An Outstanding Book About Witchcraft And Diversity

When was the last time you read a book that captured you? A book that you just couldn't put down? Because for me, it probably wasn't since two years ago when I read the 'His Dark Materials' Trilogy. But oh my, this book, 'All Our Hidden Gifts' captured me once again, and I can't thank Caroline enough for publishing this stunning book.

Throughout this review, I will include spoiler alerts when necessary- for pieces of writing that may give huge spoilers to the book, I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who has not read the book because I want you to read it yourself, I want you to truly experience this amazing story for yourself!

I had picked up this book in the hospital library at complete random because I thought, 'I've got nothing better to do, I should read even if it's a book I don't enjoy. Plus, I'm writing a novel, surely reading is the best thing for me right now.' And honestly, just like the main character, Maeve, finding the Tarot deck- it was like complete magic. I pulled out the book off a shelf at complete random- the first one I pulled out, took one look at the book cover and could tell (From being a witch and a Tarot Readers myself) that the book was about Tarot- which excited me! But still, I kind of thought the book was going to be just a very generic book about With-craft and Tarot and not very correctly informed about my religion... Boy was I wrong.

There's a few main things I want to talk about in this book, so we'll start there!

Accuracy:

Witches and Wiccans don't really get much correctly informed media about them (especially not in books and films.) It's mostly just the horror stories about witches (Which I honestly sometimes find offensive when the writer acknowledges the witch trials, such as Salem and still continues to make witches out to be these bad guys.) Of course, there's plenty of Netflix series, cartoons and stories about witches (not always negative) but you can tell they've been written in a completely fictional way- by someone who doesn't know much about witches and the religions such as paganism and witchcraft and is just fascinated by the idea. Don't get me wrong, this isn't always a bad thing! I loved 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' when I was little, but my point still stands- that the accurate portrayal of witches in media, especially modern witches, is rare.

But this book- even though I thought it would- did not fall into this category. I believe, from what I've read online that Caroline is Wiccan herself (but I could be completely wrong.) Even the meanings of the Tarot Cards were accurate- short, of course, because they have to be to fit in a novel and not bore readers- especially since I don't think the book is aimed at just wiccans and witches, it seems to be aimed at quite a large audience. And this is what makes the portrayal of accurate wicca and witchcraft even more important! Of course, the book is still fantasy- still fictional, so there are things in the book that aren't accurate to real-life wiccans but these are just things that add to an engaging plot twist! As from a wiccans perspective, you cannot just write a fictional book about every-day wicca on its own and expect it to be engaging.

The book doesn't just Portray accuracy in wicca though, it portrays accuracy of all sorts of modern witchcraft. And yes, as the story progresses, it does talk a lot about black magic, something most neo-witches don't engage in (Unless you take a deep dive on the fake information spread on witch TikTok.) Never-the-less, the book portrays its main aspect of tarot and witchcraft very accurately- any fellow witches or spiritualists who read this book will completely understand!

There is just one thing that's not very accurate for a book based in 2021- most teens don't usually use Whats-app to text each other anymore! All joking aside, I give the accuracy for this book a 10/10!

Diversity:

This- oh my- I thought I was just simply picking up a book about Tarot, which would have been good enough in itself! And yes, that IS what the book is about, but just a few pages in and you realize that there's also LGBTQ representation! And it doesn't just stop at one single LGBTQ character, no, there's a confirmed four LGBTQ characters in the book (two of them, admittedly, have quite small parts- but the book also does have quite a small cast of main characters.)

(Kind of spoilers about the LGBTQ and diversity aspects of the Characters- but not major.)

The main character, Maeve's sister is Lesbian- and talks about the hate she receives in Ireland for being so. Specifically, from young teenagers- Which is the reality we live in. Maeve's love interest is out as bisexual and they are questioning their identity- I think the thing I love most is that Maeve (as far as we know) is straight and cis, but Caroline makes it so clear that she understands sexuality (her sister is lesbian, after all) but doesn't quite understand non-binary genders. Which I think makes complete sense for our modern day world. But Maeve isn't a bitch, and she's so willing to learn about her love interest's gender even more, asking questions openly and in a kind way to help her understand- which makes me like the main character even more. I feel like having the main character be someone who understands everything would leave out that huge gap where Roe actually gets to explain their gender to her.

Not only does the book represent LGBTQ but also represents the Filipino culture and people. With the main trio being Maeve (who is from Irish descent), Roe (Who is the bisexual questioning their gender identity) and Fiona (who is half Filipino and has her family in a few scenes of the story, her mother even highlighting that the Irish may judge them for certain things.) I'm not Filipino myself, so I can't say whether or not the portrayal was accurate but from an outside perspective, and also from reading the Acknowledgements and seeing Caroline thank someone for helping her understand the Filipino culture, I think it's safe to say Caroline did a good job! She also mentions how Fiona is the only non-white girl in the school so even though there isn't much mention of other races (apart from Americans) I feel like this adds to the truth of it all- about how Fiona may feel awkward in a school full of white girls. I am not Irish, either- but I am British and through all the schools I've been to, it's definitely clear that most schools are pretty much predominately white and I think highlighting how Fiona felt is actually a real step in diversity in a realistic way, given the country that it is based in!

