It’s looking like Olivie Blake’s books are hit or miss for me. I absolutely ADORED One for my enemy and the atlas six. Masters of Death did not hit the same high note. And the same could be said for Giftef and Talented.

Here’s what I liked: The snarky, semi omnipotent narrator was a lot of fun and their true identity came as a real surprise. Also I thought this was great social commentary on some of the major issues we are dealing particularly in the US.

And here is what didn’t work for me: First, the magic system was complete chaos, it was not really developed in my opinion and very hard to follow. And second, and more hard to describe, was the fact that I just didn’t like or get particularly invested in any of the characters. They were all meant to be terrible people or at the very least morally grey, which is usually not a problem for me. But something I can’t quite put my finger on was missing for me and it was a struggle to finish the book. Maybe it was a me issue 🤷🏻‍♀️

Overall, I think if you enjoyed books like Stone Cold Fox by Rachel Collet Croft and Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson then Gifted and Talented aimed for similar vibes and may be a book you will enjoy.

4.5/5

This was my first Olivie Blake book, but when I saw the summary I couldn't help but pick it up. This book has a bit of a slow start, but the characters and the great voice of the narrator hooked me. Fun for lovers of Succession or anyone who likes a good family drama.

Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for the preview. All opinions are my own.

I’m so so sorry, but I’m DNF’ing this one at 8%. A friend had compared this one to Masters of Death (my fav of Blake’s), so I had high hopes. But this one isn’t for me. It’s so over the top, and I already know I hate the characters (which yes I understand that’s the point, but I’m also having a bad time).

I think this will still have tons of fans, and I’m so happy for the people that enjoy this one!

Olivie Blake never ceases to amaze me!! Gifted & Talented was the perfect cure for my Succession hangover, with the most delightful splash of intricate magic and worldbuilding that we’d expect with Blake’s writing. The messy relationships and family dynamics were just as complicated and just as engrossing as I’d hoped. I loved the relationship between the siblings, ambitious Meredith, desperate Arthur and driftless Eilidh - I loved them all. Beautiful writing and even more riveting plot. A true Olivie Blake special.

This book, like all Olivie Blake books, requires one’s full attention while reading so I am very thankful for the eARC because audiobook might not have cut it. The way Olivie writes her characters, their innermost thoughts, how they process the world—you get sucked in. Her immersive style takes us into the minds of these cutthroat siblings and the lengths they’d go to for their ambitions. It’s giving Succession, if you’re into that vibe of sibling drama, childhood trauma, corporate chaos, and… a bit of magic. What a ride. Buckle in and keep your eyes on the road.

I enjoyed this book, but I do feel like it was mismarketed. This wasn’t fantasy at all- it felt like magical realism or sci-fi. Additionally, I felt like this was too long.

However, as always, Olivie crafted an extremely interesting cast of characters.

this is comedic gold and the kind of dumpster fire you can't look away from, but I started reading this in the beginning of January, and that reading timeline says to me that I was not engaged enough in this story for it to truly be my cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: It is tough to review a book of this scope. It went beyond my expectations and I loved all of it. I will warn people, and you've probably seen it in other reviews, this is a loonnnggg book. If you are a plot driven person, you may want to borrow this from the library before you decide to buy. The people who will soak this all the way up are those who enjoy character driven, slow paced books with a focus on interpersonal relationships. The main characters will give you complex thoughts (aka love to hate) who are morally ambiguous and make very frustrating but human decisions. If you are worried about the magic, fantasy, sci-fi, elements being too strong, they are extremely minor in this book and used in a heavy literary way. Blakes writing in this book is some of the best I've ever read, you cannot convince me she is not a genius. The social, political commentary was just on point and left me thinking many times "how the f does she do this." Blake is able to reach into the depths of emotion and nuance in a way I have not experienced before. This is just such an incredible feat of a story I don't know how to review it entirely. I did make a video on this book on my channel going into more details.

I think all I want you to really know is if you like slow paced, family stories, with complicated dynamics and characters you may dislike, oh with some magical technology involved and a will, you don't want to miss this.

Having adored Blake's breakout series, THE ATLAS SIX, I'd been eagerly anticipating the release of her latest effort. Pitched as "SUCCESSION, but with magic," those expecting a fast-paced fantasy standoff may need to temper their expectations: the magical realism is tempered in Blake's latest, in favour of, instead, the SUCCESSION-esque familial drama. Three morally-grey leads, each battling their own demons -- some, more literal than most -- enthral and enrage, a simultaneous fascination that draws the reader in. Yes, the tone is, at times, pretentious. The levity injected as the narrator reveals their personage does help, but the beginning can be SLOW. That said, it is certainly worth pushing through. Around 20%, the prose finds its cadence, and from there, the enthral simply intensifies. It's a character-driven drama, yes, but if Blake has proven anything, throughout her tenure as an auteur, it is that few can capture moral greyness, fascination, and introspective figures quite like she. This may not have been as whip-smart, jargon-laden, magically captivating as THE ATLAS SIX to me -- but it's still an Olivie Blake joint, so you KNOW it's still a quality entry to the literary canon.

