a surprisingly interesting listen

I have to say when I began listening to this I really did not like it. I found it completely superficial and the characters were neither interesting not appealing. especially Libby!!!!! As I continued though I really did get into the story more and understand the drive and purpose of the protagonists. the need for hunger and power is simple but the characters only desire that so they they may expand their knowledge and ability. or at least that is what we are lead to believe. I think this book could have delved a little deeper into the reason why they pursued magic. it is there but it is unpacked so quickly that you fail to truly grasp and resonate with its meaning. nonetheless this book is definitely worth it!!!!!!!!

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promising series, hoping for more

The whole book feels like a buildup to something epic, and yet it ends without much of a taste of it. it hints at a lot, but one is left hungry. I would have liked to snack at least! I will have to wait for the next installment to be able to make up my mind about how I feel about this story.

The performers are pretty good, but they could use a bit more energy & contrast overall. I got confused many times because each narrator performs all characters when seen through the eyes of the one they are assigned to. I would have much preferred for each performer to stick to one character for the whole book.

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Try it

After reading this I gave it about 3.5 stars and was happy I was done. But then over the next few months I thought about it often and fell in love with the atmosphere and overall vibes. I loved how different all the characters were and the dynamics between them all. The world building was so clear and understandable. It’s a very hard book to review.

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I’m not sure why this book is so popular.

I finished it. But it was fairly boring. Nothing really happens plot wise, so it’s character driven. But the characters are dull. This book felt like a new authors attempt at writing grey zone characters. But instead the characters themselves were just flat and unrealistic.

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Smart story with clever if flawed narration

The story is fascinating and deserves the TV series it looks like it will be getting. Six talented, sexy, dangerous young people all locked up in a house together—what’s not to love? It’s like fantasy reality TV. Live action would also (I hope) trim out some of the philosophizing that robs this novel of its momentum at times.

Having a large cast of voice actors to cover the various viewpoints of the story was an audacious idea with a lot of potential. Many of the performers were excellent (for me, Libby, Parisa and Callum were standouts). Unfortunately not every reader was as consistently good: “Trevor” in particular seemed to read every sentence with the same sense of excited urgency, which ironically made his chapters hard to listen to without tuning out.

Another wrinkle in this concept was the fact that each actor had to quote other characters from time to time, which meant that I instinctively expected each character to sound roughly the same no matter who was reading their dialogue. Unfortunately this generally didn’t happen—there was a wide variety of renditions of Callum’s accent, for example, from South African to vaguely English, whereas the reader for Callum’s chapters had given him an Oxbridge-educated drawl. Perhaps each voice actor should have listened to a sample of the other actors’ concepts for their own characters before doing their final recordings—or if this was actually done, it didn’t work out very well.

Anyway, I enjoyed this and will probably spring for volume 2!

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Heavily Character Based

The author spends so much time in the weeds of interpersonal/sexual interaction that she forgets that stories generally include a plot. The concept and location have so much potential that I spent most of the book pulling my hair over the fact that they could have been located at my local library for all the importance it played. Read only if you enjoy teaspoon characters progressing painfully slow towards a hopefully engaging plot that has yet to fully materialize after 16 hours.

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1 person found this helpful

bought because I heard t'was sapphic, t'wasn't

I bought this because goodreads said it was sapphic. it's solid. it's original. but it's only gay for five minutes -- and the characters were embarassed about being gay for five minutes (except the character who identified as 2slgbt+, which seemed weird and shamey rather than the empowering coming into self that may (*may*) have been intended)

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Great book

Love the concept and magical system of this book. The twist was good and sets up the next book perfectly 👍👍👍😊

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First Audible Read and All I Can Say is Wow!

Never having tried a service like Audible or ever having experience listening to an audiobook, I wasn't sure how I would like or dislike the experience. After having finished the book though, I feel like my expectations have been set quite high for other audiobooks I may read in the future!

Considering the multidimensional points of view coming from 6+ distinct characters, I was extremely pleased to hear the voices of distinct narrators, as well as their own interpretations of the voices of other characters, spoken in their voices. These little grace notes really made the story come alive, in ways that reading a paperback book could never do.

Super well-produced and looking forward to The Atlas Paradox in the fall!

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Skip the audiobook

The narration is horrible! I will get physical copies Of the remaining books if I continue with the series.

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