Reviews - Gifted & Talented

1.82k reviews for:

Gifted & Talented

Olivie Blake

3.84 AVERAGE

jadecatryn's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lainalovegood's review against another edition

1.5

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

God this book was insufferable. None of these characters were likeable, literally nothing happens, this was a mess, but not in a good, Dallas-y soap opera-esque way. The writing was clean, if a bit flowery, and I almost felt like the author was somehow making fun of us lowly ignorant readers and the narration (the omniscient narrator, not the audio narrator) got tediously annoying. This was magical realism, not fantasy and I found myself envious of Arthur dropping dead in the novel, because if I had to listen to the audiobook for this one more second, I was going to pull my bookshelf down on top of me and let it crush me like Giles Corey.

I think that Olivie Blake is just not the author for me. I've read two of her novels (obviously this one as well as Masters of Death - See also my review of THAT monstrosity), neither one being her breakout novel The Atlas Six, but... I'm just not sure I'll be able to bring myself to pick up another of her novels. Ugh.

merbearmer's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense 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

bridgetlynn91's review against another edition

3.75

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

carmena's review against another edition

2.0

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

jaykay421's review against another edition

2.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

This book was simply not fun to read. The formatting and ru-on sentences made it such a chore to pick up.

It felt like the author was trying too hard, and yet, the magic(?) was nonsensical.