The Gifts That Bind Us

Product Information

Trigger warnings (TW) & content warnings (CW): Bullying, hate crime, homophobia, suicide, self harm

A brilliant follow-up to the first book and it was enjoyable following the friends on their new journeys, especially the self-discoveries they all had. Synopsis: Maeve and her friends explore and develop their individual gifts. As word gets out about their magical abilities strange things start happening in town and the group become extremely vulnerable in the place they call home. Who can they trust? What is changing with their abilities? This second instalment seemed to have a slower pace to it than the first and focused more on the friendships, love lives, fallings out, etc than the first. It also felt a little more sinister. I loved the first book in the series, but I LOVED "The Gifts That Bind Us". This book definitely doesn't fall into the "second book = total disappointment" category at all.Ob ich Band 3 lesen werde, weiß ich noch nicht, nicht weil mir Band 2 nicht gefallen hat, sondern weil ich keine Lust auf den angedeuten Kampf in Band 3 habe. So gripping, so intriguing, so layered – All Our Hidden Gifts feels like a book that should have always existed." – Kiran Millwood Hargrave Where the first book centers around Maeve learning her way around tarot cards and her sensitivity (moreso a contemporary coming of age than fantasy), the second book fully embraces the extents of the group's magic.

This book in the series is very "dark forest" where our characters are not okay after the events from the first book and are trying to piece themselves together. Note that there is mention and descriptions of self harm. The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life. This is one of my favourite series because it combines my love for urban fantasy (especially witchy novels), intersectional feminism and queer characters. Don't worry, this is a spoiler free review. This spellbinding sequel to All Our Hidden Gifts is a riveting return to the lives of Maeve, Roe, Fiona, and Lily as they navigate their relationships as well as their newfound powers.Fiona is struggling, everyone has these high expectations of her and it's too much when she still has trauma to process. She's started self harming and why does it matter? She can heal herself with her new gift. She's not "one of those girls with a problem". Nearing the end maybe she realises she does have a problem, when her powers are fading she still self harms even though she can't heal. It's become a routine of hers. I hope she can find the help she needs in the next book. In general, I think it was a more introspective book than the first, less about doing something and more about the feelings that everything in book one had dredged up. Yes, they still had to fight bad guys, but that felt less of a focus for the most part. And that was great, to me. Books that look at consequences of saving x, y and z are the most interesting of books, and that was the case here. Review: Another fast paced, plot filled book that I’ll be recommending until the end of time. The Gifts That Binds Us enriches the story of the first book and provides a much deeper exploration of the friendship group and the struggles they individually face. In a time of typewriters and steam engines, Iris Winnow awaits word from her older brother, who has enlisted on the side of Enva the Skyward goddess. Alcohol abuse led to her mother’s losing her job, and Iris has dropped out of school and found work utilizing her writing skills at the Oath Gazette. Hiding the stress of her home issues behind a brave face, Iris competes for valuable assignments that may one day earn her the coveted columnist position. Her rival for the job is handsome and wealthy Roman Kitt, whose prose entrances her so much she avoids reading his articles. At home, she writes cathartic letters to her brother, never posting them but instead placing them in her wardrobe, where they vanish overnight. One day Iris receives a reply, which, along with other events, pushes her to make dramatic life decisions. Magic plays a quiet role in this story, and readers may for a time forget there is anything supernatural going on. This is more of a wartime tale of broken families, inspired youths, and higher powers using people as pawns. It flirts with clichéd tropes but also takes some startling turns. Main characters are assumed White; same-sex marriages and gender equality at the warfront appear to be the norm in this world. It didn't lose any of its initial charm, however it did provide more depth to the characters whom I had already fallen for reading the first book.

The book was certainly enjoyable and I loved watching the teenagers practice using their new skills, although many a time they went too far such as Fiona purposely cutting herself so she could heal herself again. Magic-sensitive Maeve and her friends face off against an insidious threat to their school and their city in this spellbinding sequel to All Our Hidden Gifts. all our hidden gifts was one of my favorite young adult novels of last year and i somehow managed to love the gifts that bind us even more. it's a masterclass in sequel writing that suffered none of the failings i was worried it might. it took everything i loved from the first book and made it deeper, richer, and even more compelling than it already was. to say i'm excited for the third book is a massive understatement. I will admit to being a little sceptical about whether All Our Hidden Gifts really needed a sequel but The Gifts That Bind Us definitely sold me on it. There weren’t that many loose ends from the first book, I thought, but I really liked how this one took those and ran with them.I suppose I'll always remember this as the summer that Roe learned to drive and I learned to read minds I play the notes, push the keys, roll my finers, the same tune repeating again and again. In this house that is mine, as long as I'm alive to keep it There's wholesome and broken friendships, morally grey and questionable, yet also loveable and messy characters, and there's magic manifesting in so many forms. It takes place in Ireland which is a bonus, too, of course. Decided to read this one because I wanted something to pull me in and the first book had no problem doing that. Despite this one mostly focusing on the Children of Brigid slowly taking over the town, I found it was not as tough a read as I was expecting. Yes there are scenes of homophobia, gender policing, and slut shaming, but there is also a big problem the characters are trying to solve while they try to avoid the "scary" cultists. There are scenes where they have to interact with the cultists, but the reader is not subjected to unnecessary awful descriptions just for the sake of it. But with strange things happening at school, and old enemies appearing in new places, it soon becomes clear their powers are attracting all the wrong attention. It’s not long before Maeve’s gift start to wane, drained by someone – or something – that’s hiding even from her second sight...

The LGBTQIA representation, discussion and relationships was second to none. Caroline O’Donoghue deeply intertwined these aspects into the plot, character development and overall discussion, which is so refreshing and missing from some many books. Not just your typical ‘omg she's gay?!?!’ *eye roll*. The first and the last sentence is just so amazing, I never would've guessed I would love this book so much. This book in my opinion was WAY better than the first one. Maybe this is just better suited to my tastes as I liked that it was "more magical" since they had their gifts.

Wow, I really enjoyed this book, like I ended up really getting into it, even more than the first book. I wasn't expecting so much and I am definitely here for it. I loved seeing the transitions from enemies to working together, seeing Maeve and Roe's relationship develop (the good AND the bad) and learning more about how the magic works here. There were new characters introduced in this book that constantly kept me wondering who I could trust who I couldn't and then when I believed I had it all figured it out, BOOM! All of those thoughts are down the toilet.