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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
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
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
(4.5 ⭐) In which 3 siblings from wealth and privilege and savant-level skills have to come to terms with and overcome the fact that they are - despite all that - assholes and failures and deeply unhappy and maybe they should do something about that before their collective depression and self-doubt summons a literal apocalypse.
"You can have money or you can have pride, and guess which one changes the world?"
I love Olivie Blake's style and this is very much her style, so if you haven't been into her previous books I wouldn't think this is for you. It's wordy, it's pretentious, it doesn't follow an easy cadence, and the characters are generally unlikable - and I happen to eat that shit up. That being said, I understand it's not for everyone. It's less plot more vibes - but not chill happy cute vibes, more like existentialism and thought-provoking vibes.
I'll also say that though I loved this, it wasn't my *favorite* Olivie Blake book. It did overdue it a bit in some places, was a bit too long, and left a lot of plot holes. But it's okay, just don't think too hard about all that. just ~vibe~
And because the prose is like candy to me, some favorite quotes:
"Eventually the Earth would stop fucking around and call it quits"
"Her transition to dating divorced men was not, as some people liked to think, akin to picking through damaged merchandise but rather more like determining whether secondhand vintage might fit her better than the sale bin"
"CONGRESSMAN WREN TOO BUSY TAKING SELFIES, BUYING AVOCADO TOAST TO VIRTUE SIGNAL OPPRESSIVE TERRORISM FUNDED BY ACTIONS OF OWN GOVERNMENT"
"Most of Meredith's poor reputation in the industry came from a place of personal dislike, because in order to become as successful as she was, she had to tell a lot of men to suck her dick in various ways, largely for the crime of having been smarter than they were to begin with"
"She was beautiful, but more importantly she was incredibly weird, a buffet of idiosyncrasies. It created a mystique about her, this sense that she was not exactly for everyone"
"Dying just to manipulate a woman is highly frowned upon, just so you know. Very gaslight-y behavior."
"I didn't want happiness for fucks sake - I wanted an A!"
"Because happiness wasn't a permanent state of being that you could trick your brain into, a little razzle dazzle like shining a mirror off the sun. You had to believe it, you had to work for it, you had to choose it - on any given day you had to choose to remember the good over the bad, to honor the gradations in your joy and accept it's complications"
"You can have money or you can have pride, and guess which one changes the world?"
I love Olivie Blake's style and this is very much her style, so if you haven't been into her previous books I wouldn't think this is for you. It's wordy, it's pretentious, it doesn't follow an easy cadence, and the characters are generally unlikable - and I happen to eat that shit up. That being said, I understand it's not for everyone. It's less plot more vibes - but not chill happy cute vibes, more like existentialism and thought-provoking vibes.
I'll also say that though I loved this, it wasn't my *favorite* Olivie Blake book. It did overdue it a bit in some places, was a bit too long, and left a lot of plot holes. But it's okay, just don't think too hard about all that. just ~vibe~
And because the prose is like candy to me, some favorite quotes:
"Eventually the Earth would stop fucking around and call it quits"
"Her transition to dating divorced men was not, as some people liked to think, akin to picking through damaged merchandise but rather more like determining whether secondhand vintage might fit her better than the sale bin"
"CONGRESSMAN WREN TOO BUSY TAKING SELFIES, BUYING AVOCADO TOAST TO VIRTUE SIGNAL OPPRESSIVE TERRORISM FUNDED BY ACTIONS OF OWN GOVERNMENT"
"Most of Meredith's poor reputation in the industry came from a place of personal dislike, because in order to become as successful as she was, she had to tell a lot of men to suck her dick in various ways, largely for the crime of having been smarter than they were to begin with"
"She was beautiful, but more importantly she was incredibly weird, a buffet of idiosyncrasies. It created a mystique about her, this sense that she was not exactly for everyone"
"Dying just to manipulate a woman is highly frowned upon, just so you know. Very gaslight-y behavior."
"I didn't want happiness for fucks sake - I wanted an A!"
"Because happiness wasn't a permanent state of being that you could trick your brain into, a little razzle dazzle like shining a mirror off the sun. You had to believe it, you had to work for it, you had to choose it - on any given day you had to choose to remember the good over the bad, to honor the gradations in your joy and accept it's complications"
emotional
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
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
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Gifted and Talented” by Olivie Blake ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
“Gifted and Talented” follows the three Wren siblings as they come to terms with their father’s passing and the distribution of his wealth and his company. So yeah, “Succession” basically but with magic that plagues them, literally.
This is my first book written by Blake and so I shall start off with the positives. Loved we writing style. The wit and coldness that she brings to the upper crust was brilliant. I loved the inner dialogue of the characters and how their environment shaped them. The first half of the book really had me comparing this to “Succession” a lot. Idk if that’s good or bad but now I wanna rewatch “Succession.”
My negatives are twofold: 1) the melodrama really starts to drag after the midpoint and 2) I’m conflicted on my feelings of the narrator being a physical character in the story. In the first half, I really enjoyed the narrators presence and an omnipresent God speaking. Once they are physically introduced in the narrative, I start to wonder why they are just there and present for most of the conversations when their presence isn’t really necessary. This also causes a shift in the narrative from the siblings and their relationship to each other and their father to the narrator and their relationship to their child. I get that the reader is supposed to compare the two but there’s no real comparative thread that ties these two plots together.
You can see that I haven’t really talked about the magic system because I honestly forgot about it, just like the book. It feels more like a plot device than an actual magical presence more than anything so it’s fine I guess.
Oh! And the audiobook is fantastic btw.
On the whole, I think this is a great place to start to get a sense of Blake’s writing and I do look forward to pushing some of her other works higher on my list.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
Thoroughly enjoyed this. The range of characters never felt overwhelming, the ‘narrator’ was kinda brilliant. I have been hit and miss with Olivie’s books but this one was a very big hit.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
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