Synopsis:
Where there’s a will, there’s a war.
From Olivie Blake, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, magical realism meets Succession in Gifted & Talented. This is 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.
Thayer Wren is dead. As the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech, he leaves an incredible legacy. But which of his three children could inherit the Wrenfare throne?
Meredith, head of her own profitable company, has recently (apparently) cured mental illness. If only her journalist ex-boyfriend wasn’t set on exposing what she really is: a total fraud.
Arthur, second-youngest congressman ever, wants to do everything right. Except his wife might be leaving him, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. Heading Wrenfare could relaunch his sinking ship.
And Eilidh was a world-famous ballerina until a life-altering injury. But gaining control of the company might finally validate her worth.
All three are telepathically and electrokinetically gifted. But in the pipeline from gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins. As they gather to read their father’s final words, who will come out on top?
Gifted & Talented is a compulsive story of family, twisted love and dangerous secrets from a writer at the peak of her powers.
Review:
Olivie Blake can write complicated, beautiful, unlikeable but loveable characters in all-encompassing, messy relationships like no one else.
Meredith Wren, the eldest and striving for perfection, is CEO of her own magitech company, Birdsong. She is a woman in power, arrogant, ambitious, and one-minded.
Arthur Wren is the second-youngest congressman in history, able to love anyone and desperate to be loved. He is currently married and in a three-way relationship with a heiress and race car driver.
Eilidh Wren is the youngest, favoured by their father and working for his company Wrenfare following an injury which killed her dream, her sense of self – at one point primed to be the world’s most recognizable ballerina.
Following their father’s death, which of the Wrens now deserved the Wrenfare throne?
Blake’s writing is something to be devoured delicately. Addictive, toxic, beautiful. It reveals something about the world, humanity, ourselves.
This also brought in some concepts that were explored in her short story collection Januaries.
Like before Babel had fallen, some prior versions of themselves were laid in the same brick, sharing the same mortar, such that they’d always been able to speak the same language no matter what forms they took.
This is contemporary except for the fact that there seems to be some sort of weird trends around the siblings. Meredith seems very persuasive. Arthur appears to be in a situationship between himself and every electrical current. Eilidh keeps bringing about mini apocalypses.
So, completely normal for a completely normal family.
They all have a complicated relationship with their father, with each other, with how they try and cope with growing older and being saddled with so many expectations. Of inheriting a legacy, being a prodigy, doing something do worth with their lives.
Ballet was both delicacy and contortion. Like girlhood, ballet was art meant for consumption; it was virtuous because it was beautiful pain.
Finally, Olivie Blake’s writing style.
It is just so unique. We have an unreliable narrator, an unreliable and unconventional writing style, different formats, and a whole lot of ways of showing love.
No doubt about it.
Olivie Blake is GIFTED AND TALENTED.
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