Book Review: A Magical Story
"All Our Hidden Gifts" By Caroline O'Donoghue
By Kayla Cahill, Staff Writer
Jan. 26, 2021
“All Our Hidden Gifts” is a book about a 16-year-old girl named Maeve Chambers who finds Tarot cards while cleaning out a cupboard in her school after getting detention. Maeve soon finds a connection to the tarot cards and starts doing tarot readings to people around her all-girls private Catholic school for money.
Everything is going great for Maeve and her new friend Fiona when during class she gives a tarot reading to her ex-best friend, Lily. The tarot reading ends in an argument over a card to which Maeve didn't know the meaning, called “the housekeeper”. The argument ends in Maeve stating that she wished she had never been friends with Lily and wished Lily would disappear.
When the police show up at her school a few days later with the news that Lily had gone missing, Maeve is guilt-ridden, for she believes that she and her tarot cards had something to do with it. Throughout the story, we follow Maeve, Fiona, and Lily’s older brother Rory/Roe on the journey of finding Lily while dealing with high school, the tarot cards, and a cult-like Christian group.
Personally, I don't love reading and I am very picky about what I read but I couldn’t put this book down. There was always something interesting happening which would leave me shocked and dying to know what happened next.
I also loved the illustrations which brought the tarot cards to life and didn't leave you imagining what the tarot cards actually looked like which personally I like more than when you are left to imagine what something actually looks like.
The book also tackles many issues such as the discrimination of LGBTQ and racial issues which I thought was amazing.
Overall, I loved "All Our Hidden Gifts" and I would definitely recommend it. If you are interested in magic or tarot cards this book would be perfect for you. Caroline O’Donoghue did an amazing job and I plan to read some of her other work in the future.
"All Our Hidden Gifts"
By Caroline O'Donoghue
Available June 8, 2021
Available for pre-order now on Amazon: $19.99