Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake

27 reviews

sarahmreads's review against another edition

3.0

dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Pregnancy

Minor: Eating disorder, Sexual content, Car accident, Death of parent

art_books_chemistry's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Classism

Minor: Infertility, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol

ljzsreadsandreviews's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I’ll be honest, I have no clue how I feel about this book. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so indifferent about a book before. I enjoyed the character development and the overall concept of this book but there was just something missing that I can’t quite put my finger on. Olivie Blake does a great job writing complex characters who are fairly unlikeable yet somehow we do. I stuck with this because I really was intrigued by what was going to happen but I wasn’t fully surprised by the outcome and by the end I just felt ‘meh.’ I did enjoy the audio format but I think this might’ve been one I would’ve enjoyed more in a physical format because I would’ve been able to track the writing style a bit more clearly.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Death of parent

breccoli's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Pregnancy

Minor: Homophobia, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury

keen's review against another edition

3.5

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual content, Pregnancy

Minor: Misogyny, Car accident

itsheyfay's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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UPDATE 5/10/25:
I can appreciate a character driven story with morally grey protagonists making questionable choices, but ONLY if the writing hooks me.

This unfortunately…did not.

I had so much trouble understanding what exactly the magic system was underneath the lyrical (and at times repetitive) prose. I wish more attention was put on the world building, or maybe I missed it???

However, I did enjoy the side characters and their motives, so that at least kept me from DNF’ing this.

Overall, a disappointing read. But maybe someone else might enjoy this.

~~~~~

I’m so sorry, Olivie, but this book did NOT make me happy :/

Official review to come soon

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Car accident, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment

Minor: Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Excrement

aseel_reads's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional funny reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I can't tell why I liked this book but I did. 

The complexity or moral greyness or the unlikeable characters were well described and I connected with them at times, even though I have nothing in common with them. 

I'd recommend reading the books in big chunks because anytime I came back, the first 20ish pages made me annoyed with them but afterwards that feeling left 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent

Minor: Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail

gueniverefey's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Classism

ohennui's review against another edition

3.75

emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Death of parent

elenikin's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I love Olivie Blake's writing style SO much! The banter and the snark is just phenomenal. The narrator was perfect

Lou was my favorite character, hands down. Chef's kiss for writing a great character, Olivie!

. Olivie said in her acknowledgements that she was inspired by Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, and I can totally see that. There were so many fascinating characters that all seemed very implausible for them to have any connection, but they did and it was great. Even though the 3 siblings were unlikeable in different ways, I still enjoyed getting to know them and see their personal growth. Olivie has such a unique way of describing emotions and although it sometimes was confusing, I ultimately (I think) understood what she was getting at. I think my book rating was a little lower than I initially expected because 1. It dragged a bit in the middle, 2. I was confused about a lot of things for a while (but many did get cleared up)

particularly the whole Magic tech stuff not actually being "magic"

, and 3. I thought there would be more magic

and honestly, I feel like there was a lot left unexplained about the Wrens' magic. Maybe this is me not being a smart literary person and missing the deeper meaning of their magic, but I just still have questions.

. I realized that although there was magic, the focus of the story wasn't magic, but moreso the complex ty of emotions and relationships. Regardless of these (perceived) limitations, I still quite enjoyed the book and it just reiterated my love for Olivie Blake's books and writing style. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Toxic friendship

Minor: Vomit

I thought Olivie did well with the polyamory and I enjoyed it!