I'm not sure how I did it. I contained it. THE scream. The one that tried to wrench itself from my body on that fateful Tuesday when I, stuck sitting at work in person, got the email that I'd been approved for an ARC of The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake.
I've never moved for my AirPods as fast as I did in that moment, because, much to my luck, it was an audiobook ARC! After I read The Atlas Six in August, The Atlas Paradox immediately became one of my most anticipated reads this year.
It did not disappoint...well, not much, anyways.
I was thrilled to dive back into life with the Medians as they struggle not only to cope with what happened at the end of The Atlas Six, but to challenge what they saw happened and change the past...and the future. (IYKYK).
As always, Olivie masterfully delivers a story that will both confuse you (it's not an easy read, but worth the mental aerobics) and thrill you all at once...and even when it's hard to keep up, those "aha!" moments are stunning. Those last minutes--I'm already pining for book 3! I'm still not convinced that Nico de Varona isn't perfect, and I'm still hoping for...well...that's a spoiler for another time.
As far as the audio side, most of the cast did an excellent job bringing the characters to life--except the narrator for Parisa. She was very hard to understand, because she spoke barely above a whisper and sounded as if she was half asleep. I get that she was trying to capture Parisa's air of confident nonchalance and her at times devil-may-care attitude when it comes to using her sexuality to her advantage, but even with the audiobook at max volume and my undivided attention, I still couldn't understand her at times. Everyone else was great, and I was particularly excited to hear Daniel Henning voice Gideon--I loved his narration of The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, and Gideon is one of my favorite characters, so their pairing was a very pleasant surprise.
This is your reminder to start reading The Atlas Six right now, so that you're ready for The Atlas Paradox when it releases October 25!
Love and research,
Mandy
