Reviews

Gifted by Nikita Lalwani

twentythirds's review

funny lighthearted sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

rampaginglibrarian's review against another edition

4.0

Though young Rumi Vasi might be a Gifted mathematical genius in every other way she is a normal pre-teen (later teenage) girl, in this first novel by Nikita Lalwani~or at least she longs to be (i've often found this to be true of highly gifted people~either they are longing for normalcy or they are lacking in emotional maturity for lack of it~note i did NOT say ALL gifted people.) Rumi is the first-born child of Indian immigrants in Cardiff, Wales. When she is five she is identified by her teacher as "gifted", needing to be nurtured by the system (including joining Mensa). The "gifted" label comes as no surprise to her father, Mahesh, a mathematician himself, while at the same time he feels insulted that anyone would expect anything less. He feels he can nurture her genius himself and institutes an extremely strict regime so that she may pass her O levels early and her A levels by fourteen (whatever that means~i really must brush up on the British school system) which allows her no other life.
Rumi's mother Shreene feels ever more distanced from her daughter as Rumi is forced to study (the prison-like regime reminding Shreene of a similar one enforced when the newly married couple first immigrated) and the only way she can relate to her daughter is by repeating the trite Indian sayings that peppered her own upbringing and for which she finds poor English translations. Shreene longs for her native country and feels betrayed and misled by her husband who was vague about their possible return.
Rumi finds some relief in two visits made to India where she feels kinship with her extended family and finds some commonality with the people there. She also enjoys play with her younger brother Nibu. She becomes a cumin-seed addict (i must admit, i've never known one of those...) and prone to sneaking off to perform all sorts of nefarious activities. I quite enjoyed this novel and found all the characters quite believable as well as likable "in their own way" (so to speak). I must say the ending hit me a tad unexpectedly.

scarletohhara's review against another edition

1.0

Such a crappy book. I feel the author has directly lifted the Isabella Da Costa track from Eric Segal's Doctors and gave it a slight modification, added some romantic angle, and a weird climax. And lo, here is the book.

friendlypoet's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

paperpix's review against another edition

4.0

Was ok. Maybe it's just me, but it was just sooooo slooooooow. Yawn. Nothing interesting about the story or the style. A little opal mehta-esque.

mercyp's review against another edition

3.0

Struck deep with my own experience but some icky stuff made me rate it down, very jagged book full of awkwardness. The parents were horrible but also sometimes easy to empathise with, very conflicting.

christynhoover's review

emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A gripping and wrenching story of a bright girl prodded by her (also accomplished) immigrant parents to pursue a precocious path while shutting out her own urgent calls of childhood and selfhood. 

It is a story of the struggle to culturally adjust or not (the girls' parents in this case) and of the girl who is caught in the crosshairs. To be or not to be. Heartbreakingly tense.

I had NO idea how the book would end, the sign of a well-executed plot.

nocto's review against another edition

3.0

This is a book that I'd expected to like from the blurb, but I didn't really hit it off with it.

It's all about Rumi, a supposedly "gifted" mathematician, who takes her O and A Levels early and is aiming to get to the University of Oxford at an early age spurred on mostly by her father. I liked Rumi and found her family to be pretty convincing characters but, perhaps because of my own maths degrees, I never found the school background to be very realistic.

I found the end of the book, where - this isn't really very much of a spoiler - Rumi gets to university and proceeds to go a bit off the rails to be both more interesting and credible than what came before.

This is (yet another) book that was longlisted for the Booker Prize this year. (I've got a little carried away reading the longlist!) It didn't make the shortlist and I think that the judges got that right as there are at least six better books on the list.

timbooksin's review against another edition

3.0

I love Lalwani's writing. Her prose and dialogue are so incisive. This story was good but there were gaps in the arc.

vcmc's review against another edition

4.0

Powerful, heartfelt tale of growing up and finding oneself. There are aspects of this book that didn't work for me but it's gripping storytelling won me over.