Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake Review

The children of Thayer Wren have been remarkable since the day they were born. Unsurprisingly, since Thayer was the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology. Telepathically and telekinetically gifted, his offspring - Meredith, Arthur and Eilidh Wren - are publicly admired and privately capable of extraordinary feats. Any of the Wren prodigies would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne. Or at least, so they like to think.
 

On the day of Thayer Wren's unexpected demise, the lives of the three Wren siblings are in various states of chaos and disrepair. Meredith, now CEO of her own profitable company, is knee-deep in a dystopian capitalist nightmare, haunted by the ghost of a childhood friend. She’s also facing imminent exposure for corporate malfeasance by a journalist ex-boyfriend. Congressman Arthur Wren is wrestling with his disgruntled constituency and a strange, magical malady that can only be called the yips. Eilidh, former prima ballerina whose spinal injury ended her career, now finds herself triggering accidental, uncontrolled apocalypse events.
 

In the wake of Thayer's loss, the Wrens return to their childhood home. Here they will face their contentious relationships with their father, and each other. On the journey of gifted kid to clinical depression, nobody wins — but which Wren will rise to the top? Can one of them seize the prize of their father’s crown?
 

This is a compulsive tale of family, twisted love and dangerous secrets from a writer at the height of her powers.

Some books are cozy comfort reads, some are poetic and philosophical, and some are humorous comedy or steamy romance. But then there are some like Olivie Blake’s Gifted & Talented that set out to be something entirely different that’s difficult to highlight and discuss due to its complex yet unusual presentation. Following the musings and drama of three siblings and the entangled web of partners, conspirators, rivals, and more, this literary fiction book is a behemoth of a novel that feels far longer than its nearly 500 page count would suggest. Meticulously deliberate, very light on plot, yet incredibly detailed with its spectacular character writing, Gifted & Talented is absolutely not going to be for everyone and admittedly was not my cup of tea. That said, I have nothing but respect for what this novel delivers and while it was on and off from an enjoyment factor for me, from a critical reading/writing standpoint, this novel is great.

Although this Gifted & Talented is technically classified in the fantasy, urban fantasy and science fiction genres, they’re largely surface level classifications due to the novel’s premise involving certain magical, or as the novel calls it, “magitech” powers. Each of the three Wren siblings possess some type of unexplained ability that vary substantially from each other. While these powers play important roles in each siblings’ characterization, backstories, and self-identity, they largely play a supporting role in what is otherwise a purely character-based, succession-related story. While the story takes place over the course of about five days starting with the death of their powerful and imposing father Thayer Wren, more than half of the story takes place via flashbacks, memories, or reflections of each Wren or the people in their sphere of influence. An important thing to note is although the source or concept of their powers is loosely touched upon, it’s largely skimmed over. Additionally key conflicts involving each power, most notably youngest daughter Eilidh’s apocalyptic powers, are never truly resolved apart from each character experiencing their own forms of self-discovery and closure which suggests a degree of control of said powers. All this to say, while they’re certainly there and play a role in the plot, readers picking up this novel for the magical powers are likely to be disappointed as it’s not the primary focus of the story.

If the magical powers are not the focus, one would the succession of his CEO role to one of his children would be the focus. Yet again however, that’s not quite the case. While the overall plot and story does cover the passing of Thayer, the reveal of his will, and the future of his company, this story element again feels like it’s playing a supporting role to the character drama of the three Wrens and the numerous supporting characters. While the synopsis isn’t false advertising per say, the succession plot feels like it moves at a glacial pace, with each passing day taking up roughly 100-150 pages each. The three Wren’s aren’t reunited after Thayer’s death until nearly 150 pages in, his will isn’t revealed until the half-way mark, and a notable plot twist involving the presentation/narrator even further into the book. While I found the various possible factors, theories, and different perspectives involving Thayer’s frame of mind and thoughts influencing his will fascinating, like the magical power element, succession storyline also left me quite underwhelmed. The story does not have any strategic planning, manipulation, or competition between the three Wrens to ascend to their father’s CEO role.

