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alexisdpatt 's review for:
Gifted & Talented
by Olivie Blake
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.