All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue
My Rating: ★★★★★
When Maeve Chambers finds herself punished with in-school suspension, she never expected that meant she’d be cleaning in her school’s creepy basement. However, Maeve quickly discovers that there’s some cool stuff hidden there, like an old Walkman that somehow still works and a deck of Tarot cards. In fact, she’s very drawn to the Tarot cards and spends that night learning how to read them. Her fun new hobby quickly goes south when she draws an eerie card that isn’t normally in the deck while doing a reading for her ex-best friend, Lily. When Lily disappears, Maeve becomes a moving target at school because it’s suspected she did something to Lily with that eerie Tarot card. However, Maeve quickly learns that it’s all somehow connected to that strange card, and now she’s determined to save her former best friend.
I absolutely loved this entire book. We follow Maeve, a student at a Catholic school who seems to never be good at anything. She’s the youngest in her family and born a while after her closest sibling, she struggles in school, and she doesn’t stand out in a crowd. When Maeve saw a chance at getting some popularity, she quickly dropped her best friend, which is a decision she still regrets. Things begin to get interesting when she becomes the new owner of a set of Tarot cards left in the basement of her school. For the first time, Maeve has found something she’s a natural at! It’s all fun and games until her ex-best friend goes missing after a strange reading and a heated argument. Armed with her Tarot deck, Maeve dives face first into the supernatural world she never knew existed until she came across that Tarot deck.
We have such a great cast of characters here. Maeve is relatable in the sense that she feels like she’ll never have anything going for her, so she’s just trying to fit in even though she chooses a super judgemental and less than nice crowd to run with. Lily has always marched to the beat of her own drum and appears to not care what others think of her. Fiona is an excellent friend with a heart of gold who is supportive while dealing with racist remarks and actions directed at her and her family. Roe, Lily’s older brother, is a sweet and thoughtful musician who is exploring his gender expression and possible identity in future books. And then we have Jo, Maeve’s older sister, who is dealing with the rising anti-LGBT+ movement as an open lesbian and college student.
I loved each and every one of these characters and how fleshed out they each were with Lily as the exception since she went missing. I am looking forward to seeing these characters again in the second novel, especially as they get closer (or further) apart from each other and slowly awaken to the hidden supernatural world. I know it seems like a lot of characters to be so well developed and heavily featured all in the first book, but Caroline O'Donoghue wrote these characters and how they each enter the story so well that I don’t think anyone can get overwhelmed.
Each of the plots and themes are absolutely phenomenal. I found myself not wanting to put the book down every time I picked it up. It’s so rich in characters, themes, plots, and overall storytelling that this has quickly become one of my favorite books that I’ve read. I’m also excited to check out the author’s other books outside of this series because they are a truly talented writer. Speaking of which, I’ve already picked up the next book in this series and am very excited to start it soon.
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