This book was not for me unfortunately. I understand that the characters are suppose to be unlikable and a mess but I had a really hard time caring about their story at all. The plot progression was incredibly slow for me. That being said, Olivie Blake is a great writer. The book was very dry in humor and straightforward mixed with incredibly vivid descriptions of things that one might struggle to put into words. So I can appreciate the talent behind the book and still not love the story. I also dont enjoy books with poly relationships. just a personal preference. DNF at 40%, I just couldn't do it sadly.

Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake is a novel that centers around the three children of a wealthy (and recently deceased) tech CEO, leaving the question of which child, if any, deserves to inherit the throne of his company.

I had a love/hate relationship with this novel. I'm an Olivie fan through and through, which is why I find myself a little torn with this review. Stylistically, this is right up my alley. I've always been a fan of the prose of Blake's novels. I loved the characters as well (in a "they all suck in some way but are enjoyable to dislike" kind of way), and found the relationships between them all quite engaging and fun to read.

Where I got lost? The shift in the narrative that seemed to happen when Arthur got focused on Riot, and when Lou would monologue about Monster. I found myself getting bored when their POV chapters would come up, because I had no interest in reading about the ideas of parenthood in a novel that I thought was meant to focused on a different family dynamic -- that between siblings.

It didn't affect my overall enjoyment *too* much, though. I think it's safe to say that I still had a fun time reading this book, and would recommend it to people who enjoy Olivie Blake's writing style.

I sadly only got a few pages into this one. The language content was immediately so heavy I couldn't focus on what else was being said, and the vibes didn't match what I gleaned from the synopsis. Not entirely surprising because Olivie Blake is hit or miss for me, but it's extra tragic because I adore this cover in every way.

4.5/5. I loved this! I'm curious to know how this books works for people who aren't fans of Succession because it is VERY Succession coded. I happen to be a huge fan of that show, so this worked incredibly well for me. I loved that certain aspects, like the patriarch and the structure, felt similar, but it really does stand well on its own.

All three of the main characters were so fascinating, and I'm so impressed with how all of their stories played out. I also really loved how the magic played into this. I think anyone looking for heavy fantasy is going to be disappointed, but it was the perfect amount of fantasy elements for me.

Olivie Blake's writing tends to be very flowery and skew a bit pretentious, so there were a few times where I had to go back and reread things to make sure I was understanding parts correctly. She's such a talented writer, though, that I can't say I minded. This also is for sure too long, but I was having such a good time that I wasn't too mad about that either.

I love how Olivie Blake's brain works and this was such a banger of a book for me!

Thayer Wren is the head of a massive tech company that pioneered a magical technology. When he dies, it leaves his three children to battle it out for control of the corporation: Meredith, CEO of her own rival company; Arthur, the politician who in spite of being elected to Congress was still a disappointment to his father; and Eilidh, a former ballerina who took a high-level position at her father’s company when her dancing career came to an abrupt end. Each of them has their own reasons for wanting the company – but each of them is also hiding a huge secret.

This novel is brilliantly, beautifully written, but if you can’t do unlikeable main characters, this is not the book for you – they're vividly rendered and distinct characters, but they are, in the accurate words of the pseudo-omniscient narrator, assholes. Also, if uncomfortable situations make you cringe too hard, this might be a hard read for you. Siblings they may be, but every interaction between Eilidh and either of the other two is uncomfortable. The magic system is kind of ill-defined - it’s largely just extreme high tech, but not entirely, as in the cases of Arthur and Eilidh. But I found that that didn’t really matter to the story much, since that really wasn’t what it was about. This is not a fantasy story. It’s more of a family drama with the inclusion of magical elements, which are sometimes very important and sometimes not.

It wasn’t always an easy read, but overall, it was fantastic. Five stars.

Representation: POC characters, LGBTQIA+ characters, neurodivergent characters(?)

CW: drug use, sexual content, eating disorder

this is such classic olivie blake - very very heavy on characters and vibes and a little less on plot. it's all the dramatics of rich people nonsense that screams succession, doubled up with a wild dose of magic that somehow just makes everything so chaotic in such a good way. this whole cast of characters is so delightfully complex and messy and kind of awful, which is exactly my favorite flavor of character to read about. you spend the entire time cackling at all of the absolutely wild twists and turns these idiots (affectionate) create for themselves. also as a lawyer i fear i got way too much entertainment about a couple of deeply snarky paragraphs about the legal profession.

