This was my first experience with V.E. Schwab and I will definitely be picking up more from her. Gallant is an atmospheric, gothic, fairy tale that I could not put down. The settings are so well developed that I felt as though I had visited this world after reading it. Olivia Prior is our heroine, she is stubborn and short tempered. Her character is very much in the vein of Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden (which is fitting considering this is being marketed as The Secret Garden meets Crimson Peak, a very accurate description). Much her frustration and temperament are due to her inability to communicate verbally. The isolation and uncertainty that Olivia feels is relatable, especially for anyone that has felt ignored or misjudged. The highlight of the book though is the love story that develops along the edges of the main plot. As intriguing as the mysteries of Gallant and Olivia’s explorations are, it is her parent’s story that really drew me in and I would love to see Schwab return to this world in some way or another. The only reason I did not give this book five stars is due to the abruptness of the end. It felt as though the final confrontation was somewhat anticlimactic after such a strong build up. Overall, I truly enjoyed every minute of this book and will be picking up a copy for myself. Thank you to NetGalley and Greenwillow Books for send me an advanced e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Really well written. Great world building. Would definitely include in our libraries. Did stop at 15% but four stars easy if it continues as it has.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC.

One word to describe this book? Immersive.

I was captivated within the first paragraph, completely pulled into the Gallant universe. I saw all the gray, I felt the gravel crunch under my feet, I was inside the misty, chilly, dreary garden shed. I did not once leave this universe until the book was over. This was my first V.E. Schwab book (shocking, I know, but I only got into fantasy in December 2021!!) and it made me add the author's entire backlog to my TBR, that's how much trust in V.E. Schwab this book gave me. I only wish it were longer, the last 20% of the book made me aching for more!

This book gets released on March 10, I highly recommend you grab it. 👌

Victoria Schwab is a master of atmospheric literature. The beginning of this book spooked me so bad that I couldn’t read it in bed. Of course, then it got a little more tame. I got used to the atmosphere and the plot became slow. That’s another thing I find with her books, while they’re extremely well written and have absolutely beautiful prose, they also move rather slowly. Not much happened in this book between 30 and 70% of it. And even though I wanted the plot to pick up and for something to happen... I found myself enjoying the journey and the ghouls Olivia encountered along the way. I also adored the illustrations and journal pieces. Such a genius way of incorporating that storyline.

I was fully enthralled by main character in the first couple of chapters and was completely engaged with her adventure throughout the book. This young adult fantasy novel is beautifully written with well developed characters and perfect pacing. Highly recommended

Thank you NetGalley and Greenwillow Books for providing the ARC for review.

Loved this book! I think this would be excellent for youth experiencing loss and feeling lost as a reasult. The writing is absolutely gorgeous and the illustrations are breath taking. Overall a really great read and 100% reccommend to the school library.

Really enjoyed this book! Cried a LOT at the ending and epilogue. My best explanation of this book is Crimson Peak meets like, the Secret Garden maybe?? Just a lovely book, I definitely will recommend to my students and anyone who enjoys a little ghost story moment.

Gallant by V. E. Schwab is one of the two print ARCs I received from the HarperCollins Canada #FrenzyPresents winter 2022 catalogue preview event. Thank you for this beautiful ARC and the opportunity to read it early! I was also approved for an eARC, but since the illustrations play such an important role in the storytelling in this book, I gladly chose the slower reading experience of reading the print book. My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

I was drawn to this book for several reasons. I've had so many people recommend Schwab but I hadn't read her work yet. I was impressed and intrigued by the presentation she gave at the #FrenzyPresents event in December 2021. The artwork on the cover (and throughout the book) is hauntingly beautiful in a soft and loose sort of watercolour style that I wish I did more of myself. On top of all of that, my maiden name is Galland, a German/French variation on the surname this book and its titular haunted house share. I don't come across it often! How could I not pick up this book?

I'm so glad I did! Schwab writes with the same sort of eerily beautiful prose that has made Morgenstern, Gaiman, and Rothfuss (and now Schwab!) my favourites. I will absolutely be looking for every last Schwab title now to get caught up and eagerly await what's next!

Gallant is a ghost story of sorts like none other I've ever read before. Olivia is an orphan living at a "school" (orphanage) called Merelance. She's artistically gifted, she's whip-smart, she's completely mute, and she sees the silent ghouls who haunt this forsaken estate. The only thing she has left of her parents is her mothers' journal, and it warns her never to return to Gallant. Unfortunately for Olivia, just as Merelance is done with her and ready to ship her off to a workhouse, a letter arrives from a long-lost uncle beckoning her back to Gallant. Should she go home to the family she didn't know she still had? Should she heed her mother's last warning and take her chances in the world at large? What sort of horrible mysteries await her if she goes where she knows she shouldn't?