There is also a deaf (or hard of hearing- it isn't made clear) girl which gives inclusion for those with disabilities, but the fact she's deaf isn't made into her personality trait and I love this! This character is also a main character, though not part of the trio- it makes sense when you read it, I swear!

(Spoiler over)

So, for diversity, I give this book a 10/10

Writing style:

Caroline's style is completely unique- a type of style I'd never read before in a book, but somehow it was familiar and yesterday, after finishing the book I understood why! Her style is kind of like (even though it's a young adult book, not childrens) Jaqueline Wilson meets Phillip Pullman meets....The cringe teen romance writers on wattpad... Ok, Ok- I know that sounds like an insult, but it's not!

I'm personally not someone who likes reading teen romance, like actually, there's probably a lot of teen romance writers on wattpad that are actually good- but it's not my genre (and I'm asexual) so to me, it's cringe. And also, romance between teens in real-life is always cringe. To be perfectly honest with you, this is one of the first young adult books I've read- and books about teens probably almost always has teen romance. But these parts of the book did not interest me or bring out any particular emotion, except for the fact that well...

These moments weren't just slammed-in fillers or for more depth to the story. They revealed very important parts to the plotline- and none of them were uncomfortable to read through- it wasn't like the middle of sex (There are no explicit sex scenes in the book, by the way) and suddenly some witchcraft starts happening, no, it was a deeper relationship between the two that revealed more and more to them about- what I'll refer to now as- 'the mystery.' It was the awkward pauses and mild arguments between the two that made the story engaging- because these arguments were never petty, "Tell me you love me" sort of moments- they were related to the story in such a deep way- and the characters go back a long way. So yes, there are some cringe what I can only explain as 'wattpad-like' moments but they were all so important to the story.

Another thing I love about the way Caroline has wrote her book is that there's nothing in the book (not lengthy or extreme) anyway that doesn't actually lead to something. All good Authors know not to go into detail about something unless it ultimately is important in the book. But I won't lie, to start with I thought that CoB (something in the book I won't mention in detail) was going to be one of these things- one of these plot twists that eventually lead to nothing, but it wasn't. The CoB had a plot line of it's own that takes you on a rollercoaster of "Does it matter, does it not?" until eventually, it leads you right back to what the story is ultimately about- with more depth, more hidden clues and more hekkin' accuracy about what it's like to live in 2021! And I loved this, I love how you think there two completely different plot lines- but they're not- they lead to the same story told by I quote the book,- "Two sides of the same coin."

I also thought the dog was going to be just a place-holder- just to show the fact Maeve had a dog, because the author likely loved dogs (The about the Author part- which I always read first to make sure I'm not reading something that is written by someone who's overly political even mentions that she has a dog.) Which, don't get me wrong, a brief mention of animals that eventually leads to nothing is not a bad thing- but constant talk of an animal that eventually leads to nothing is. But in actual fact, the dog starts to play quite a big part- not a massive part, by all means- but a big part. We see Maeve compare her family and her dog to her, we see Maeve use the dog as an excuse to her parents to get out of the house- which leads to more and more plot development, we see Maeve using the dog as comfort, and we see the dog in Maeve's dreams. Which all proves, this dog is a character- not just there. I'm sure that without the dog, the story could have been told- but I just can't imagine the story without the dog now.

So, for writing style- Once again- I give this book a 10/10

Overall, this book is a complete 10/10- no flaws, no mistakes, no nothing! The book was engaging, I didn't want to put it down. It took me about 8 hours over three days to read- which probably doesn't sound like an accomplishment to many, but to me, someone with ADHD, it's completely outstanding an Author could capture me into a book like this and have me read it so fast! I can't remember the last time I stopped doing something to pick up the book! I can't remember the last time I would rather sit and read a book than blast music on my speaker- and I know, I know you're going to say, "But Mika You're In Hospital- of course you'd rather read!" But actually, I have my speaker, I have my roller-skates, I have my laptop, my Ipad, my Phone- and yet, this book pulled me in!

I could easily see this book being made into a Netflix series or film- the diversity it has is remarkable- everything about it is remarkable! And I would love to see it on Netflix as that's where most people find things these days! Also, Caroline or Netflix, if you read this- please, please cast me as a character- I'm not Irish, but I would make an amazing Maeve, or Lily!

However, I do have some complaints and other rankings to make that aren't so good.

This book inspired me to write another novel, and I know this sounds like a good thing- but when you're an Author with ADHD who starts projects before she's finished others, this is not a good thing. So I'm sorry, but in terms of 'not being influential to those who are sensitive to the imagination' this book gets a 0/10

This book kept me up at night because I just couldn't put it down, THREE LATE NIGHTS! So, because of that, in terms of 'Not having people stay up late' this book gets a ranking of 0/10

Joking aside, of course I absolutely loved this book and it's still a 10/10 and I highly, highly recommend you get a copy! Please experience this story, this world for yourself! I would recommend for people between the ages 15-30 but I recon older audiences (and mature slightly younger audiences) could enjoy the book just as much. There is, however, a slightly triggering part towards the end and I emphasize 'slightly' to those who suffer with mental health- the book is not about mental health, however if you're extremely sensitive to topics like 'su**ide' maybe wait until you're in a better place- it actually surprised me to find the book in a mental health hospital, and I'll be passing it onto staff that there is a brief mention of this topic- but I'm so glad that I did find the book!

By the book here:

Thanks for reading!

-Mika!