The Atlas Paradox

This was more like 3.5 stars, which is a bit of a shame considering the first book was a solid 4.5 to 5 stars for me. I did still enjoy Blake's writing and her character works, aspects that stood out to me in the first book, but I found that this story lacked a central hook and was generally overburdened by too much abstract philosophizing between the characters for a vast majority of it. It only got exciting to me in the last 25% of the book and that kinda saved it, but having to get through the first three-quarters of a book to get there is a bit of an ask.

What I really enjoyed about The Atlas Six was how beautifully the characters were written, how delightfully fleshed out they each were and how much their personalities is interwoven with their magical abilities. Sure, they were none of them very likeable but I don't really care about likeability in characters. In this book, I found that the characters got more and more insufferable. They seemed a lot more like angsty teenagers trying to put up a devil-may-care front but struggling with insecurities and loneliness inside. There's nothing wrong with that, but I felt like it kinda contradictd with their really vivid personalities that had been established in the first book. In knowing each of the characters more, I felt like they were all blending into the same almost psychopathic but “secretly lonely” archetype of a rebellious teenager.

The only character that stood out to me was one who was relatively on the sidelines. Belen Jimenez was the only character that wasn't entirely self-absorbed in this book and was actually motivated by something concrete that's not herself. I don't 100% agree with her extreme methods but can relate to a lot of her motivations, and can also see why constantly being ignored made her activism more and more extreme over time. I'm not sure if she had died in the end or if she had simply fainted? I really hope she's coming back in future installments.

For the most part, I was struggling to figure out what I was trying to look out for in the plot. In the first book, the gimmick was clear from the start - one of them has to die before their year was up, so the whole thing became a competition to see who that would be and what alliances were forged. In this second one, it's not so clear. We have the predicament that Libby was stuck on another timeline (something that I honestly didn't feel engaged with), and then something about Tristan trying to discover more about his powers, and then a bit about Dalton's mindscape and...? Everything just felt a bit disjointed and I didn't know what I was supposed to be paying attention to because there didn't seem to be a main thread to follow.

I also felt like the entire first Part of the book started off incredibly slow and low-energy for a sequel, especially when we're riding off the high of the first book's ending. I didn't mind the scene of the initiation ritual that much, but felt like we really didn't need so many chapters from almost every character's perspective about it. It felt like so so much filler. And that's kinda how I felt for a lot of the first 75% of the book - there was so much unnecessary prose and whole scenes that didn't further my understanding of the characters or the plot. Yes, we get that Callum is trying to dose himself into a stupor to numb himself from his own insecurities. We get that Reina has a complex about her family. We get that Parisa is beautiful and dangerous and almost-heartless (but not really because she has feelings too!). We just didn't need so many repetitive descriptions of that.

The plot finally crystallized somewhat at around the 75% mark and things started happening with more gusto at last, and that was when I started sitting up to pay attention. The ending was fine, but a tiny bit of an anticlimax for me. I kinda felt like the book ended just as things were finally happening that I wanted to find out answers to. It wasn't a complete dud, but I did feel a little frustrated that it ended just there without resolving a whole lot.

Overall, I think this book probably suffers from second-book syndrome, where you kinda need a lot of filler to drag out the tension of the overarching world and mystery so you can get to a (hopefully final) third book.