Everything about this book is beautiful, even if it's haunting and sometimes gruesome. This is gothic horror meets urban fantasy of the paranormal/magical realism flavour, and it works so well. This is the sort of writing that inspires the poet inside me that wants to write novels and makes me dare to think it's possible to write dark and complicated plots in the style of a Tennyson poem because that's what this feels like.

I love how nearly every time something written or spoken is repeated it's done in threes. "Olivia, Olivia, Olivia." "Hold on. Hold on. Hold on." "Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?" "Olivia, Olivia, Olivia." It's poetic, it's powerful, and those lines flow a little faster than everything around it. They feel whispered. They have rhythm.

I agree with others who read ARCs that the synopsis on Goodreads pre-publication gives a little too much away. I hope that was reconsidered for the final printings. Since I heard Schwab talk about this book at the event I didn't need to read a synopsis to know I wanted to read it, and the print ARCs only have the first paragraph, so I didn't realize just how much the synopsis says. If you're holding the physical book in your hands, there's a stripe of darker pages almost in the middle where all of the illustrations are clustered together with key text to hammer home the secondary story we've been fed in bits and pieces up until that point and that's about where the reader is supposed to figure out exactly how entangled Olivia is with Gallant. The pre-publication Goodreads synopsis suggests a spoiler that kills this reveal. I don't think it would spoil the second half of the book at all, but I appreciated being able to come to a certain horrifying and fascinating conclusion as Olivia pieced it together herself.

I think that by now people are starting to realize that YA isn't exclusively for teens and that older audiences can read and enjoy YA as well. With that said, I want to assure fellow older readers, there's nothing juvenile about this book and it can absolutely be enjoyed at any age. The characters are in their mid-teens but it's set in a different time when kids that age weren't kids anymore, and if it weren't for the few other characters referring to Olivia and Matthew AS kids, I wouldn't have to remember their ages. I'm 34 and Olivia could be my peer.

If you like beautifully written gothic stories, read this one!

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of Gallant.

What a fantastic story. I was on the shortlist of people who did not enjoy Addie LaRue last year so I was worried my love of Schwab's books was at an end.

Going in I wasn't sure what age range this is meant for. It seems middle-grade, but this is Schwab's more mature style of writing that ignores complete sentence rules. Dependent clauses everywhere. It's definitely a different feel than the Cassidy Blake books even though they are both about young girls who see ghosts.

I thought it did have a slow start but by the halfway point I was hooked and I had to stay up late to finish. I can't wait until my physical copy arrives to see all the beautiful illustrations.

This was such a quick read it felt like a short story and I mean that in the best possible way. I was immediately immersed in the world and the characters and the story kept me engrossed until the end.

Thank you, Greenwillow Books, for allowing me to read Gallant early!

I heard of Schwab's new book everywhere and I obviously got curious. I'm not a hardcore fan of hers, having only read just a couple of her books, which I enjoyed enough, so curiosity got the best of me and I decided to request this title. I wasn't sure I would get approved to be frank, but here we are. I regrettably ended up finding this novel only okay. I can't even say if it is me. Surely, it'll have its audience, but alas I'm not part of it. Perhaps, I'll have better luck with another one of her novels.

Olivia Prior, an orphan, lives a miserable existence at the Merilance School for Girls where the matrons are strict and the girls are mean. It doesn’t help that Olivia is different—she is unable to speak and she sees ghouls. Olivia longs for a real home and her wish is granted one day when she ends up in Gallant, once her mother’s home. Gallant is no ordinary estate and Olivia gets caught up in its secrets as she tries to unravel the mystery behind her parents’ past and the crumbling wall in the garden. For most of the book, the story is gentle and melancholic but I didn’t mind because the writing was so lyrical and beautiful.

If you love dark, YA Fantasy then you need to check out this book! The fantasy elements within this story and the magic we so unique. I can safely say I have never read any book quite like this one!

When I started this book I thought this might be a spooky, gothic horror but it is definitely a gothic, dark fantasy. There are ghouls of the dead that wonder the world and and an old house full of dark secrets called Gallant inhabited by Priors. But for Priors, it is more prison than house. I absolutely LOVE the concept of this book, that there is an antithesis to our living world where death replaces life. This book has so much atmosphere I wished I could stay in it’s world forever. It was truly just fun and intriguing to read!

One of my favorite parts are the lovely watercolor/ink blot images throughout the novel! They are beautifully woven into the story but also give the book an eerily beautiful touch.

I highly recommend this book!!

