Wow. Just finished this one. I got to start it a little early because I received an arc from the publisher. I've been trying to process it all and decide what to do about my rating.

I enjoyed a lot of the novel. It felt so very gothic. Gray landscapes, dark imagery, it begins a little like Jane Eyre, an orphan left at a school for girls. Her only option to obey the matrons - but she can't speak and explain or express herself. All she has is a journal that her mother left her full of art and half-truths. There are cobwebs, and ghouls, and finally a mysterious letter asking her to go to Gallant, to be with her family.

When she finally arrives we see a classic gothic mansion full of secret passages, ghosts, ghouls, mysterious innkeepers, and an even more mysterious garden and gate to explore.

Olivia's story was extremely interesting and full of twists. The only think missing from this gothic tale would be the mysterious byronic hero. What I can't decide is what to think of Gallant. He is a villain, not a byronic hero or an anti-hero. Cousin Matthew is non of the above...So will this novel stand alone or will it have a sequel? I think that changes everything for me.

Final decision: Closer to a 3.5. I would definitely recommend it to my YA readers. I think it is a great look at some of Schwab's more dark tales.

Review will be posted on Forever Young Adult on 3/14/22.

Cover Story: Montell Jordan

I’m a sucker for this kind of cover; it’s giving me elegance and mystery and vague globe shapes, and I love at beautiful houses AND collecting globes, so all in all, it’s perfect for me. The UK cover is a bit more “generic” looking but delicately lovely, too.

The Deal:

All that Olivia Prior has and knows of her family is her mother’s journal, full of more questions than answers. She’s spent almost all her life at a drab orphanage for young girls, but that changes when she gets a letter from her long-lost uncle inviting her to return home to Gallant. Except…her mother’s journal explicitly tells her that she’ll always be safe as long as she stays away from that place. But with zero prospects, Olivia is dropped off at its door with little more than her suitcase.

What she finds isn’t at all what she was expecting. No uncle awaits, just a sullen cousin and a kindly but tight-lipped staff. Dozens of empty rooms and a riotous garden. And an oddly placed, crumbling wall that seems to sit in the field beyond, a place where the sun never touches…

BFF Charm: Yay

Given the right circumstances, Olivia seems like she’d be the friend who pushes you out of your comfort zone and makes you try new things with her. Growing up with other girls in the orphanage, Olivia was picked on because she is mute and people are assholes, but she’s got a strong sense of self, a defiant streak, and a whole lot of fortitude. She longs for answers, but even when that makes her go out exploring a creaky old house, she keeps her wits about her and doesn’t make completely irrational decisions. Plus she can see ghosts, which, I know, if it really happened to me would probably make me pee my pants in fear, but in theory it sounds so cool.

Swoonworthy Scale: 0

There’s very few players, and most of them are related to Olivia in some way. We learn a little about her mother’s doomed romance, but that’s only told in broad strokes.

Talky Talk: Baby’s First Gothic Novel

While searching for an image link to share for the UK cover, I found on a bookseller’s website that this book is being classified (at least in their store) as “romantic fantasy”. In what effing world?? The words “gloriously gothic extravaganza” were also used, which made me giggle-snort. I’ve also seen this likened to Crimson Peak. As you can see from my Swoonworthy score, there is absolute zero romance in this book, so consider yourself forewarned if that’s important for you.

Is there a gothic tone? Absolutely, yes. “Glorious extravaganza”? Eh. I think I’ve rewritten this paragraph like three times, and this is what I’ve settled on: this is a solidly YA novel. It’s not a crossover. It wasn’t an already-written Adult novel that was smushed onto a YA shelf for purposes of getting people like me to read it. *cough*ACTOR*cough*

Schwab’s writing still managed to pull me in enough that I finished it relatively quickly, but it lacks the bite and darkness of an adult Gothic novel, and because of that, the plot points feel…neutered. If you were going to introduce a younger reader to the world of Gothic tropes then this might be a good place to start as it’s not so grim and hopeless that you’ll scar an impressionable young mind. But if you’re reading this review for yourself and you’re past the target demographic, I’d suggest skipping it.

Bonus Factor: Fancy Houses

As with all Gothic stories, a young girl, alone in the world, comes upon a slightly ramshackle mansion with nooks and crannies galore, just waiting for her to explore. I love secret passageways even though, let’s be real, there’s probably more spiders than I am comfortable with (and that’s ZERO spiders).

Bonus Factor: Mirror Worlds

There’s just something so deliciously creepy about finding a portal to another place that is like yours, but different. This trope just never fails to send glorious shivers down my spine.

Bonus Factor: Journals

I do also love when a character has to unlock a mystery through a journal that doesn’t make sense until they understand more of what’s going on. It always gives a story a sort of sweeping, timeless quality connecting past and present.

