I finished my first book of 2025 last month. It was The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake. I started it last year, so clearly my reading pace has not returned anywhere near normal yet. 🙁
In this dark academia novel, six medeians (read: magicians) are given the ultra-rare opportunity to join the Alexandrian Society. The Society guards the Library of Alexandria, which has been hidden away rather than destroyed and is now home to a massive collection of writings on the magical arts. Though six were invited, one will be eliminated before the initiation. In the meantime, the Six live and study magic together, each learning more about their own gifts as well as the powers possessed by the others. Their talents range from the ability to manipulate people’s thoughts to the power to manipulate time and space. As the day of initiation approaches, they discover that the Society has not been entirely open with them.
I liked the book, with caveats. It was hard to get into the story because none of the characters were likeable (some of them might even be considered evil and/or depraved). Though they grew on me somewhat, I felt that the most interesting character was underutilized and that none of the characters had much personal growth over the course of the story. There wasn’t a lot of action, and the ending was tainted by an awkward infodump. I gather that the book was initially self-published. Kudos to the author for getting her book out there and noticed! While the story probably got some editing when it was taken up by a big publisher, I think it needed yet more. (Most books do, and it’s a pity that they don’t get it.) I would consider reading the sequel. However, I have so many books in my house that are waiting to be read, I can’t justify looking elsewhere for reading at the moment.
Currently Reading: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman