Fiction Reviews
Gifted and Talented
(2025) Olivie Blake, Tor, £22, hrdbk, 485pp, ISBN 978-1-035-01137-7
Thayer Wren was dead, to begin with.
As founder and CEO of Wrenfare Inc, as a pioneer of the magitech economic boom: by these worldly measurements his life was undoubtedly a success.
On the other hand, as a father, Thayer Wren left a lot to be desired. Chilly, controlling, impossible to please, he cast a long shadow over the lives of his dysfunctional adult children.
Meredith, the eldest, radically oversold the benefits of her magitech therapy app to prove herself worthy of him. Middle child Arthur is exploring extramarital polygamy in search of the love and affirmation he never received from his dad, while neglecting his political career. And the youngest, Eilidh, is a washed-up injured ballerina reduced to punching the clock at Wrenfare. ‘Gifted and talented’ they may be, but well-adjusted they most certainly are not.
As the novel opens, the three children and their assorted spouses and lovers are gathering at the family home in California to come to terms with their father’s passing and await the reading of his will. Has he left any of them his controlling interest in Wrenfare? Can they achieve any closure with dad or reconciliation with each other? And why is each of them experiencing a crisis relating to their magic powers?
Gifted And Talented is a book that would sit quite happily either side of the fairly arbitrary line between fantasy and mainstream fiction. In the main, it is a Succession-ish satire of alienated rich kids, closer in spirit to Douglas Coupland than it is to most modern fantasy. The traditional magic and (more hand-waved than explained) magical technology may be important parts of the story, but they do not come with the usual fantastic tropes, nor do they change the novel’s overall tragicomic effect.
Author Olivie Blake made her name with the 'Atlas' dark academia fantasy trilogy, which I might summarise as ‘bitchy magicians intrigue against and with each other’ ('The Atlas Six is reviewed by Arthur Chappell elsewhere on this site). Here, she takes broadly the same approach to telling the stories of the Wren children, but with a much better match of tone to subject matter.
Accordingly, the results are much improved. This is a compelling and very funny book about damaged families and grieving (or not) for the parents who shape your lives, with a great central trio of characters.
Meredith, Arthur and Eilidh are each monstrous in their own way – selfish, squabbling and broken, but also frequently sympathetic. Even Meredith, who spends most of Gifted and Talented with the threat of reputational ruin and business failure hanging over her head and is the most glorious monster of them all. Letting their magical problems serve as an externalisation of their internal damage is an excellent conceit.
And a commendation also to the narrator – exactly who this is only becomes clear well into the novel – who is a delightful authorial voice armed with withering and frequently hilarious judgements on the Wren family.
Gifted And Talented proved an unexpected delight, then, that I very much enjoyed reading. Recommended for fans of modern-day snark 'n sorcery with a serious core underneath.
Tim Atkinson
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