REVIEW: The Gifts That Bind Us by Caroline O'Donoghue (a spellbinding sequel)

I picked up ‘The Gifts That Bind Us’ and before I knew it, I was in Southampton, 160 pages through the book and an hour and 45 minute train ride had vanished, and as I excited as I was to see my little sister, I was also secretly excited for the train home so I could go back to Kilbeg.

‘All Our Hidden Gifts’ was one of my favourite books of 2021 and the sequel lived up the magic of its predecessor.

SPOILER WARNING: Thought there won’t be any spoilers for ‘The Gifts That Bind Us’ in this review, there will be inevitable spoilers ‘All Our Hidden Gifts’ (which you should all go and read ASAP).

We pick up with Maeve, Roe, Lily and Fiona at the end of the summer following saving Lily from the river. Roe is heading to university, the others are starting their exam year, and Roe and Maeve are finally official. And their talents? They’re bigger and stronger than they could imagine after practising all summer long.

But old enemies are resurfacing, there are strange goings-on at school and it seems like their powers are attracting some unwanted attention. Before long, Maeve’s gift starts to waver and it looks as if someone hidden from even her is draining them right under her nose…

This BOOK. Caroline O’Donoghue put me through the absolute ringer with this one.

While there’s magic and mystery abound, this novel and also ‘All Our Hidden Gifts’ are about friendship. The jubilant, the painful, the shaky - all of it, good and bad, at a time when everything feels so feels so overwhelming. Maeve loves her friends in the way I loved mine as a teenager and as I do now, a way not always celebrated in fiction. While Roe and Maeve’s romantic relationship is important to her and to the novel, she’s lost and lonely without her friends and when the gang starts to fracture it sends her spiralling. That feeling sent me back to lonely times as a teenager when I diverged from my friends for some reason or another, and also to yesterday when I had a full on wobble about the impact of my group of friends reaching turning 30 this year and the ways we’ve slowly drifted apart, particularly since the beginning of the pandemic.

Even though I can’t read minds and I’m not (currently) worrying about my power being drained (except by my job but that’s everyone, right?), I understood Maeve completely.

The religious aspects were occasionally a little too much for me; I’m not religious, in fact it actively irritates me so I struggle when it’s a big component of a novel, but I do understand how big of a part it is of Ireland and it did fit into story and perfectly. It’s just something that makes me a bit ragey.

The middle book of a trilogy is hard and O’Donoghue did an amazing job with developing the world, story and characters while still setting up for the finale. This series is one of the best YA fantasy trilogies I’ve read in a long while and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Maeve, Roe, Fiona and Lily as their story concludes.

And now Sarah has a few things to contribute! Over to you flourish:

“I have a lot of love for this series. As a sequel, I think this book does such a great job of maintaining momentum, and I really enjoyed the character development (look for my post about the “magic of friendships” next week!)

My main drawback comes as a pet chicken owner. This part will contain spoilers so just skip down if you don’t want to read them!

Unfortunately, I cannot forgive the decision to sacrifice a merry flock of chickens for the sake of a spell. It ended up casting an uncomfortable shadow over a book that I was otherwise very much enamoured with.

Hens are beautiful, peaceful and pure creatures. You provide for them, and they will provide for you. They’re cheeky, chatty companions whom I adore, so to see them so roughly treated in the book truly upset me.

Fiona's character, as a vegetarian, expresses some discomfort about it but it doesn’t go much further than that. It could have been a place for discussion around the role of sacrifice which is often featured within the occult and magic practices. But preferably I would have it not feature at all.

I still gave it 4 stars. A conflicted 4 stars, because I really click with the writing style, and I’m invested in Maeve's story and character arc. Also, a Roe fangirl through and through. But still always going to feel some distress over the above mentioned.” - Sarah

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Written by Sophie