Relationship Status: May-December

You’re cute, Book, but our age difference is just too much for me to overcome. I’m sure you’ll find an age-appropriate companion in no time.

FTC Full Disclosure: I received my free review copy from Greenwillow Books. I received neither money nor peanut butter cups in exchange for this review. Gallant is available now.

"Olivia, Olivia, Olivia, Remember this -
the shadows c̶a̶n̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶u̶c̶h̶ are not real
the dreams a̶r̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶d̶r̶e̶a̶m̶s̶ can never hurt you
and you will be safe as long as you stay away
from Gallant"

Olivia Prior knew almost nothing of her past. She was left at Merilance School for Independent Girls when she was a baby with nothing but a journal - her mother's, filled mostly of entries addressed to her father, talking about their relationship and, later, Olivia herself. But the entries become less lucid, more haunted by shadows and voices, before the journal ends with one last letter to Olivia. Even in the school of orphans and outcasts, Olivia is an outsider due to her muteness; she can't make a sound, even cry out in pain. This makes it easy to keep secret another difference - she can see ghouls, or scraps of them, anyway, hanging around the house. So she's flooded with emotion when a letter arrives from an uncle, inviting her home, to Gallant. She's always wanted an escape from Merilance and to have family of her own... but her mother's journal ends by warning her away from Gallant, which she hadn't even known was a place until receiving this letter.

But go to Gallant she does. And Olivia finds a lovely house, too large for its occupants, Hannah, Edgar, and Matthew, none of whom were expecting a girl to arrive on their doorstep. She finds that her uncle, Arthur, has been dead a year, so the letter, which said it was sent to locations all over the country in the hopes Olivia would be there, could not have been sent by him. Matthew, a few years older than Olivia, is angry at her arrival and wants her gone. He's clearly unwell and seems haunted by something. Olivia wants to stay at Gallant, especially enthralled by the bright colors of the garden. Beyond the garden is a wall, crumbling, and beyond the wall, seemingly only more fields. But something else must be happening here, something they're not telling Olivia. Why else would they so strictly lock down the house at night, patch the cracks in the wall between Gallant and nothing? And what could Matthew mean when he talks about their family needing to guard the gate, and their ties to the house, the wall, and what lies beyond?

This was a fun read, the first I've read from Schwab, though I have a number of her titles on my to-read list. I really liked the dynamic between Gallant and what lies across the wall, and as I was reviewing my thoughts for this review was struck with some Anastasia vibes?? Just a couple of things that would be spoiler-y to mention, but touched little chords with my nostalgia for that movie. I liked the evolution of the relationships at Gallant, though the relationships at Merilance were kind of flat, very "we can be mean so we will be". I'm undecided on whether the passages with "the master of the house" helped to build suspense, or a little bit took some of the surprise the reader might otherwise get if he hadn't been met in these occasional sections between chapters. Journal entries are also interspersed in the text, with some sections struck out, along with ink bloom illustrations. And of course I love a character that signs, though I sort of wish the signing had been written with more of a sign gloss grammar style as opposed to italicized English. I would recommend this to fans of the gothic; Don't Tell a Soul and Coraline came to mind as I was putting this together.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the eARC. Gallant was published earlier this week, on March 1st.

I really did not like this book. It was really slow to start, and when the villains were finally revealed, I was over the book. I did not connect with the characters at all. This was very disappointing after reading Addie Larue last year by the same author

still my favorite author. her ability and imagination is unparalleled. i am truly envious of her talent

Gallant is the tale of a young orphan girl named Olivia Prior, and the ghouls that she can see. Olivia lives at Merilance School for Independent Girls in London, and she has no idea who her parents were, or why she was left there. Her only connection to her heritage is a journal that once belonged to her mother, filled with notes that seem to slowly veer into madness as they go on. “I’m so sorry I don’t know what else to do…you will be safe as long as you stay away from Gallant.”

Born without a voice, Olivia communicates via sign language (and occasionally writing, but she rightly refused to wear a chalkboard around her neck). Her inability to speak and the refusal of others to learn to sign has caused her more than a few conflicts with the other students and the matrons at school. Her only real companions at Merilance are the ghouls, partial shades of the dead who linger in our world. While she’s the only one at the school who seems to realize they’re there, they do not speak to her, and vanish from her view when told to go away.

Then one day, everything changes when a letter from an unknown uncle arrives for Olivia. “You are wanted. You are needed. You belong with us,” it reads. She is whisked away from Merilance by a driver who was sent to take her to the family home, Gallant, far from London. There, she meets her cousin, Matthew, and finds that her new home is also filled with ghouls. Ghouls that look like the family portraits hanging in the hallway. And there’s the issue of the mysterious, crumbling wall at the back of the garden, and the iron door that is set in the middle of it. There are many secrets held by Gallant, and Olivia’s mother’s journal ended with warning her to stay away.

