If you did not know, VE Schwab is my favourite author. The way she writes is just superb and I devour everything that she writes. To say I was excited when I heard she was writing another Young Adult book but slightly darker is an understatement.

And readers I was not wrong in my assumptions. VE Schwab has honestly done it again with this seriously dark yet compelling book about Death, loss, grief - the book at times is sinister and so dark I was surprised.

The book follows Olivia - she’s a young girl who is mute and at the start of the book she is in an orphanage and has been for some time. With the loss of her mother and not knowing her father Olivia is different from the others in the orphanage. The main one being that she sees dark mysterious figures or ghouls and demons that no one else can see. This isn’t strange to Olivia but you get the dark and sinister feel of the book.

Things change when Olivia is told by the ladies that run the Orphanage that her Uncle has found her and wants her to come home to Gallant - that they have been looking for her and she is wanted. Olivia is intrigued as she is also thinking about finding out more about her deceased mother and who her father is. Things don’t go to plan when she meets her Cousin Matthew and he wants her gone away from Gallant.

So this is where the book gets darker, more sinister and oh so deliciously good. VE Schwab just has a way of bringing to life her books and characters. You could honestly close your eyes and picture what she has written, from the dark and cold feeling of dread, to Olivia’s thoughts coming across when she is going to a place she knows she shouldn’t be going but is compelled to go anyway.

Gallant honestly is not for those that don’t like a dark and twisting plot or happy ending if I am being honest. For Olivia herself it could be seen as one but to get there the loss is massive. What I loved most of all in this book is the fact that there are illustrations- that you could actually visualise what Olivia is talking about when discussing her mothers diary. It just brings the book to life more and tugs on your heart strings.

As always beautifully written by VE Scwhab - could I have read another 100 pages of this book yes I could. Would it have made it better, no I don’t think so. Schwab honestly knows how to reel us in, keep us hooked and honestly send us on an emotional rollercoaster.

This is the second book that I've read from this author, and I must admit they are getting better and better. It's an original story with gothic elements, a strange mansion and a family mystery.

Get a physical copy of this book if you can, because the illustrations and the novel complement each other not only in terms of style but also in narration. The stunning cover design and the illustration on the inside pages make this book very pleasing to the eye. The author created a clever riddle which unfolds slowly and will keep you reading well into the night.

I wasn't fully happy with the end of the story but this is a memorable novel nevertheless.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for an ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, Titan Books, for providing me with an e-arc of this book! My opinions are my own.

I was very excited to read this book! I haven't read anything by V.E. Schwab before, except A Darker Shade of Magic. I loved the writing style in that book, and I wasn't disappointed with this one!

This book is about a mute girl named Olivia. Growing up in an orphanage of sorts, she has always been different. She is pale, has charcoal colored hair and, most importantly, she can see ghouls. She never knew her father and all she has left of her mother is a notebook full of the scribbles of a crazy woman.

When Olivia receives a letter from her uncle, welcoming her home, she cannot believe it. A driver brings her to an estate called Gallant. Olivia quickly learns that not everything is as it seems. Why is she not to leave the house after dark? And how is it that she is not allowed ever to walk past the old wall on the edge of the estate, under no circumstances?

I loved this book! It's an intriguing story and Schwab's wonderful writing had me hooked from the start. I loved the main character and how she figured out more and more about the Gallant estate and what happened to her parents. The other characters aren't as fleshed out (pun intended 😂) but I think it actually adds to the story that we zoom in on one character. She only knows the other characters for a few days so it makes sense we don't know too much about them as well. I loved the way the house was portrayed, the ghouls, the notebook, the drawings... And more I can't say without spoilers.

I thought it was an original story that I'd certainly recommend!

Gallant is the second book I read by V. E. Schwab and I think it’s time I start on her backlist, too, because I am really loving this author and I found Gallant to be a brilliant and engrossing story.

The protagonist of Gallant is Olivia Prior. She doesn’t speak, but she knows how to express herself. She is an orphan, raised in the Merilance School for Girls. The only thing she has left of her mother is her journal. In her journal, her mother warned Olivia to never go to Gallant, the place she escaped from before Olivia was born, but that’s where Olivia is headed after being summoned by her uncle. However, when Olivia arrives at Gallant, her uncle is not there, her cousin doesn’t want her there, and the house is full of mystery and secrets, ghouls, demons, and shadows, and a wall that leads to alternate Gallant.

I savored each page of this book. The plot is gripping and intense, featuring the author’s distinctive style. Olivia is a fantastic heroine. A young woman with unique abilities who lives in her own world, ignored or bullied by the other girls in the school. She is drawn to Gallant, despite being warned off both by her cousin and by her mother’s journal. It is her home, where she finds her family, and, as she uncovers its secret, she will have to make a choice. I really liked and rooted for this character.

Gallant is a gothic and thrilling novel. The pace is very slow, but it makes up with the atmospheric and thrilling plot. An incredible read!

This is a great book for those that enjoyed The Raven Cycle, the mysterious aspect was extremely interesting to read. The haunted house motif was unsettling throughout and made for an interesting setting. This was the best work from Schwab in terms of writing that I’ve read so far, and I think their skills as a writer have developed exponentially within the last number of years.

