Tag: witches

ARC REVIEW: All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue

Francesca Lucy7 Comments

Before I get into this, I just want to say: look. at. that. cover!!! This book jacket is absolutely beautiful and I definitely requested, in part, because it looked so unique. I try not to judge a book based on its design but, honestly, I just loved the look of this one so much that I genuinely couldn’t help it…

That being said, it’s also a witchy YA about a tarot reader and a missing girl, so I was very excited when I got a copy. So… Thank you very much to Walker Books for the e-ARC!

When sixteen-year-old Maeve discovers a pack of old tarot cards in her school, she finds herself immediately drawn to them. She quickly discovers that she has a knack for the supernatural and finds herself doing readings for all of the girls in school that hear about her unusual talent.

Somehow, though, her exciting new reputation crumbles rapidly into one that her classmates fear when, following a reading for her former best friend, Lily, Lily goes missing. Maeve enlists the help of popular girl, Fiona, and Lily’s sibling, Roe, and it doesn’t take long for them to realise that they may need to confront the supernatural in order to get Lily back.

I’m so used to reading older YA that I was slightly taken aback by how young Maeve’s behaviour seemed initially but, when I remembered that she’s only supposed to be sixteen, her personality seemed fitting. She’s an inquisitive, perhaps slightly naïve, young girl who is thrust into an unknown world of chaos and magic, and it was fascinating to read about her thought processes and how she responded to all of the crazy things that were happening to her.

The LGBTQ+ representation in this book is a really key part of the story, and it was great to see gender and sexuality explored so openly. Roe’s gender identity is ambiguous in a way that portrays well how they’re struggling to understand themselves, and Maeve’s sister’s sapphic relationship creates an opening to explore the challenges that LGBTQ+ teens and young adults face in a mature and, unfortunately, realistic way. Maeve had almost no prior knowledge about the social issues surrounding gender and sexuality so it did feel at times like a number of the conversations were trying to teach the reader about LGBTQ+ issues, but I adored the representation of these characters overall and felt that it was an important theme for young readers that was explored well.

All Our Hidden Gifts definitely reads like a book for a younger YA audience, but it was a really quick, unique and exciting read, with a few twists and an interesting depiction of magic. It definitely contains a few clichés, but it’s generally a quick, fun read, and I’d absolutely recommend it to witchy-YA readers looking for an easy read, and younger readers with an interest in magic.

Rating: 4/5

ARC REVIEW: Threadneedle by Cari Thomas

Francesca Lucy6 Comments

I’ve decided that my reading of this book was fated. I saw it on Twitter, realised that I would die for a copy, and received an email the following day inviting me to review on Netgalley and giving me an automatic-approval link to it (so thank you so much to HarperVoyager for the e-ARC). I don’t think I’ve ever been so blessed by the book gods in my entire life and obviously, in the midst of my excitement, I had to read this entire book in a day.

That day was a while ago, but I was (for once) organised enough to write my thoughts as soon as I finished. Those thoughts were as follows:

Threadneedle is about a teenage witch named Anna, who has been raised by her aunt to detest and fear her own magic. She has spent her life repressing it, preparing herself for having it cut off by a group called The Binders when she turns sixteen, in order to protect herself from all of its dangers. Having been raised surrounded by ordinary humans and people with no knowledge of the beauty or the danger of magic, this hasn’t been especially difficult for Anna- particularly because her magic is reluctant to show itself in the first place.

But when Selene, an enchanting family friend who flaunts and thrives on magic, comes to visit with her daughter Effie and Effie’s best friend Attis, everything that Anna has been taught begins to blur. Anna is swept into a world of witches who proudly wreak havoc with their magic, a world of underground magical libraries, potions and all-out recklessness. And it quickly becomes unclear who she should believe when it comes to magic.

This book is very long, and yet I didn’t find it even remotely slow. There’s a lot of character building, a lot of scene setting and a lot of high-school drama thrown in amongst the magic and the mystery, but not a word of it was unnecessary. There’s a hugely varied, fascinating cast of characters, and an entertaining mix of romance, YA angst and dark magic, which I absolutely loved.

My favourite thing about this book, though, was how it made me feel. Namely: unsettled, the entire way through. With frequent mentions of a curse, the dangers of dark magic, the characters’ recklessness and Anna’s Aunt’s paranoia, I felt like something could go wrong any second and on every page. I was grappling with my fears of who to trust and what could go wrong the entire way through this book, and it left me feeling unnerved, anxious and completely enthralled.

I really wanted to love this book and I’m so glad that I did. Everything tied together wonderfully, the characters were exciting, and the world was entirely immersive. As someone who has only recently discovered the genre of Witchy YA, this book has only made me more desperate for book two and anything else about dark magic that I can get my hands on.

RATING: 5/5