Atlantia (Book 1) (Atlantia)

by Ally Condie

Set within a civilization that lives deep beneath the sea, twin sisters, Rio and Bay, are about to make the most important decision of their lives.

Will they choose to stay Below, sacrificing their soul but living in happiness, or to go Above, keeping their soul but living in weakness and misery.

No one could have predicted their choice.

• ISBN10: 0141352914
• ISBN13: 9780141352916
• Publish Date: 6 November 2014 (first published 28 October 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 11 October 2023
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Oy vei this book was such a chore.

I read Crossed by Ally Condie recently, and didn't like it, and when this popped up on my wishlist, I repeatedly reminded myself that I didn't like her previous books.  I told myself over and over again that it was a bad idea.

BUT.  It's an Atlantis inspired dystopia!

I have such a weak spot for Atlantis.

Okay, so here's what what cool about this book.  Because it wasn't completely bad.  The concept of an underwater dystopian city is great, and it's not one I've seen very often.  If the air was poisoned, if there was something wrong with the sun, moving humanity underwater makes sense.  I would like to have seen more of the worldbuilding.  The idea is there - and it is strong and good - but Condie tried to make this more of a character-driven story and stopped talking about Atlantia early on.  We don't even specifically find out what caused the poisoning.

And I like character driven books, I really do.  But the character has to be good.  Rio is flat and unoriginal.  She has no original thoughts.  She talks to a person and immediately adopts all their ideals... until the next person comes along and she does a 360.  It's so frustrating.  I know there are people like that in real life, but a protagonist without her own convictions is really frustrating.

Don't even get me started on the romance.  What a joke.  It's like she felt like there needed to be a romance, so it got shoved in there awkwardly.

The final nail in the coffin, for me, has been the narrator.  If I read this in hardcopy, rather than an audiobook, it may have been better.  This is a siren story, and Rio has to hide her voice.  The narrator chose to take this quite literally, and every piece of dialogue spoken by the sirens (most of the dialogue) is spoken in a robotic monotone.  It honestly makes me want to scream.  It grates on my ears.

Atlantia has cemented it for me:  I'm totally off Ally Condie's writing.  I wish her well as an author and am happy for all her fans, but there are a lot of books in the world and I see no need to waste my time on novels I'm sure I won't like.

[Kim Deister]

Atlantia is a standalone novel by the author of the Matched series, which I loved. This book, however, left me with mixed feelings. The premise was amazing, but I just felt disconnected and I can't quite figure out why.

The novel takes place in a dystopian world split between the Above and the Below, the land and the sea. Pollution has ruined the Above so most of humanity has moved into an enclosed, underwater world. Those left Above suffered with the effects of pollution so that those they loved could live Below, thus saving humanity from extinction. Each year, on the anniversary of the Divide, children of a certain age are given a choice... stay Below or go Above.

After their mother's death, Bay and Rio, twins, have promised each other they'd both stay Below. Rio does this out of love because the only thing she's ever wanted was to go Above. But then Bay chooses Above, leaving Rio alone in the Below. Rio is desperate to know why Bay broke her promise and finds answers she never expected. There is a lot going on beneath the surface (no pun intended) of life in Atlantia and Rio begins to learn these secrets.

I think part of my problem connecting with Rio was the fact that her character just seemed too one-tracked in her emotional life. It was as if she expended all of her emotion on her sister, leaving very little left for other personal interactions. No big highs, no big lows. It left her feeling a little bland as a character. The world-building also left me disconnected. While the premise of the world was fantastic, I just had a really hard time envisioning it. It almost felt like we should already know what a world like that would be like.

I liked the book; I just didn't love it. And I really wanted to.

[wyvernfriend]

Some serious stand-out moments in this tale of a girl who saves her community.

[Stephanie]

I went into Atlantia only knowing that it was about an underwater city. I always loved that idea and was interested to see how it was played out here, but I ended up being so bored while reading that I didn't really care about anything.

My biggest problem was the writing. It wasn't bad, it was just written in a way that I couldn't connect to any of the characters and didn't care about what happened to them. Rio is constantly asking questions, to herself or to her Aunt, Maire.

"Hali's argument isn't without logic. But why wouldn't Bay tell me that she wanted to serve in the Above? Why did she ask me to promise to stay, and then leave?
Why trick me?
Was she afraid I'd be angry?"

Questions are constantly thrown at the reader.

"Why is she gone?
How did she die?
Who made it happen?
Nevio could have done it.
Or was it Maire?
It's not a thought I want to have, but it won't leave me.
Could Maire tell me if I'm the last siren?"

We're never shown anything, someone is always telling you what happened with constant info dumping. Rio rarely figures things out on her own, someone usually just ends up telling her.

Rio is so flat and bland. Her voice is always described as being emotionless and flat, so that is how the story is written as well. She always seems so cut off from everybody that I was never convinced that her and True could really have feelings for each other.

The only reason I continued reading was because I wanted to know why Rio's sister decided to go Above.

I liked the idea behind Atlantia, I just wasn't a fan of how it was executed, and the writing was definitely not for me. I guess the writing kind of goes with the atmosphere of living underwater, but it still wasn't enough for me to get engaged.

Honestly, the only "character" I enjoyed were the bats. I loved the bats.

