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.

<b>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.
</b>
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.

<b>Ballet was both delicacy and contortion. Like girlhood, ballet was art meant for consumption; it was virtuous because it was beautiful pain.
</b>
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.

Physical arc gifted by Book Break Pan MacMillan.
My neighbours definitely heard me squeal when I opened my post.

And another amazing book from Olivie Blake. IMO she can do no wrong!

I love Olivie's writing, it's wonderfully pretentious. She really knows how to write unlikable characters which are incredibly loveable.

It's stated as succession with magic. (But I've never seen succession, it's on my to-do list).

Thayer wren is dead and we are reading about his three children are dealing with the aftermath. They are all awful, for different reasons.( And I mainly blame Thayer for EVERYTHING!)

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for approving me to read one of my most anticipated reads early.

I have so many thoughts and feelings about this book, but let’s start with the obvious.. Olivie Blake is brilliant and I will happily read anything this author writes.

Gifted & Talented is unique, and at first I couldn’t quite mesh with this style of writing as it’s so different to anything else I’ve read. The story is told by a very unreliable narrator and it feels quite broken or disconnected, and at first I wasn’t vibing with it.

After about 20% I saw the brilliance, the characters and the view point are very unlikeable if we’re being honest, but I found the characters and especially Meredith to be oddly endearing and by the end I was quite emotionally attached to the story and it’s characters, I’m not even sure how I managed to become invested considering again that they are so unlikeable at their core. The message of the story feels obvious but once you reach the end it really sinks in, people are just people and we create our own expectations or interpretations of who we’re supposed to be, well that was my take from it anyway.

Thoroughly enjoyed this and I’m rating it 4.5 stars.