyed The Atlas Six, but unfortunately, this sequel was kind of boring and slower-moving than it should have been. I felt like the book was longer than it needed to be, and I was glad when it finally was over.

This novel, like this first, continues to be very character-focused and less plot-focused. In fact, I would say The Atlas Paradox was so character-focused at times that neither I nor Olivie Blake nor any of the characters had any idea where the plot was going.

I have no idea what The Atlas Complex, the third installment, will be about seeing as the initiates have all graduated from the Alexandrian Society now and this book didn't really leave off in a place that indicated what would happen next.

I still fully intend to finish off this series as I really enjoy reading about all these characters, but I do hope the final volume will offer more of a solid direction for the plot to go in. I like Olivie Blake's writing style and I've enjoyed getting to read many of her books outside of the Atlas series, so I look forward to seeing what she will come up with when this series is finished. This series will likely remain Blake's most beloved and widely read series, but I feel like her best work is still out there waiting to be written.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I liked The Atlas Six a bit more than this one but still a really solid middle book of a trilogy. I also had a lot going on in my life to distract me a bit from this. Paradox had less of a solid goal/climax it was working towards than Six which can be a struggle for me. This was a lot of character development and/or growth and setting things up for the next book I think. I just absolutely love Blake's writing though and need to read everything she has done. Looking forward to The Atlas Complex!

The Atlas Paradox starts where we left off, Libby is missing. The rest of the five are set to continue their second year at The Society. The story starts off with a bang with the initiation ceremony, which includes all the delicious Machiavellian mind games that I love about these books. There is also a decided shift in everyone's character arc as they deal with the fallout of the failed plan to sacrifice Callum and Libby's abduction and their overall suspicions of the actual agenda of The Society and Atlas Blakley. All the relationships in the house have been turned on its head and everyone has to now recalibrate alliances.
Like the Atlas Six this is very much a character driven book. Every character faces an internal struggle due to the events that have happened.
Olivie Blake just keeps wowing readers through a journey of magic, friendship, rivals, magic, the darkness of humanity....
A great second book. I can't wait to read more from her!

Olivie Blake does it again with The Atlas Paradox. Multi-perspective books are hard to master with even 2-3 character, and Blake blows it out of the water with 9 different character perspectives with unique personalities, dialogue, and thought processes.

After reading The Atlas Six, I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on the sequel because I was dying to know what happened next. Generally speaking, I dislike major cliffhangers (minor to moderate ones are okay) and The Atlas Paradox ends on a pretty big one, so that was slightly bothersome.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I think I liked TA6 more; I definitely had far more quotes highlighted in TA6 vs this book. But it's still a solid sequel to TA6 and I look forward to reading book three!

Thank you, NetGalley, MacMillan-Tor/Forge, and Olivie Blake for the eARC of this book.

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.