Review Detail
Young Adult Fiction
591
All Our Hidden Gifts
(Updated: November 20, 2020)
Overall rating
4.0
Plot
4.0
Characters
4.0
Writing Style
4.0
Maeve finds a pack of tarot cards while cleaning out a closet at her school. What starts off as curiosity, she soon finds she has a 'gift' to read cards for the girls at her school. One card though just shows up-the Housekeeper-one that gives Maeve an unsettling feeling. The girls at her school love the tarot readings. Only her ex-friend Lily is skeptical. When she asks Maeve for a reading, things quickly go bad. Maeve's sudden popularity plummets, Not only that, but Lily goes missing. Now Maeve has to dig deep to see if she can find Lily, even if that means using the cards once more.
What worked: This is an engaging contemporary paranormal set against an Irish backdrop. Maeve is the outsider at her school. Her former best friend Lily is deemed a little 'different' and Maeve quickly drops her to hang with the more popular girls. When Maeve's disciplined for throwing a shoe at one of her teachers, she finds an old set of tarot cards hidden in the closet. This is strange considering she attends an all girl's Catholic school. But there's something magical whenever she uses the cards. Maeve quickly finds she not only has a gift for giving tarot readings but loves the popularity that comes with it. Readers see how quick Maeve changes and how this affects her relationship with the one friend that she had pushed aside.
There's much more to this story then just the paranormal. There's the love of family, friendships that are formed and discarded, exploring one's paranormal abilities, standing up against homophobia, and being true to one's self. Maeve and her friends, while searching to find Lily, encounter a hateful group that targets the GLBT community. Aaron, the leader of Children of Brigid, has the ability to draw people to him and he uses his power in a negative way. This power might have paranormal elements too.
Maeve's friendship with Roe and Fiona grows as she tries to make sense of the tarot cards and how they might have caused Lily to disappear. In the meantime, she finds a secret from a former student that might have links to the mysterious cards. Readers discover that not all is what it seems to be in the small Irish town. Secrets abound. Secrets that have deadly consequences.
Witty voice with engaging characters set in Ireland with a touch of mysticism.
What worked: This is an engaging contemporary paranormal set against an Irish backdrop. Maeve is the outsider at her school. Her former best friend Lily is deemed a little 'different' and Maeve quickly drops her to hang with the more popular girls. When Maeve's disciplined for throwing a shoe at one of her teachers, she finds an old set of tarot cards hidden in the closet. This is strange considering she attends an all girl's Catholic school. But there's something magical whenever she uses the cards. Maeve quickly finds she not only has a gift for giving tarot readings but loves the popularity that comes with it. Readers see how quick Maeve changes and how this affects her relationship with the one friend that she had pushed aside.
There's much more to this story then just the paranormal. There's the love of family, friendships that are formed and discarded, exploring one's paranormal abilities, standing up against homophobia, and being true to one's self. Maeve and her friends, while searching to find Lily, encounter a hateful group that targets the GLBT community. Aaron, the leader of Children of Brigid, has the ability to draw people to him and he uses his power in a negative way. This power might have paranormal elements too.
Maeve's friendship with Roe and Fiona grows as she tries to make sense of the tarot cards and how they might have caused Lily to disappear. In the meantime, she finds a secret from a former student that might have links to the mysterious cards. Readers discover that not all is what it seems to be in the small Irish town. Secrets abound. Secrets that have deadly consequences.
Witty voice with engaging characters set in Ireland with a touch of mysticism.
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