Do you like to have your hand held?

I liked this book, but I'm not necessarily RECOMMENDING it, and here's why:

We begin today’s missive with a lengthy, better read the whole thing before you press buy now discussion of Gifted & Talented (Olivie Blake, best known for The Atlas Six).

If you’re just here for ONE BOOK REC that I promise you’ll love, go with Sarina Bowen’s Dying to Meet You. (Someone chased her down in an an airport this morning to tell her how much they love her, so you know I’m not steering you wrong even if I AM in the acknowledgements.) Probably more on that soon but for now just trust me.

But meanwhile, back to G&T. It was a slow start for me, and I wasn’t sure if I’d stick—I was book clubbing with my bff though, and I wanted to stay in. Here’s part of what held me back:

This has a ton of style, it’s a very storytelling voice and I hadn’t quite surrendered to it, in part, I think, because—look at that text. That’s all, every bit of it, emotional backstory, what’s usually done via inner dialogue, maybe, or by showing you how someone behaves in someone else’s presence… and the author had already done that.

In other words, there’s nothing in those two paragraphs that I as a reader didn’t already know.

But here it is, being served to me in so many words—good words, entertaining words, observant and all-seeing (the book has an interesting narrative device that I won’t give away)—but still, not trusting me to GET all that.

And it occurred to me that maybe that’s one of the differences between easy reading and more challenging, between YA and adult, commercial and literary and maybe it’s part of what fires up the BookTokers—it’s a complicated, intricate plot with wildly complex and interwoven emotional arcs and a ton of characters BUT it’s also all laid out there for you. There’s no sitting around like I once did in a high school English class, reading along and wondering… wait, did he get his dick blown off? Seriously? (Spoiler: He did.) (Also I’m sorry, but my high school brain did not put that delicately and I remain unable to think of it any other way.)

Ultimately, I decided I was along for the ride—and I enjoyed it, all… 493 pages (it felt longer). The reveals were pretty fun, everything got tied up in neat little bows at the end which is what I WANT in a fun read… the magic was minor, which was a bit of a disappointment given the premise (Succession, but with magic and demons) and may be why I don’t think this is hitting the way some of her earlier books did, but not everything hits and that doesn’t mean it’s not good.

So who do I recommend this to? Hmmm.

If you’re a reader who likes a looooooong hang or a really heavy audio listener who likes a storytelling vibe, this is for you. (Bff did it in audio, which also spared her the struggle of a character named “Dzhuliya” and another named “Eilidh”—to her they were just Julia and Ailey—and I think she enjoyed it more than I did although she too was bummed by the lack of magic.)

But if you’re a genre reader in search of a wild plotty ride… I dunno. There’s a lot of plot here but the action pieces are undoubtedly the book’s weakest links. In the end—especially given the explanation for some of the most dramatic moments—not a lot happens. (You could argue this point. At one moment the sun goes dark for hours, and if that really happened it would be a lot but… for various reasons it is not a lot here, and became, instead, a moment for me to text my friend wait I’m supposed to believe that the sun has gone and the earth is dark and people are still turning up for lawyer’s meetings?!?!?!)

Basically—if you like that page, and want to do it 492 more times, go for it. The blurb that calls it a “remarkable character study” is absolutely right.

I enjoyed this, ultimately. But it doesn’t deliver on its promise of magical hijinks. What it does do well is the emotional story behind this line, from the flap copy: On the pipeline from gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins. It’s a great, deep, thoughtful look at the lives of three young adults with terrible—but rich!—parents and how that affected them in very different ways, and I was so here for that.

Result: I once wandered a bookstore for half an hour holding one of Blake’s earlier books (Masters of Death) before ultimately putting it back (I bought Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls instead, a mistake because a) I’d already pre-ordered it and b) I still have not read it). I’m going back for that, because like I said, I did enjoy this enough to want to share it with you. But with an asterisk that says… maybe.

Now I want to know if there’s a book YOU recommend with caveats!? Whatcha got?

PS: You know what DOES deliver on the promise of the flap copy? Dying to Meet You.

From the author of The Five Year Lie comes a new twisty thriller that probes how well we actually know the men in our lives.

Rowan Gallagher is a devoted single mother and a talented architect with a high-profile commission restoring an historic mansion for the most powerful family in Maine. But inside, she’s a mess. She knows that stalking her ex’s avatar all over Portland on her phone isn't the healthiest way to heal from their breakup. But she’s out of ice cream and she's sick of romcoms.

Watching his every move is both fascinating and infuriating. He's dining out while she's wallowing on the couch. The last straw comes when he parks in their favorite spot on the waterfront. In a weak moment, she leashes the dog and sets off to see who else is in his car.

Instead of catching her ex in a kiss, Rowan becomes the first witness to his murder—and the primary suspect.

But Rowan isn’t the only one keeping secrets. As she digs for the truth, she discovers the dead man was stalking her too, gathering intimate details about her job and her past.

Struggling to clear her name, Rowan finds herself spiraling into the shadowy plot that killed him.

Will she be the next to die?