The perfect gothic fantasy that young adults and adults alike will fall into with abandon. Olivia Pryor has grown up in a girl's school without family. She does not speak even when summoned by letter to come home to the estate Gallant where her mother lived. Olivia arrives at the estate only to find surprise at her summons and outright hatred from her cousin. She sees ghouls (ghosts) in the shadows and she quietly tries to solve the mystery of Gallant and her parents through her mother's journal. Shadows that whisper and a mirror estate on the other side of the wall lead Olivia on despite the warnings she has received. For fans of V.E. Schwabs other marvelous books as well as those by Neil Gaiman with a bit of THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE thrown in for good measure. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

I am a sucker for a dark fantasy and I am a sucker for Schwab’s writing, so eloquent and beautiful. I was so beyond thrilled to read this one. It’s spooky and captivating. The beginning was a little slower paced but the middle and end felt like it flew by! I loved the character growth and the journey for our MC. I will for sure be buying a physical copy.

Olivia is an orphan living in an unfortunate boarding school. She doesn’t know what happened to her parents or if she is even truly alone. With not much more than her mothers journal to hold on to, she receives a letter from an unknown uncle inviting her back to the one place her mother told her to steer clear of. Sounded by beings on she can see, she is on course to find out more than she may have bargained for.

Truly, I will read anything Schwab puts out. Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for early access to this one!

Gallant follows Olivia, a girl who has grown up believing she has no more family until a letter arrives at her school inviting her to family’s home. Once she arrives she quickly realizes that this is no ordinary home and that she is not as welcome as she was led to believe. With her mother’s journal and the mysterious questions being raised at the manor, Olivia is determined to figure out the home's secrets.

It is best to go into this book not knowing much so I will not elaborate much on the plot, just know if you like creepy, mysterious, overlapping worlds, etc. this book is absolutely for you. It gives off big Mexican Gothic vibes but in a ya format and it was beautifully done. I really enjoyed learning about Olivia’s parents and I would kill for a whole book simply about them. I will say that this felt to me like Schwab’s least complex book, but not necessarily in a bad way. It was pretty straightforward, a joy to read, and a super solid ya book.

This may be the hardest review I've had to write to date. I've read eight of Schwab's book so far and have loved them all. I even have a tattoo dedicated to one of their series. They are an auto-buy author for me! Which is why I'm so upset that I did not love this book.

Before we go any further let me say: just because I didn't love this book doesn't mean it's bad! I know many people who will adore this story and love it forever. But for me, right now, it didn't click.

GALLANT follows the story of Olivia Prior, who was left as a young child at a boarding school for girls. She doesn't know her parents, what happened to them, or if she has a family at all. Her time at Merilance has been difficult, but she finds comfort in her mother's old journal.

That is, until she receives a letter from a long-lost uncle inviting her home to Gallant, the one place her mother's journal tells her to avoid at all costs.

But of course she goes. Olivia discovers the house is full of ghouls (only she can see them), and is holding on to secrets she is desperate to uncover. Only the truth is more deadly than she imagined.

Yes, the story itself sounds like something right up my alley, but the plot was so S L O W! The first 60% of this book dragged, and then everything was shoved into the last few chapters and wrapped up incredibly fast. I wanted more spooky settings, more background, more substance. Instead, I found it full of lackluster descriptions, repetition, and unanswered questions.

If you like slower plots, vivid writing, and family secrets, you'll enjoy this book!

Another beautifully written, dark fantasy from Schwab. Ultimately, this didn’t speak to me like Addie Larue did, but it was nevertheless well plotted with strong character development.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am a fan of V.E. Schwab's YA work and was excited to give this a try, though I am not reading much YA these days. But I am glad I gave it a try, as it was charming and I read it in one sitting!

Olivia finally gets a reprieve from the unfortunate Merilance School for Girl when a long-lost uncle sends for her. She heeds his call and goes to Gallant -- a place her mother warned her never to return to. The ghouls she's seen her whole life don't go away when she arrives, and what she finds is worse than she could have ever imagined (and in some ways, better).

This story felt like "The Haunting of Bly Manor" with a little bit of "Ninth House" but make it more about coming home and finding family and about children. It's short with lovely illustrations and sweet characters that I'd have liked to spend more time with. Honestly, it felt like a short story more than anything, but I don't think there's room for it to grow much beyond that. It's quick and intense and haunting and sad, which V.E. Schwab is great at!

4 stars.

At this point I think I will pretty much read anything Schwab puts out regardless of if it falls under the "V.E". or the "Victoria" umbrella. There is just something about her writing that draws me in every single time. Overall, this was a very simple story involving a mysterious family, ghouls/demons, and parallel (in here they call them shadows) worlds (well houses). The story was very atmospheric and I found I couldn't put the book down. I had to know what was going to happen to Olivia. The accompanying illustrations really helped sell the mystery of the story .I could actually see this being a perfect book to read around Halloween.

A big thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to read this book early. I can't wait to get my hands on a finished copy.