The far side of the wall has more in store for her than she ever could have imagined, for there, Olivia finds a dark echo of the grand house. This shadow of Gallant is crumbling, and the master of the house is hungry for something only a Prior can provide. “Do you know what you are, Olivia Prior? You are amends. You are a tithe, a gift, and you belong to me.”

Gallant is an absolutely phenomenal Gothic fantasy, showcasing Schwab’s talents at writing for younger audiences. I loved every minute of it, and I’m very grateful to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. It’s out in the world as of March 1st, so go grab a copy!

This review originally appeared here: https://swordsoftheancients.com/2022/03/04/gallant-a-review/

I received an e-arc from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion

This story was adorable, sweet. Very straightforward, lovely stand alone.
Was this my favorite Schwab novel? No. Some of her others were more nuanced... but I really enjoyed the gothic setting.. the orphan finding a home theme...
The writing was, as always, well done and the characters were delightful.
As others have mentioned this did lean more toward middle grade, than YA, but overall a good read.

This book is like The Secret Garden if it was a dark, gothic horror. It starts when Olivia, a mute girl living in an orphanage, is summoned by her uncle to his home, Gallant. The only thing Olivia has is a journal full of her late mother's words and drawings, in which she is warned to never go to Gallant. Longing for a place that feels like home, Olivia journeys to Gallant anyway and soon discovers a dark world that is the twin to her own (much like the upside down in Stranger Things). From this dark world, there is a master desperately longing to cross the boundary into the light and Olivia must either fight against him or join him.

I enjoyed the story. It was creepy and engaging. The descriptions of Gallant and the shadow world made it really easy to picture the story unfolding. Olivia was very interesting to read about, her frustrations with communicating, and her longing to to find a home. I also really enjoyed the illustrations spread throughout the book which are then repeated and collected in the middle of the story once we find out what they really mean.

I did find the ending a little disappointing, mostly because I like happy, neatly wrapped up endings. I also would have liked more explanation around how/why Gallant came to be.

If you're a fan of V.E. Schwab, I think you will enjoy this book, or if you're a fan of YA horror stories.

Absolutely loved. Perfect for fans of Coraline or Haunting of Hill House. It makes the perfect progression in the Gothic genre without being too intense for teens. The main character is unique and engaging. The setting beautiful. Perfect for both adults and children!

This book was like walking through an old fairy tale. Gallant is where the magic of Secret Garden meets the menace of Coraline’s Others. Schwab captivates me every time she puts pen to paper and I fall in love every time. The way she writes Olivia and her disability is original and brings a life to the character and the book. Overall a fantastic read that I literally didn’t put down!

A perfect creepy novel for readers of many ages, It is basically horror lite. The story is short, simple and totally gothic. It's reminiscent of Crimson Peak and Coraline, with homes that are filled with secrets and paranormal creatures. V.E. Schwab's writing is always perfection with her lush visuals and vibes. I think the story could have been told in a bit of a longer format, but I definitely think this is a great book for younger readers who may be interested in exploring the horror genre.

It is not every day that you find a novel that can transcend the boundaries of its genre. Gallant is a jaw dropping tale filled with ghosts, mysterious family members, and a magical wall you can't help but wonder what lays beyond it. Readers of all ages will enjoy this dark little book.

Content warning: dead parents, dead sibling, self-harm for blood magic, body horror

2022 is really delivering on the haunted house books. In this ghoulish fantasy, a mute girl named Olivia receives a mysterious letter from a previously-unknown Uncle Arthur calling her home to an estate called Gallant. Having lived in an orphanage all her life, she’s excited to be welcomed into a place she can call home. But between the missing residents and the ghouls haunting the halls, there is more undead danger afoot than she could have ever predicted.

Told in Schwab’s signature precise prose and featuring spooky illustrations, this book is a whimsical ride through a scary fairy tale of two houses, where Death resides.

Disclaimer up front: I am not mute and, as such, cannot comment on the quality of the rep. I will want to say, that Olivia is never suddenly given the ability to speak via magic. She signs, and sign language is common among the people around her. There is an instance of Matthew, her cousin, venting frustration about her inability her to speak, but this is challenged.

It’s been a minute since I read a Schwab book, and it truly felt like coming home. The language throughout is both familiar, but unique to this particular tale. There is a precision that is simply unmatched in other work. You can’t confuse this one for any of her other books. The rhythm between the journal entries and Olivia’s own narration play so nicely together.