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that the same person who wrote Atlas Six wrote…Everything else Olivie Blake has given us.

Obviously I did not care for Atlas Six, but got into Blake’s work via her stellar contribution to the These Hallowed Halls collection and later her own short story collection, Januaries. Like her story from the Hallowed Halls collection and some of her other work, this book deals with technomancy, a breed of fantasy that I don’t typically like but seem to love when it comes from Blake.

Think of it as a less nasty version of Succession with a very light-touch inclusion of a techno-magical system. To me this is a better version of the Succession model not because it has a fantasy element, but because Blake has done such a good job of humanizing her characters. They’re more tragically flawed than truly unlikable, which makes their story a lot easier to invest in even when they’re behaving badly.

The book is definitely too long, and that did detract a bit from my enjoyment of it. That said, the best part of it is that it is deeply funny, and that never wavers throughout the lengthy telling. It works as a family saga, as a dark comedy, and as a redemption story, even if as a fantasy it leaves a bit on the table. In all, a longer slog than it needed to be, but an enjoyable and sharply written and imagined tale.

i really enjoyed so much about this book at first — the fun writing style, the unique choice of narration, the unlikable characters — but as the book progressed,, i wanted more from it.

Another Olivie hit!! I had been anticipating this book for some time and am so grateful to have gotten an early look into the story. I love a good sibling rivalry and mix it in with some dangerous abilities! This was a funs story

Olivie Blake's "Gifted & Talented" presents a darkly humorous and wildly disordered family saga with a distinctly sharp edge.

While the initial chapters required a period of adjustment – featuring a notably peculiar and almost disorienting introduction – once I found my footing, I became thoroughly engrossed in the narrative. Blake delivers an intense and keenly observed family drama that unfolds with the compelling intrigue of a reality show originating from an alternate reality.

Arthur, Eilidh, and Meredith, a trio of adult siblings, find their lives upended by the sudden demise of their powerful magitech magnate father. What ensues is a deliciously corrosive unraveling of inheritance, selfhood, and authority. Each sibling embodies a painful sense of entitlement and a profound unlikability in their own unique way, complete with bizarre entourages and dubious decisions – yet, paradoxically, this works. The narrative possesses an irresistible pull.

Meredith, in particular, emerges as a formidable and venomous presence, and the dynamic tension of her clashes with her determined ex-boyfriend, Jamie, who is intent on her downfall, further intensifies the drama. Arthur navigates a series of blunders while desperately yearning for affection, and Eilidh's narrative arc – hinting at possible possession – proves both strange and captivating.

The unique narrative voice of Lou ("God," the narrator and Meredith’s former closest confidante) injects a layer of surrealism and sharp wit throughout the story. I did encounter some minor challenges with the world-building; the intricacies of the magitech elements and the siblings' specific abilities remain somewhat nebulous, occasionally leaving me feeling adrift.

Nevertheless, this proved to be a chaotic, clever, and frequently darkly amusing journey. Readers who appreciate their fiction to be messy, dramatic, and possess a touch of the bizarre will find this novel a worthwhile and engaging experience.

This book follows three siblings who have just found out that their father, Thayer Wren the CEO of Wrenfare Magitech, has passed away. Who is going to inherit the company? We have Meredith, the eldest child, who is incredibly driven and a bit of a hard ass. She has developed tech, Chirp, to help make people happy. However, not all, it seems, as her ex-boyfriend Jamie pops up ready to expose her for using her telepathic abilities in her trials for Chirp. Next, we have middle child, Arthur, the second-youngest congressman in history, but he is currently losing his re-election, and he is in a relationship with two others while being married. Finally, there is Eilidh, a former dancer, and the only sibling who currently works at Wrenfare Magitech. The story follows the three siblings as they reunite at their father's home, waiting for the will to be read to find out which one of the siblings is Thayer's favorite, or is that the case?

I would rate this book a 3.5 - maybe a 4. I just thought it was too damn long. It took me a while to get through it as Olivie Blake is excellent at writing deep characters, but I needed more sabotage and toxic behavior from these siblings making a crazy plot. Instead they were just waiting around for the will to be read. I think the first part of the book was the strength - delving into these characters' lives and back stories, it felt Sucession-like. I think this may be some of her best character work yet - I was so invested in learning more about these characters, especially the Meredith/Jamie plot line.

What I didn't like was the weird shift into parenthood and redemption arcs - I was enjoying the toxic vibes lol I think the book should have been trimmed a bit as we read over 500 pages just to see the answer of the will and things to happen in a flash. I think if it were edited more, it would have been a much sharper read. Not to say I didn't enjoy it, just at times I found my eyes glazing over and wanting to skip ahead.