The Atlas Six

Dark Academia with developments I did NOT see coming. (Would be 4,5 stars if I could)
The entire writing has a feeling of scientific study to it; even feelings are carefully dissected and analysed and probed. The content however is some wild mind f*ck games of philosophy I couldn't think of (and I'm honestly not sure if I understood everything). This weird combination is half the fun IMO. I read Babel only a couple of months before and was reminded of it often but not in a negative copycat-like way; it would probably be the same the other way around.
Especially in the beginning, I had trouble distinguishing the powers of our main characters, always forgot one to only come up with different five MCs each time and the story drags on and on with philosophical blablabla. There is a lot of talking and nothing really happens. For a long time. And then some more. Until...
Still not sure about how I like the characters, some feel human with their flaws, some are just... vile, even in their own POV. And I get that this is essential for the story - but I don't have to like the MCs as persons to like the story.
The plot seems to lay out tropes and I was a little smug to already have guessed some of the things that seemed to be happening, thinking to see the trope a mile away. Maybe I was even close to disappointed that it was all so obvious? Let me tell you how wrong I was. About every theory. Every. Only one of my theories was sort of there but not even close to how I thought of it.
In summary: you have to power through a little scientific and philosophical bore at the beginning to receive the curveballs. The slow development is my only reason for not giving 5 stars. My bad.