Reviews with content warning for Self harm - The Gifts That Bind Us

The four friends in Kilbeg Ireland have magic powers that they use together to get stronger: Roe can pick locks, Fiona can heal any wound, Lily can create sparks, and Maeve can read minds. Roe and Maeve are officially dating too. However, their old enemies are still around. The Children of Brigid cult is infiltrating their school and trying to recruit girls to join. Aaron is still showing up wherever Maeve goes, and there is a new counselor in school who is eager to befriend Maeve. When their gifts begin to get weaker, the friends have to work together to figure out who or what is draining them.

This was a great second book in the series! It’s been a while since I read the first book, but the events in that one were referenced many times so I remembered what happened. The four friends came up against the extremist Christian cult Children of Brigid. Their beliefs directly attacked Roe’s queer identity. I liked how Roe was still figuring out his identity. So often teens in novels already know their identity or instantly know they’re queer, but two books into this series, Roe is still figuring it out like many kids and adults in the real world.

The Gifts That Bind Us is a great witchy novel!

Content warnings: homophobia, self-harm, parental abandonment

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meganpbell's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This series is just so fantastic at capturing the feelings and growing pains and interpersonal challenges of the teen years, all while fighting religious fundamentalism with witchcraft, queer love, and the power of friendship. This installment especially excels with representations of queer, racial, neurodivergent, and disability marginalization—and with portraying the suffering so often behind the worst actions—and it’s just a fun ride!

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graperuth's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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geminireader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is easily one of the most creative and truly fun series I’ve read. It is not a light-hearted series - in fact, this particular book covered many grim and triggering topics. But the book still remains so whimsical and interesting, even if it does trudge into dark territory. I have endless praise for the author. I never know exactly where this series will go and the threads of the magical elements and problems alongside common teenage problems is woven so beautifully together to create a truly excellent young adult novel. I did take off a star only because some parts felt a bit rushed and some problems get solved a little too conveniently. I think this is aligned with the nature of the world and the series but still, can be a bit of a downfall when book-long problems are solved within a page. Regardless, if I convince you to give this series a go: I am a paper book only reader, and I have purchased the third book in hardcover just so I can read it. That’s how much I love this series and how much I want to know what happens!

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jaecae's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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libraryraven's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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rinku's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The beginning of The Gifts That Bind Us was so great that I was ready to give it five stars but sadly, the focus of the main plot shifts later to the aspects that didn’t interest me so much and it becomes a bit too irritating for my taste.

Lily is now back, and all our characters got some kind of magical power: Maeve can now read minds and emotions of other people, Fiona has healing powers, Roe can open doors, and Lily is able to control electricity. Weird things start to happen, and the friends have to find out what causes them before it’s too late. If I’m being honest, I was more invested in the coming-of-age-elements of the story since it’s the last year of school and Maeve is not totally sure what she wants to do after school and struggles with dealing with all the changes happening around her.

What I still love about this novel is how fantasy elements get combined with social justice issues, like queer rights or classism, though I wish the Children and their influence on the town would’ve been thematized more. I’ve said it before, but this plot point still really reminds me of the Engelsfors series. This is probably coincidental but when comparing the two series, Engelsfors is just better in showing how a cult can slowly take over a whole town and manipulate it. Another similarity of both novels is that

the school is some kind of magically important place

Towards the ending though, the story just got a bit weird, and I didn’t fully understand what was happening at the end. It was so obvious from the beginning that

Heather was evil. The story gets quite creepy towards the end which I liked but it’s so weird how Maeve suddenly owns the school

What I appreciate about the characters is that they are a realistic portrayal of teenagers and that there’s a big focus on the friendship between them. At first, there’s jealously between them since Lily is back and mixes everything up between Maeve and Fiona. This creates a kind of tense dynamic between them. In the course of the story,

we see how Lily and Maeve get closer to each other again which was great

. What I appreciate about Maeve is that her feelings are quite relatable and that she messes up because she isn’t hundred percent a good person. Aaron is still an interesting character but I’m not sure what I should think about

his redemption arc. He was a great villain before, and I don’t know about the new villains

. I furthermore have to admit that I totally forgot that Lily and Roe are siblings since we barely see them interact as such.

Besides some of the critique I had about The Gifts That Bind Us, I’m still curious how the story will end and if I will be happy about the ending.

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