“The Atlas Six“ was not what I expected at all! 
The first thing that surprised me was the writing style: the sentences were more complex and the words more complicated than I’m used to (English is my second language but I mostly read English books). I got into it after a few chapters and thought that it fit the academic setting quite nicely. It impacted my reading experience though because it brought my reading pace down by quite a bit. I usually finish a book of this length in 1-3 sittings but this took me about 6. 

What I loved most about this book was that it kept me guessing until the very last page. I like it when books allow me to form theories about the direction the plot is taking and I LOVE it when it turns out that I‘m completely wrong. Even better when I can see that the clues were there all along and everything makes sense in retrospect. I‘m usually quite good at predicting where a story is headed but here I had no clue (I guessed one thing correctly but that was only a small fraction of what was actually happening).

I also enjoyed the concept of looking at magic in a scientific way and the characters using it for research purposes. The book gave me major thriller vibes in a sense that I was constantly on the edge of my seat and waiting for something shocking to happen. During my reading process I couldn‘t tell if I actually liked the book and I told my boyfriend that it would probably come down to the ending. If the build up had been for nothing, I would have given it about 3 stars but the ending did not disappoint. Loved it!

I thought about giving it 5 stars but even though I got used to the writing style, I didn’t like that it slowed down my reading pace, so I landed on 4.5.