Three gifted siblings don't live up to their supposed potential in Olivie Blake's darkly humorous Gifted & Talented, a novel of magic, technology, and family rivalry. One part inheritance saga and one part takedown of the billionaire meritocracy, Gifted & Talented follows the embattled Wrens in the days just before and following the death of family patriarch and Wrenfare CEO, Thayer Wren.
Blake (Masters of Death) introduces the siblings and their special abilities in chapters narrated by an omniscient "voice of God." Liberal congressman and electrokinetic Arthur, on the verge of losing his next campaign, attends an orgy with his extramarital partners and learns that one of them is pregnant. Former ballerina Eilidh is returning from a silent wellness retreat when her plane starts to crash. She saves the passengers by letting loose the entity that dwells in her chest--and a plague of locusts. Caustic entrepreneur Meredith's ex-boyfriend, now an investigative reporter, confronts her about the massive lie that governs her professional life: the mental health app she built doesn't actually work. Meredith used her ability to change minds and rigged its clinical studies. With their lives already falling apart, the self-involved Wrens learn that their father has died. And has left behind two wills.
As they reckon with their complicated relationships with their father, their careers, and one another, the Wrens must decide if the paths on which they were set as privileged prodigies are worth everything they gave up to stay on them. Gifted & Talented is a great fit for fans of Succession and anyone who feels they didn't quite live up to expectations. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian and freelance reviewer