Thank you to Tor and Netgalley for the eARC of Gifted & Talented in exchange for my honest review!

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this one! Olivie Blake always seems to be hit or miss for me but the premise of this one sounded too good to pass up. I found that the characters were too pretentious and unlikable to want to continue reading. And with as long as the book is, it did make for an experience that just wasn’t enjoyable.

I do think fans of Blake’s writing will really find a lot to love about this one because it does have a lot of her common themes. It just didn’t work for me!

Olivie Blake does some interesting things with magic in her novels and yet it always falls flat for me. Gifted & Talented is sadly not an exception. Focused on the Ren siblings in the days after their father dies and they need to learn who inherits the family empire, the novel deals with their complicated relationships and their magical talents. I did like the framing of the narration - that was fun - and there were certainly good parts but this didn’t come together for me.

Olivie Blake is always great with writing characters and relationships. This is one thing the book does really well. It’s the plot that falls short. It is not strong enough to carry an almost 500 page book of basically just character introspection. While there were parts that entertained me, there was also many areas where the story dragged a little. I did have parts where I felt for the characters, but the plot just did not keep me enthralled. Overall, while the characters and their relationships with each other were very interesting, there was too little happening in the plot for me personally.

This book is a classic family drama story and rich people life issues but I did eat it up and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Gifted & Talented is an indulgent, pretentious book about a cast of unlikeable hot messes. I also enjoyed it a lot. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. For any Blake fans, the vibes reminded me more of Masters of Death versus Atlas Six.

The book centers on three siblings dealing with the fallout from their father’s death: Meredith the oldest, a tech start-up owner and stone cold bitch; Arthur, the youngest congressman ever who’s about to lose his reelection campaign; and Eilidh, a former ballet dancer turned marketing exec and permanent ingénue. All three have mysterious magical powers that have impacted their lives, but the main question of the book is which sibling will inherit their father’s business (their father being a sort of Jeff Bezos). Surrounding the trio are a host of secondary characters who often steal the show like Jamie, Meredith’s ex-boyfriend turned investigative reporter who’s about to release an article that will destroy her business; Gillian, Arthur’s scarily competent wife; and Yves, world famous racecar driver, drug dispenser, and one of Arthur’s lovers.

This is one of those books in which you just have to acknowledge this is about the characters and not the plot and then just enjoy the ride. Curiously, there’s fairly little character growth per se, but what a collection of character studies. It’s genuinely mesmerizing.

If there’s a true flaw, it’s the world building. This is a world in which magic exists at some public level (hence being able to study ‘magitech’ in college), but magic doesn’t appear to broadly be in use. Unless this is intended as a commentary on sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic, I think nearly everything could have simply been waved away as near future technology. On a related note, the siblings all have unexplained magical powers that they feel pressure to hide for reasons never addressed. I honestly wonder if this was an entirely non-fantastical story that was later edited to include magic.

I also wouldn’t have minded another round of editing. The overwritten bits are charming for the most part (e.g. describing a location as an “unethically verdant”) but they often made me roll my eyes (e.g. “All that remained was the prepubescent angst of someone discovering his penis amid the dulcet sympathies of malaising pop-punk.”).

Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake is basically what happens when you throw a bunch of insufferably intelligent, emotionally stunted academics into a blender with yearning, ambition, and just a sprinkle of existential crisis. And I ate it up like the dark academia gremlin I am.

This book is like if The Secret History and Conversations with Friends had a messy, brilliant love child raised by Tumblr-era philosophy discourse. It’s filled with razor-sharp dialogue, characters who desperately need therapy but would rather intellectualize their trauma, and the kind of pretentious academic drama that makes you feel like you, too, should be brooding in a dimly lit library, nursing a very strong coffee.

TL;DR: If you love reading about gifted burnout, self-destructive geniuses in love, and the thin line between ambition and total emotional collapse—congrats, this one’s for you.

At various points in Gifted & Talented, I fell in and out of love. Throughout Gifted & Talented is a story about family. It's a family drama about sibling rivalries and the complex feelings of a person after their death. Do we only remember their success? Or is a better picture of them also representative of their mistakes, the conversations we wish we had, and the people we wished they were? Family is full of expectations. And the hard reality is that the person we are with them is different than the person we are with our partners, our siblings, ourselves.