So, if the two biggest hooks highlighted in the book’s synopsis are not the focus of the story, what is? That would be the following quote from the summary: “Here they will face their contentious relationships with their father, and each other. On the journey of gifted kid to clinical depression, nobody wins.” Particularly the second half of the quote, Gifted & Talented is all about the story of the three Wrens and their personal struggles and failures to live up to the immense pressure and expectations of being gifted, talented, or both. Covering a wide variety of themes, the most prominent ones involve self-worth, independence, living up to expectations, and more. Perhaps the most critical theme is what happens when kids or young adults called gifted, ingenue, driven or moving fail to rise to those lofty and pressure-inducing adjectives. Siblings Meredith, Arthur, and Eilidh all have lived strained lives, each somehow left feeling unfulfilled and various forms of depression. Yet, with each having had technically successful lives at some point and having influence or resources to live quite comfortably, each can come off as entirely arrogant.

One of the strongest elements that can also be a hinderance for readers is Blake’s heavily flawed and inherently unlikable characters. As one would expect from those that have been labeled as gifted and talented, each Wren has either the confidence, entitlement, or tendency for being dramatic that can really try the readers’ patience (as a kid who was also deemed gifted and talented who may possibly have an ego, I would know 😉 ). To the novel’s credit however, this is entirely purposeful and built into the story’s concept, most notably with the tone of the narrative and writing style. Unfortunately, the characters’ unlikability are at their peak at the beginning of the story for the first 150 pages which can potentially be an instant turnoff for readers, despite it being needed for certain surprise reveals to work. If you’re a reader who needs to have a character to empathize with or root for to be invested, Gifted & Talented may be a difficult read. I heavily considered DNF-ing this book constantly myself, though I highly recommend at least sticking it out to to the chapter labeled “A Brief Note from God” on page 39 of the kindle edition. While reading the novel, I had a memorable “aha!” moment and realized what Blake was trying to do with the story’s initially confusing tone that comes in quite strong at first.

Beyond the giftedly strained character arcs, easily the novel and Blake’s strongest feature is the outstanding character writing that’s hyper-realistic and detailed. Blake’s characters feel fully realized and alive, with a level of nuance and complexity rarely seen outside of the clear-cut literary fiction genre. While the spoken dialogue is great, the vast majority of the character work is done via the book’s 3^rd person narrator recapping each character’s internalized thoughts and feelings, often in an entertaining and highly sassy manner (more on that shortly). From each character’s aspirations, their comprehensive yet often flawed character logic (or for some specific characters, the intentional lack of logic), their impressions and feelings towards other characters or people in general, it’s impeccably written. On top of that, each character goes on their own personal self-journey over the course of five days and while some are less successful than others (entirely subjective, but Arthur and Lou were the weakest and least interesting to me personally), it’s impressive how complete and extensive they are. Even more respectable is that the expansive characterizations and growth also extend to the numerous side characters linked to each of the Wrens, each having 1-2 characters linked to them. Some of these such as Arthur’s wife Gillian’s journey getting outside of her head and constant routines or Meredith’s ex-boyfriend and journalist Jamie who has a conflicted attachment to her are sometimes more compelling than the three main Wrens. And to tie it all together, at the center of the web of characters and their connections are their varied yet universally unhealthy relationships with Thayer Wren.

Featuring arrogant and flawed characters, one would expect Gifted & Talented to be unpleasant and tiring to read. While the slow pacing and unpleasant characters can often be quite trying at times, what helps carry the read is Blake’s incredibly snappy and witty tone that is full-on sass. The narrator, initially referred to as a voice of God narration utilizing the 3^rd person omniscient perspective, is full of humous jabs that are both smart and incredibly cutting. Not only amusing in a sarcastically educated manner, Blake’s writing is full of social commentary that I loved. I constantly found myself highlighting passage after passage, below are a few choice quotes taken relatively early into the story to avoid spoilers:

Meredith did not have resting bitch face. She had active bitch face, because everything she did was with purpose. (But in moments of rest it was extraordinarily bitchy, too.)

Of course, Eilidh wasn’t actually dead. She was a respected employee at her father’s company, clocking in her nine-to-five like everyone else, which was incalculably worse. If only she’d died! The only thing more virtuous than an ingenue was a dead ingenue, which was something like a saint. Rest in peace.

Arthur was soft and spoiled. Arthur got the yips. Gillian was beautiful, but not too beautiful – more like architecturally well-made in an understated way. A feminist, whose politics were politely left-leaning but mostly unknown, because she did not say anything on social media. It was Arthur who was the radical, or who could afford to be one, anyway, because rich people recognized him as one of their own and trusted him to cave at some point, to be a capitalist in woke clothing the way people were so fashionably capable of being these days.

