1.8k reviews for:

Gifted & Talented

Olivie Blake

3.84 AVERAGE

vmbookie's review against another edition

3.0

tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

kat_fields's review against another edition

4.25

dark funny 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 came expecting Succession, but with magic, and that's the first half (so everyone kind of sucks), but then I got a book about messily starting to heal from generational trauma. Which surprisingly also kind of worked. 

abigailhiggins's review against another edition

3.75

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

jptr_exe's review against another edition

4.75

funny slow-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

librarian_wendy's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional funny reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

alianarose1's review against another edition

4.25

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

sassysara's review against another edition

3.75

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Liked the way Blake wrote the unreliable narrator in this book. 

teabookscrochethooks's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ishiness's review against another edition

3.5

funny lighthearted 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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I almost want to go with 4 stars, but we’re rounding down from 3.5 instead. Olivie Blake is really good at characters.  They can be formidable and vulnerable, independent and needy, all at the same time and we get very side of them.  She’s not as good at themes, and themes are important to me.  This book easily could have just been set at a tech company with a few actual witches messing around.  The biomancy thing didn’t add much to the characters or the world.  So I’m a bit confused and I think the book is too, and that means it can’t get much more than 3 stars from me.  But I LOVED the character work and there is a 5 star book somewhere in here, it’s just not the book we got.

emeryn2's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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