[lindsey]

I'm not really sure how I feel about Atlantia. It was a very interesting premise, but it just didn't work very well for me. I was bored through most of it, as much as I hate to admit it, and it felt like the action was completely nonexistent. Even when the characters were in danger, it didn't feel that way. I never felt any concern for them because I just knew everything would work out.

The characters felt flat, and one of the clichés that I'm really starting to loathe is present: insta-love. I think I would enjoy that more as a teenager (I know, I know... YA is technically for teens), but as an adult, it just bothers me. At least there isn't a love triangle, though.

This book had so much potential, and I'm a little disappointed that I didn't enjoy it more. It wasn't completely bad, though, as the author did a good job of describing Atlantia, and I liked the bats, as odd as that sounds. The villain (who shall remain nameless - no spoilers here) just felt so one-dimensional, and I'm still not absolutely sure why they did what they did. What was the real goal? And I feel like there wasn't any closure as far as the "villain" goes. What happened to them? Were they jailed? Allowed to roam free? And I know I said no spoilers, but I do have a specific question that is spoilery, so proceed with caution.

How is Nevio a siren? I've never heard of male sirens, and I feel like that's something that should have been addressed. A little backstory about that could have made all the difference. Ah, well.

I hate to end this review on a low note, so I'll mention the cover. It's gorgeous, isn't it?

[Kelly]

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/11/atlantia-by-ally-condie.html
Atlantia was a quick and entertaining read that follows the story of Rio, a fraternal twin, orphan and a secret Siren that society deems as dangerous. After the death of their mother, Rio and sister Bay come to an arrangement that when the time of the choosing, both will stay Below. A sacrifice Rio is willing to make to remain with her sister. But without warning, Bay chooses to go Above and offers no explanation as to why. Rio needs answers and discovers that Bay hasn't gone alone. A secret romance, midnight rendezvous and half truths have all lead to the conclusion that she had meticulously planned her escape. But why?

Rio was a capable young woman, who really took her sister's decision in her stride considering she was the one who had always dreamed of escaping Atlantia. The mystery deepens when she meets True Beck, and that is in fact his real name, and tries to solve the mystery of why the young couple left. Rio can't tell him her true identity, but True also hides a secret of his own. Both characters were likable, but I felt I couldn't invest in either. Rio was underdeveloped as a main protectionist and and didn't offer much more than a vessel to share the story of Atlantia. The draw card of Atlantia is the world itself.

The underground domes are serviced by oxygen that is fed into the underwater world. They live by artificial lights that rise and set each day and pray to the God's that are mere earth animals. Trees are constructed with metal and mining metals are sent Above, in exchange for keeping the submerged civilisation alive. The story varies throughout the generations, the surface was polluted and loved ones were sent Below to survive in the hope that one day they could return Above again. But where it seems as though the two worlds rely on one another for survival, the underwater society seems to have been built on myths and half truths. Unlike other young adult novels based on the Atlantis mythology, the community are nothing more than mere mortals with a small group of Sirens who are on the verge of extinction. It's loosely based on the lost city of Atlantis, but rebuilt to withstand a new society in a post apocalyptic era.

Atlantia is a mild, but entertainingly quick read suited for the teen audience. Being a standalone, the ending poses more questions than answers unfortunately and perhaps a novella may be needed to tie up lose ends.

[lizarodz]

I’ve had a pretty bad experience with books about mermaids, so I’m happy to say that this isn’t one. So what exactly is Atlantia about? I shall tell you…

Atlantia is about courage, about doing what’s right, even when it’s not easy to do so. It is also about love, and sacrifice. It is also about prejudice, and discrimination.

Atlantia is narrated in the first person by Rio (Spanish for river.) Her twin sister, Bay and she are orphaned and trying to find their place in their underwater world. They live in Atlantia, a city built many centuries ago in the Below in order to make sure humanity survived the abused Earth in the Above. When Bay decided to leave Atlantia, without telling anyone, she’s devastated and she tries to find a way to join her. Rio is a siren and it’s feared in both worlds. Her mother, the former Minister, kept her gift hidden in order to protect her. She’s brave, realistic, pragmatic and very lonely. In her search for a way out of the city, she meets True.

True is so kind and happy. Even though he’s had a difficult life, he always makes an effort to keep busy, contribute any way he can and find happiness in that. I enjoyed that he could see pass Rio’s façade and that he learned to love her. Their relationship grew slowly and I wish that they were together more often and that their time together included more.

Bay is sweet, caring, gentle and more giving than Rio. Maire, is a powerful siren and their aunt, even though they don’t know her well, and she has an agenda of her own, she loves her nieces in their own way. As you can imagine, there are also bad people in the mix and you don’t always know good from bad.

The world building is really well done. I love that it never felt like an information dump, but that we knew enough to understand the story and learned more as Rio learned more. Religion (polytheism) is a big part of the life of both Above and Below. It gives both citizens faith in the system and makes their lives more structured. However, the book didn’t feel “preachy” or uncomfortable at all. The plot is politically driven, but we slowly discover each clue. This is my first book by Condie (I have Matched, but never started the series) and I liked her writing style.

Overall, Atlantia is a great read. I felt like the ending was sufficient for a standalone, but I still wanted more, especially more chemistry between True and Rio.