The Atlas Paradox

great second edition to the series

Let me start of by saying that I had LOVED ‘the Atlas Six’ an incredible amount. I had been shocked when I saw that some were leaving the first book in this series poor reviews because I personally felt that it was great. When I saw that this novel, ‘The Atlas Paradox’, (which is the second installment of the trilogy) had poor reviews that shared similar sentiments of dislike as the first, I completely ignored them, having complete faith that I would enjoy this one, too, just as much. I figured that this author just had a style of writing which includes a handful of large vocabulary words and perhaps too many POVs of a diverse cast of characters who were difficult to like, and therefore was rated poorly for those reasons versus the overall story itself. But boy, was I wrong! I had been expecting the book to start out with guns blazing with the remaining five recruits of the Society banding together to get the sixth member, who went missing in the previous novel, back - especially considering that seemed to be the catalyst for them to all finally be able to stand one another.

I will be giving away a few spoilers of this novel in the following section, so if you are dead set on reading this book, perhaps you should just skip the remainder. If you are here to see who else lost a lot of faith in this series, then read ahead. 😂
Essentially, ‘The Atlas Paradox’ does not exactly start off where ‘The Atlas Six’, ended, much to my dissatisfaction. It just felt like the momentum that Blake had ended the last novel was completely lost, and the six society members had rolled over and taken the turn of events almost as if Libby had not even been kidnapped. I can’t remember if it was one month or two months after Libby had been kidnapped, but it starts with the remaining 5 members of the society (Nico, Tristian, Collum, Parisa and Reina) just continuing their lectures at the Society and they were back to hating one another once more, with no real hope of them joining forces like they had all promised one another at the end of the last book. And while I assumed Libby would be somewhat of her old self (filled with anxieties and needing constant reassurance), I also figured that she would be devising her own plan on how to deal with Ezra, while simultaneously at his mercy and doing his bidding while she figured how to get herself back to the society. However, her entire time as a kidnapped prisoner was extremely underwhelming. She breaks out of her prison very early on in the book, and soon learns that while she isn’t technically caged by Ezra anymore, she is still stuck in the general area of where he put her- indefinitely. She then takes up residency as a professor at a different school that teaches magic to students. Meanwhile, the other five are more insufferable and miserable than the first book. While I could tell the different characters apart in the first novel, because they all thought and talked differently - it lacked that in this novel. It was quite messy when it would jump from a sentence, to suddenly a flashback, and then back to the conversation without any segue or smooth transition. And while I didn’t necessarily like all of the society members in the previous books, I did enjoy some of their perspectives or agreed with some aspect at least once, making them somewhat likable. Not in this novel though, for more than half the book, they hated one another, were cruel to one another, had a bunch of conversations, and was quite a bore. While I thought I’d be able to speed through this novel quickly, I struggled to reach my 25 pages a day goal, and thought about not finishing it for over 100 pages.
Somewhere around page 280 out of 400, it slowly started to get exciting again, but then would have more lulls in between. I will say though, the last 75 or so pages did intrigue me enough that it was able to save this score from only 1 stars to at least a 2.5. Just like the previous novel; it left me wanting to continue reading more. However, I’m nervous to pick up the next one in case it follows the same type of plot line and such. (I won’t be buying the third novel like I did for the first two, it’s definitely going to be a book I get from the library.)

Anyways, I give ‘The Atlas Paradox’ 2.5 stars. I hate that it went from a phenomenal first to basically a bust of a sequel in my eyes, but such is life. I read in the acknowledgments that Olivie Blake said she wanted to thank her mom for watching her newborn son, because without her, she wouldn’t have gotten the first draft in, because she was operating at such a a level of tiredness that she wouldn’t operate heavy machinery. I guess I just hope that moving forward, if Olivie is that sleep deprived, she holds off on finishing any books that had a beloved first in the series…. I felt that with the way she ended the first novel, it basically would pave the way for the perfect sequel filled with a great plot, learning to love the characters even more, and would ultimately be a huge success, but alas… it was not so.
I hate to even say this, but I don’t even know if I can recommend this series anymore, because I was that unhappy with this one. 😭
Even giving that, I’m still going to give her other novels that are a standalone a try though.

I might be DNFing this book. I am 40% of the way through, and it is just so slow. I ate the first book up in two days, but it’s been about 2 weeks since I started this one, and I have genuinely fallen asleep during it a few times now. I really love the Tristan, Libby, and Nico chapters, and would love to see how their story line plays out. But, I just don’t know if i can sit through anymore Ezra and Callum chapters. They’re just so boring and droll on about “poor me.” I really cannot stand characters who are always so “woe is me,” and unfortunately this book has two of them. I have been trying to force myself to get through the lag, but I’m almost half way through and I feel like the plot has not moved at all. Tristan, Libby, Nico, and Gideon are the only reason this book got two stars.