This book is as magical as it is spooky. There is a visceral detail to the ghouls and an air of mystery that, even with the final act of reveals, you’re not even sure what answers get presented. There’s no world-building outside of the immediate story, which fits this standalone The single location of this plot definitely gives a vibe of isolation that shouldn’t still keep catching me by surprise, and yet. For something where the terror might be coming from inside the house and within journal pages, it works really well.

If you’re looking for a book without a romance subplot that’s all about finding a place to call home even when it’s haunted as all get out, this one is for you.

Gallant is a well crafted ghost story that has broad appeal.. As a children's librarian I can see introducing it to 10-11 year olds who are looking for a spookier read as well as the teenage audience it is intended for. I am a fan of Schwab personally, espeically her portal fantasy titles, so I absolutely loved it. I am excited to be able to easily book talk this to the many teens and tweens in my community who are fans of scary ghost stories.

Olivia has been at Merilance, a home for girls, since she can remember. All she has of her parents is a journal from her mother filled with odd inky drawings that gets progressively more insane until the final entry written for Olivia herself. She is lonely because none of the other girls attempt to learn sign language to speak to her and she often sees half form ghouls. When she gets a letter from an uncle inviting her to go to her family home, Gallant, she is excited even though her mother's last diary entry warns her to stay away.

Gallant is a grand old house with only three current residents including her cousin Matthew who does not welcome her warmly. The ghouls at Gallant all seem to be related to her, and want to stop her from going into the garden at night. In the garden are constantly growing weeds which Matthew tends to despite being extremely frail, and a mysterious wall that is constantly in shadow. Despite Matthew's attempts to get her to leave Olivia learns more about Gallant, her family heritage, and what lurks behind the wall.

V.E Schwab’s writing always speaks to me and I feel like something has changed in my heart every time I read one of her books. Her writing is lush and beautiful while still being an easy enough story to follow and comprehend.

My heart broke for Olivia knowing that she’s stuck in this orphanage where she cannot communicate with anyone due to being mute and no one knowing sign language. I can’t imagine how lonely and heartbreaking that would be for anyone. Then there is her special ability of being able to see ghouls. It definitely keeps things interesting.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of her work, YA fantasy, fantasy in general, and gothic horror. I know I myself will be hand selling this book to a lot of my customers and friends.

This was a fun, quick read. I would classify this as YA paranormal/horror/fantasy which is SUPER outside of the realm of books I typically read. It was dark, gritty, and spooky without being too scary for me. This would make an excellent "spooky season" read; the atmosphere was perfection.

VE Schwab is such a talented writer and I'm working on reading everything she has ever written. I remember reading Addie LaRue and feeling like I was completely immersed in that world and I felt the same reading Gallant. This isn't a new favorite, but I still had a great time reading it.

Thank you for the arc in exchange for a review!

Welp. The goodreads synopsis tells you almost the entire book, so there's that.
While the writing itself is beautiful, I struggled with the story. It just didn't pull me in like I hoped it would. I mean, the main character is a mute orphan with some special abilities, so you'd think it would be great, but it's missing something to me. 🤷‍♀️

I love V.E. Schwab and this book did not dissapoint. I enjoyed the mystery intertwined in this ghost story. A young girl searching for family, identity and understanding about where she came from. The story leaves you on the edge of your seat guessing what is actually happening and trying to unwind the story along with the main character. I will definintley recommend this one to my students.

3/5

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book and the gothic style theme of the setting. I also liked the early introduction to the ghouls milling around and the fact that their bodies are half missing. My favorite part of the book was the journal entries. The journal was very well done showcasing the madness the mother was falling into with each entry and the ink blot artwork was very good.

After about 20% of the novel, the story gets really slow until it picks back up at about 60%. I wish there were more events in the first half to keep my attention but I had to take quite a few breaks because I was losing interest and knew nothing wasn’t going to happen for a while.

Overall, the end was interesting but the story felt very middle school then a YA novel. I will always love V.E. Schwab’s writing it is always amazing but I feel like this was such a unique idea and wish she expanded it and made it more dark and adult fantasy/horror.

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows orphaned Olivia Prior who receives a letter inviting her to live at the Prior family home, Gallant. With her mother's journal, the only piece she has of her, she heads to Gallant. Once there, she finally feels like she belongs. One day she stumbles upon a place that's like Gallant but not quite, in a gross state of decay.

This is my first VE Schwab book, and I must say loved the gothic atmosphere she creates in Gallant. An old crumbling houses and ghouls feature prominently in this book, giving it a real haunted house story vibe. I liked Olivia, a mute who struggles to fit in. I also liked Matthew a lot, despite the fact that he's quite awful to Olivia. The only thing that confused me was whether this is a YA or middle grade book. I thought it was YA, but it read more like a middle grade book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. I enjoyed this book and loved the artwork therein.