Review: All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue

All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue is about an Irish teen, Maeve Chambers. Maeve is the youngest of a big family, which puts pressure on her. Her life changes when one day she finds tarot cards and realises she has a gift in tarot reading. She gives a reading to her old friend Lily and a strange card shows up, the Housekeeper. This results in Lily’s disappearance and now Maeve must get her back.

The plot of the book is very interesting and unique. The side characters Roe and Fiona stood out in the book and took the spotlight from the main character. Fiona is an Irish Filipino who is a very likeable character. Roe is the older brother of Lily and is a character who is bi and genderqueer. In the book, Roe and other LGBTQ+ characters are targeted by homophobia because of a Christian cult-like group who deeply oppose LGBTQ rights.

I didn’t like the main character, Maeve, because of her selfishness and how she dealt with things. For example, I could not get on board with Maeve’s love story. Maeve had great growth, but her stubbornness still could be seen even later in the book. Another issue I had was the plot, there were long gaps of time where nothing happened and then everything would happen at once. Sometimes I was bored while reading. The book is still a very good read, and I would recommend it.

James Keegan, 15