In Gifted & Talented, Olivie Blake presents a gripping tale of family dynamics and the complexities of inherited power following the death of the formidable Thayer Wren, CEO of Wrenfare Magitech. As his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children grapple with their father's legacy, they are confronted with long-standing rivalries, dangerous abilities, and the weight of unrealized potential.

Each sibling believes they are the rightful heir to their father's empire. Meredith, the accomplished eldest daughter and head of a biotech company, has a successful track record of curing mental illness, but she harbors her own insecurities, fearing exposure as a fraud. Meanwhile, Arthur, the ambitious congressman, struggles to maintain his political career amid personal turmoil and yearns for his father's approval, which he believes a seat on the Wrenfare throne could provide.

Eilidh, the youngest sibling once celebrated as a ballet prodigy, now feels overshadowed in a corporate world after a life-altering injury. Her desire for validation leads her to hope that inheriting everything from their father could prove she was his favorite all along.

Gifted & Talented weaves a tension-filled narrative that explores the psychological toll of competition and the search for identity within a fractured family unit. With beautifully crafted characters and a riveting plot, Blake effectively captures the struggles of gifted individuals navigating the complexities of love, ambition, and sibling ties. As each sibling faces their demons and seeks to prove themselves, readers are left wondering who will ultimately emerge victorious in this high-stakes battle for power and acceptance.

I enjoyed parts of this book—no one does character work quite like Olivie Blake. Gifted & Talented follows three siblings with unnatural abilities as they navigate the fallout of their father’s death, forced to reconcile their inheritance with their complicated personal lives.

As expected, Blake’s signature prose is all over this book. Her writing style isn’t for everyone, but under the right circumstances, I really enjoy it. It’s sharp, witty, and full of interesting observations that breathe life into the Wren siblings. Blake thrives on writing rich, pretentious, and vaguely insufferable characters—the kind you can’t help but be fascinated by, like peeking behind the curtain of a world you’d never belong to.

That said, my biggest issue with this book is the pacing. For a story that takes place over just a few days, it’s far too long. A solid 100 pages could have been cut, and it wouldn’t have impacted the plot at all. There were moments I was fully engaged, but there were just as many where the story dragged. The slower pacing wouldn’t have been a problem if the character development had been strong enough to carry it, but unfortunately, I don’t think it quite got there.

Overall, I find Blake’s books to be hit or miss, and this one landed solidly in the middle for me. There were aspects I really enjoyed, but getting through it felt like a bit of a slog. If you love her writing style and don’t mind a slower, more introspective story, you might enjoy this more than I did!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the advance copy.

an absolute triumph. a triumph in every way. this book is like succession on steroids in a way. each character is so colorful and loud and themselves.

the familial tragedy is poignant. everyone set on a path that will inevitably lead to collision, and the fireworks of the explosion are breathtaking to look at.

i wish i had more words to adequately express just how good this was.

this truly may be olivie blake’s best yet. the only word i can use to describe it is a masterpiece.

The gifted kid to clinically depressed adult pipeline 🫠
Not surprised I loved this. As always, all hail Queen Olivie Blake.
4.5 stars
More detailed review to come!

When Thayer Wren, CEO of Wrenfare Magitech, dies, his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children come together to find out who will inherit the coveted Wrenfare throne...

Reading this felt like passing a car crash on the highway and feeling compelled to stare at the wreck. The wreck in this story being the emotional chaos and existential dread that each Wren sibling grapples with after the death of their (not so good) father. The siblings and side characters in this one were messssy, complex, and all shades of morally grey. And I LOVE me some good morally grey characters

Gifted & Talented was a lot.
Truly a family drama at its core, the story follows the Wren siblings as they essentially bicker over their dead father's company. One of my favourite things about Olivie Blake's writing is when it's so chaotic my brain hurts (Master of Death coded). As soon as I finished the story I just sat there thinking about it all the drama, the weird magic system, the abundance of huge words that I swear I've never heard in a sentence out loud.
Blake has this inane ability to write these horrific unlikeable and at some times down right despicable characters that you will somehow end up rooting for anyways. Meredith the genius, Arthur the politician and Eilidh the ingenue- have all in some way fallen from grace. They are left burnt out, depressed and lost. The only thing they share in common is mutual agreement that their father was like seriously shit (even if Eilidh did have youngest child privileges).
This story was seriously bizarre and not at all what I expected. Both narrator and writing style is unreliable and it's so much fun. If you are looking for a break from the monotony- I highly recommend giving this a try, once I started reading it I couldn't stop. The need to uncover everything that was going on past and present was overwhelming, Blake can just hook you in.
Do I still have questions? Of course.
But damn Gifted & Talented is a ride you just won't want to get off.

