All Our Hidden Gifts plot summary
16-year-old Maeve Chambers doesn’t have a talent. Not socially or academically gifted, she feels the odd one out in her family and at school. When she stumbles across a deck of tarot cards though, she finds she understands them intuitively. Eerily accurate readings win her a popularity boost at school, but when she’s forced to read for her ex-best-friend Lily things go badly wrong. She draws a sinister, mysterious card, the Housekeeper, and that evening Lily vanishes without a trace. Maeve teams up with her new friend Fiona and Lily’s sibling Roe to find out what happened and, hopefully, bring Lily back.
Content warnings
- Bullying
- Racism
- Homophobia
- Transphobia
- Suicidal ideation and attempted suicide
My thoughts on All Our Hidden Gifts
All Our Hidden Gifts is a YA novel by Caroline O’Donoghue. Set in Ireland, it follows teenager Maeve. She’s a little on the outside, at home and at school, struggling to find her niche. A punishment at school puts her in the right place at the right time to stumble across a deck of tarot cards, and as she starts to explore the cards, she realizes their meanings come naturally to her. They make for a fun diversion, and start to earn her surprise attention from other girls at school.
Everything is going well, until the fateful reading for Lily. The two have barely spoken since their falling out, something we’re given slivers of background about throughout the story. When Lily disappears that evening, Maeve feels responsible, and makes it her mission to find out what happened.
As if that wasn’t enough of a storyline, there’s also something worrying going on in the community. Lily and her loved ones are seeing increased aggression against LGBTQ+ people and a general air of rising intolerance. It seems to be springing from a religious movement, headed by the charismatic Aaron. The more Lily tunes into her own hidden gifts, the more dangerous Aaron seems to become.
If you want to listen to my thoughts on the All Our Hidden Gifts book, you can listen to the episode of our podcast where we discussed it! If not, read on…
The book has an endearing cast of characters
I really liked Maeve, her struggle to find her ‘thing’ felt believable and sweet. Her feelings of guilt around her fall-out with Lily, and her more recent disappearance, made for a heartfelt core for the rest of the plot.
Fiona, the new friend Maeve makes, was an absolute joy. Fun and smart and interesting in her own right, not just as a foil for Maeve. Probably the other most significant character was Roe, Lily’s sibling. I’ll touch more on his involvement in the story in a moment, but he was another interesting addition. I particularly liked how layered and independent the supporting characters got to be in All Our Hidden Gifts.
Maeve’s siblings don’t get masses of attention, except the one who’s mostly looking after her, but her storyline was important still. Her parents also got a look-in, and shout-out to YA parents who aren’t completely horrible! They aren’t about for a lot of the story, but Maeve seemed to have a decent relationship with them, which is something I always appreciate.
Not all aspects of the plot were equally interesting to me
To be honest, I initially picked up All Our Hidden Gifts for the tarot cards. I’m fascinated by tarot cards and love stories that involve them. They remained a fairly consistent presence, which I appreciated. Although the cards had to take a back seat at times, it didn’t feel like they were abandoned once they’d done their work of setting up the plot.
While the tarot cards kept me intrigued, not all of the plot threads were quite so effective for me. Some of the information the characters chase down as part of their investigation just didn’t feel as compelling. There was an element of delving into some local history, looking into the last time the Housekeeper card appeared. It was well put together, but for me it was a largely unwanted distraction from more interesting components of the story.
Also, Aaron and his homophobic religious group were interesting on the surface but not particularly developed as an antagonistic force.
All Our Hidden Gifts takes common tropes and breathes fresh life into them
I think it’s fair to say that there’s nothing groundbreaking about the story in All Our Hidden Gifts. That being said, it feels like a new and updated take on some standard themes and plot devices, which I really appreciated.
On example is the way it expands its exploration of witchiness beyond our white protagonist. The story highlights the fact that magical traditions exist across a wide range of cultures, in part through Fiona’s aunt Sylvia. Fiona is half Filipino, and her tati is the one to provide some important background to the Housekeeper.
In addition, the central romance has an added dimension to it with Roe questioning his gender and sexuality. A lot of the book involves Maeve grappling with what it means to be a good ally, but her budding relationship with Roe isn’t treated as a learning opportunity. I thought the pacing of their developing relationship was nicely done, and I liked seeing them grow closer together. Roe’s growing understanding of himself and his increasing confidence also lent an exciting additional dimension to the story.
Towards the end, feels like it’s prioritising setting up for All Our Hidden Gifts Book 2
The All Our Hidden Gifts sequel – The Gifts That Bind Us – is coming out next month, which is pretty exciting! I maybe wanted book one not to feel quite as geared towards it though. Reading, I felt like the pacing got a bit wonky, and like it ducked out of a completely satisfying resolution to leave room for the sequel.
That being said, I will be very happy to dive into book two when I can. I’m looking forward to spending more time with these characters and finding out how they develop, and what new threats are coming their way.
All Our Hidden Gifts is a fun, witchy read, and definitely worth picking up.
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