All Our Hidden Gifts

Ghostly menace, queer liberation, and sweet nonbinary romance all find room in this modern Irish contemporary. Sixteen-year-old Maeve Chambers, who is white, is behind in class; estranged from her Deaf, white best friend, Lily O’Callaghan; and sentenced to clean her crumbling girls’ school’s junk closet after throwing a shoe at her teacher. But there, she finds a decades-old tarot deck—and her first real talent. With her new business partner, biracial (Filipina/white) actor Fiona Buttersfield, Maeve starts making friends and money hand over fist reading tarot. But the deck keeps appearing suddenly, and its ominous extra card—the Housekeeper—is drawn in Lily’s reading just before Lily disappears. As the Housekeeper infects Maeve’s dreams, she must navigate a homophobic American evangelist cult, folkloric components, her growing attraction to Lily’s genderqueer sibling, and her own hidden gifts to bring Lily home. O’Donoghue (Scenes of a Graphic Nature) infuses fierce integrity and an understanding of self-worth into a hilarious voice. While at times overfull, the novel’s brilliant connections between friendship, boundaries, and the vulnerability of loneliness provide a vibrant compass for fans of Sarah Rees Brennan or Derry Girls. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 14–up. [em]Agent: Bryony Woods, Diamond Kahn & Woods Literary. (Jun.) [/em]