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.

The Gifts That Bind Us" is beautifully written, characters aren't walking stereotypes and important feminist topics (criticising institutionalised queerphobia and slutshaming for example) are discussed frequently. There's a character with a hearing aid and there are several trans and non-binary characters as well. Maeve; her nonbinary first love, Roe, who uses both he/his and they/them pronouns; and their friends, Fiona and Lily, have spent the summer honing their paranormal talents on the grounds of St. Bernadette’s, the private all-girls school where Maeve, Fiona, and Lily are soon returning for their final year. Maeve feels anxious both about Roe’s departure for college and his impending European band tour as well as about Fiona and Lily’s deepening friendship and plans to leave their small city of Kilbeg. She’s further plagued by encounters and strange dreams involving Aaron, the creepy, hateful leader of conservative Christian youth group the Children of Brigid. This smart, poignant drama is spot-on in its portrayal of a realistically pivotal time in these deeply likable characters’ lives as it winds its way slowly into the mystery around what supernatural forces are at play below the surface. The lengthy building of tension eventually gives way to unexpected twists, and the novel’s resolution is satisfying while also clearly laying the groundwork for a sequel. Main characters are White; the previous entry established that Fiona is Filipina and White, and there is realistic diversity in race and sexuality among supporting characters. A book filled with hope and again the overarching message of self acceptance & the freedom to be yourself, while immersing you in a world full of witchcraft and spells.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. 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

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

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. 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. 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. A group of Irish teens contend with their newly acquired magical powers while also navigating shifting relationships in this follow-up to All Our Hidden Gifts (2021). The focus of this book really was the friendship between Maeve, Fiona, and Lily (less so Roe, who spent a lot of the book at university and/or forgetting). That friendship was often thorny, namely between Maeve and Lily, but I loved the directions it took and the understandings that the characters came to with one another. That was another refreshing aspect of the 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.

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. 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. 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. So gripping, so intriguing, so layered – All Our Hidden Gifts feels like a book that should have always existed." – Kiran Millwood Hargrave THE MAGIC IS HYPED UP JUST TO THEN…DISAPPEAR – When I finished the first novel, I was really excited to know that going into the rest of the series, we would start seeing some bigger magical moments. Maeve could read minds, Roe had telekinesis, Lily had electricity, and Fiona had healing powers. It was super cool! And it was fun to explore that in the beginning of the second novel. But then, it all just disappears. We’re given some explanation about the well being drained, but for me, the magic had been a sign that bigger more fantastical elements of the storyline would develop. Instead, it all just disappeared, which continued the slow underwhelming tone of the book. Magic gained, magic gone.