An Unpredictable, Sharp-Witted Family Drama
Gifted and Talented
Contemporary Fantasy, Dark Fantasy
Tor Books
April 1, 2025
Ebook, Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook
495
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes the story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries, dangerous abilities, and the crushing weight of all their unrealized adolescent potential.
Where there’s a will, there’s a war.
Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.
Or at least, so they like to think.
Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You're welcome! If only her father's fortune wasn't her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.
Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he's losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.
Eilidh, once the world's most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth—by confirming she'd been his favorite all along.
On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins—but which Wren will come out on top?
Who will rule the Magitech empire?
Gifted and Talented by Olivie Blake feels like watching a Wes Anderson movie through a dark, magical realist lens. This book is funny, witty, quirky, and unlike anything I’ve ever read.
The cast of characters is hard to love. The Wren siblings—Meredith, Arthur, and Eilidh—are the products of their eccentric billionaire tech mogul father and a tormented, heiress mother who died too soon. Each sibling is gifted beyond belief yet emotionally stunted. When their father dies, chaos ensues as they battle for control of the family dynasty while grappling with the scars he left behind. The result? A hilariously vicious family drama.
For the purposes of the story…within every discussion of magic there is an inherent question of worthiness, and of worth itself. If Wrenfare is glory and glory is Eden, it’s hardly my place to decide which a$$hole stays. I’m but a mere voice of God–I neither play favorites nor offer condemnation.
Nor do I need to. By the time their father’s death irreversibly changes the trajectory of all three lives, it’s pretty clear they’ve all equally fuc*ed themselves.
Gifted and Talented isn’t for everyone, but I found it a true delight. The story is narrated from a god’s perspective, and the identity of the narrator is a well-kept secret until about halfway through. Up until that point, the pacing is solid. After the reveal, though, the narrative shifts to introspection and stream-of-consciousness, diving deeper into each character’s emotional turmoil. This slows the story down between the 50% and 75% mark, but it picks up again toward the end. The climactic chapter even reads like a stage play—perfectly capturing the dramatic, offbeat energy that drives the story toward its riveting conclusion.
I’d recommend Gifted and Talented to fans of family drama, sharp-witted narrators, dark magic, and anything delightfully unpredictable.
Celeste is a woman who is unwavering about certain things in life; three of those being books, cats, and cold brew coffee. If she can enjoy all three at the same time, it’s going to be a good day. Her favorite genres are fantasy or sci-fi romance, historical romance, and historical fiction but every few books she likes to mix it up with contemporary fiction, a good psychological thriller, or an inspiring memoir. She has a busy schedule working full-time for an online university but she makes sure to unwind each day with stories, either by reading to her elementary school-aged daughter or tucking herself in bed with her Kindle or the latest book she picked up at a local book store.