Moments before his last unassisted breath—while sitting alone in his ceremonial office, burning the midnight oil as he had not been accustomed to doing for decades by then—Thayer Wren typed into his favorite microblogging site a single sentence and hit post: I’ve learned to expect the least out of the people I thought the highest of. A fitting end, thought the Times reporter, to a story about the falseness of perfection and the disappointment inherent in its pursuit. About what happens when a bright star—and the promise of the stars his own light produced—invariably burns out. But then, of course, Thayer Wren fucking died—he had a stroke later that night and was declared dead by Monday morning, not that his children could be bothered to pick up the phone.

Having finished reading this book, I’m highly interested in reading another one of Blake’s novels to see if her general prose is synonymous with Gifted & Talented’s tone or if this was an intentionally stylized artistic choice (there’s a notable surprise plot twists that explains the choice for this flavor of narration). The narrator’s tendency to frequently break the fourth wall and the hyperawareness of how overdramatic and ridiculous the characters and narrative situations only add to how well planned this novel feels.

From a critical reading and a literary analysis standpoint, Gifted & Talented is a resounding success and 5-star novel. However, from a reading experience or subjective enjoyment perspective, this novel was more of a 3-star read at best for me. For everything that Gifted & Talented does impeccably when it comes to its character writing, the novel was difficult for me to stay invested in. While the unlikable characters were initially the primary source of my mixed opinions towards the read, my biggest subjective issue with the novel is that it’s simply too long and the plot is too sparce for me. As previously discussed, the novel uses excessive flashbacks to the point that they are both more numerous and lengthier than almost all the chapters set in the present. This makes sense to showcase and share each character’s series of unfortunate events that led them to their current depressive “failures” in the eyes of Thayer, but the problem is that the book’s synopsis promises a story of succession with a magical and dysfunctional family. The dysfunctional family is there but the rest of the premise feels almost like misadvertising on the book’s core content. While the character work is consistently excellent, there’s almost no plot in the traditional sense which can be a major hurdle for many. Additionally, the read is incredibly dense and the content is the type of material that’s difficult to marathon read. Although the story is on the longer end at 500 pages, this novel took me nearly double the time I would normally take, often having to read this in short middling sessions. While the novel is very well constructed and planned out, shortening the book by about 100 pages or even 200 pages would’ve been a huge improvement in the reading experience for me.

While the Wren siblings are the core focus of the story, Gifted & Talented also feels like an ensemble cast story at times due to the numerous supporting characters. While they are also detailed and fully fleshed out like the Wrens, their focus and contributions to the story drag out an already slow-moving story even further. While objectively I understood why each side character was included and their contributions to the story, subjectively it felt too much. I would constantly check what page I was on while hoping to be farther along that I was. And while I wasn’t originally planning on mentioning it in my review, another review criticized the back half of the book for abruptly shifting towards motherhood, parenting a toddler and raising a family. I had the exact same sentiment where I found the sibling conflicts and relationships interesting but enjoyed the motherhood focus significantly less which feels like it comes out of left field. While the book alluded to a parental theme earlier on with Arthur’s outlandish dreams of the future (if you read the book, you will know he’s what the gen z-ers call delulu) and Thayer’s lack of parental care to his children, this mother and child content was simply not for me. The fourth wall breaking narration has an almost self-insert kind of feel to it which I can see being relatable to readers who are moms or Olivie Blake herself, but as a cis male who does not particularly like young kids, this was like oil and water to me. I originally had written that Gifted & Talented nailed its ending and its character arcs, but I scratched that note when I remembered how unenthusiastic and underwhelmed I was by the heavy mother/child focus that took up so much time at both the concluding funeral service as well as the epilogue. While certainly not a deal-breaker for the novel, I really wished this heavily maternal angle was properly mentioned or advertised in synopsis.

Expertly crafted and full of outstanding character work, Gifted & Talented is a unique and ambitious novel that I can’t help but find impressive. Despite often struggling to finish it and having very conflicted feelings about my subjective enjoyment of the read, I don’t regret picking this to read due to Olivie Blake’s excellent writing and unique tone. While I certainly need a break after working through this dense novel, I’m now far more intrigued to give The Atlas Six a try given that both premise, content, and shorter length seemingly avoid all my biggest faults with this novel. But getting back to Gifted & Talented, it’s not for everyone but it’s certainly an interesting read if you’re looking for something different or are looking for flawed and realistic characters to follow.