Such a great book. Reflects on the human condition in a really interesting way - loved the way magic was portrayed in this world. Managed to be hopeful while looking at super dark character emotions.

This was such a fun, fresh, page-turning new novel from Blake—exploring failed gifted and talented magical teens and their family legacy through the lens of a magical tech company was a total trip. The voice was funny, wry, and smart, and the characters well-drawn and sympathetic (even the ones I hated).

“You can have pride or you can have money, guess which one changes the world?”

Meet Arthur, Elidh and Meredith Wren, the Gifted & Talented children of a recently deceased billionaire (bearing an uncanny resemblance to the creator of Neuralink, Tesla, etc.) These nepo babies have magic, money, and a garbage dump filled with emotional baggage. As the trio processes the death of their father, they must navigate self interest, a future with no top cover, and reach self actualisation before they quite literally destroy the world. With an emotionally magical ensemble cast of relatable characters who ground the story and create secondary, romance driven plots, there’s something for everyone in this (very) character driven novel. No one does enemies with a side of lovers like Olivie Blake. Oh how I love her complex assholes!

If you like family drama and relatively erudite literature, this book is for you. It is a razing critique of wealth, resource dissparity and the hoops even the privileged must jump through to know success. Boasting an extremely unique narrative style, Gifted & Talented is good old fashioned pretentious fun.

For cinema fans, Succession meets The Dropout in this quippy, thought provoking story. I felt the book dragged a touch in the second act. Typical of Blake’s writing, readers may find this inaccessibly grandiloquent. This wouldn’t be my first recommendation if you’re easing into lit-fic or expecting traditional low-fantasy, but G&T was definitely my cup of G&T!

“Gifted & Talented” is a wickedly funny examination of three privileged and magical children who are trying to determine the succession of their father’s billion-dollar business – a sort of fantasy “Succession”. Blake is so good at writing completely self-absorbed, pretentious jerks; anyone who enjoyed her Atlas Six series will likely enjoy this one. My main criticism is that “Gifted & Talented” is much too long – it could have lost 100 pages, easily, and been all the sharper for it. As a result a few of the side characters and plots just aren’t as interesting as some of the main ones, and it results in some listlessness especially toward the middle of the novel. While “Gifted & Talented” will not be my favorite Blake novel, there were nonetheless some hilarious one-liners and witty character interactions that you come to expect from her work.

Gifted & Talented may be my favorite Olivie Blake book yet. I love her wacky characters, and in this book in particular I really liked the relationships between the three siblings and their love interests and friends. While there was a ton going on from page one, the book felt like multiple character studies as well as having a really engaging and action-packed plot.

I finished 'Gifted and Talented' and I think it might be my favorite Olivie Blake book. And I ADORED the Atlas Six books. It's about three siblings who come together after their father dies, to see who will inherit his multi-billion dollar company. It's everything we've come to expect from an Olivie Blake book- it's (purposefully and wonderfully) pretentious, complicated, and messy. All of the characters are terrible... but that's Blake's genius- she makes us root for them anyway.

It took me three tries to get into Gifted & Talented, and I should have dnfed it instead of pushing myself through on that third try. I was really intrigued by the premise and the comparison to Succession, but with magic, but found that the actual book was incredibly disappointing.

It felt sooooo long for a book that takes place over the span of about 3-4 days, and a lot of that was just unnecessary long sentences and flowery language. It was a drag for me to keep going because it felt like nothing really ever happened, which meant I never cared about the characters

The magic was barely present. Blake set up really interesting unique abilities for each sibling, but then those abilities were hardly ever used and barely contributed to the plot. The magic got talked about and was lurking in the background, but I wanted way more. We just kept getting reminded that it existed but Blake never actually did anything with it

I understand that Gifted & Talented is supposed to be a character driven story, but the characters were for the most part unbearable. They're in their 30s, but all acted like teenagers and were so annoyingly angsty with each other. Especially with the length and the lack of plot, it just got repetitive.

The plot was also entirely predictable and barely even existed, with the only minor plot twist incredibly easy to guess early on. Overall, I just didn't care about the book and had to force myself to slog through and finish.