This was my first VE Schwab book and I loved it. Gallant is hauntingly beautiful. The writing is atmospheric, the story a little creepy and just full of intrigue. I thankfully had a whole day to read it in one sitting and I just loved it. Olivia has grown up in an all girls school for abandoned and forgotten children. She is unable to speak and is isolated from the other girls who see her as strange. All she has is her Mother’s journal which she has spent her life trying to decipher. She has always been able to see ghouls and they seem to appear wherever she goes.

Everything changes when she receives a letter from an Uncle she never knew about and is to leave Merilance School to live with him. She desperately wants to be wanted and to have a family and so this is where her journey begins.

This is a stunning story that I will come back to again. I am definitely going to read more of V.E. Schwab.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for a review.

V.E. Schwab never ceases to amaze me, and Gallant is no exception - an eerie fairytale set in a gothic mansion, a cursed family that has to protect the threshold between two worlds… And at the center of it all, the author's beautiful writing. Unlike The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, Gallant is a fairly quick read, but it will dazzle you all the same ! Definitely recommend reading this during a cold, rainy day.

I've been reading Vic Schwab's books for some years and she still surprises me!

What a strange and beautiful book Gallant is.

Olivia is a 14 years old orphan and she lived almost her entire life in a school. She never belonged there and her only comfort was her late mother's diary.

And then she receives a letter and her life changes.

Lovely characters, a supernatural mystery, not exactly a coming of age but a coming home novel. A must read if you are a fan of her work but also a great place to start.

Really loved this! I'm a really recent covert to V.E. Schwab, discovering Addie LaRue during lockdown was transformative. This book shares a lot of DNA with it, but it's a very different - equally brilliant - beast.

Sixteen-year-old orphan Olivia Prior has been alone in the world as long as she can remember, her ability to see ghosts excluding her from the other girls at her boarding school. She's lost and lonely, until a letter from her Uncle beckons her to the ancestral home. Family finally seems to await, but unexpected terrors await...

This reads like a spectacular Gothic fairytale, haunting and gripping in equal measure. Wonderfully rendered, Schwab's language is so evocative and imagery-ladden. It's un-put-down-able, loaded with all manner of mysteries to unravel.

A melancholic masterpiece.

Victoria Schwab is one of my favourite authors and Gallant was my most anticipated release of 2022. This gorgeous, atmospheric tale follows the story of Olivia Prior – a young girl living at Merilance School for Girls. Her mother disappeared and she has spent her days being taunted by the other girls at the school. When a mysterious letter arrives from Olivia’s Uncle, she is sent to Gallant – the Prior family estate. When Olivia gets there she learns this is anything but a normal household. Olivia soon discovers another realm bordering on Gallant’s estate and must do everything she can to save her family and herself.

This book has such an intriguing premise and Schwab executes this story perfectly. The book is brimming with atmosphere and filled with Schwab’s trademark lyrical writing. As soon as this book arrived I dropped everything to read it and was utterly swept away. The setting really comes to life in the story and I could easily picture the world Schwab has created. The book also features some fascinating illustrations that added another layer to the story.

There is so much to love about Gallant and our main protagonist Olivia is definitely one of those things. She’s clever, determined to succeed, and desperate to find a place where she belongs. You can’t help rooting for her and the people she cares about. I loved the way Gallant was at times a moving story but also had some really tense, creepy moments too.

Gallant is an incredibly engrossing read, one that you will not want to look away from. It’s the sort of book that once you finish you immediately want to reread. While I do prefer Schwab’s adult books, this is an exceptional book and if you’re a fan of her writing I absolutely recommend picking this one up. Gallant is a beautiful story and I can’t wait to see what Schwab dreams up next.

Siempre que V.E. Schwab publica algo nuevo, estoy ojo avizor para ver cuándo puedo leerlo, aunque haya tenido algunos chascos, también me ha dado alegrías. La sinopsis de Gallant me hacía suponer que me sacaría de mi zona de confort pero he decir que a pesar de ser una historia de fantasmas no me ha asustado, me he sentido cómoda leyéndola.


El problema con Gallant es que es demasiado lenta en su primera parte, tanto que estos primeros capítulos se convierten en un lastre para el disfrute del resto del libro, que va remontando en interés pero no llega a compensar el principio. Es una lástima, porque la historia en sí es atractiva, pero la presentación es tan sosegada que llega a resultar parsimoniosa y mata el ritmo de lectura.

Al disponer de una versión electrónica del libro tampoco he podido disfrutar de las ilustraciones de Manuel Sumberac que sin duda aportan mucho más al libro de lo que yo he podido ver, ya que son una parte fundamental de la trama.

A pesar de estos inconvenientes, no negaré que la segunda mitad del libro sí que consiguió interesarme, tras una “revelación” que da un vuelco a todo lo que conocíamos con anterioridad. Quizá este cambio haya llegado demasiado tarde para que la autora nos pudiera ofrecer una obra más redonda, pero sí que consigue enmendar parte de los errores iniciales.

La prosa de la Schwab es estupenda, como nos tiene acostumbrados, hilando de forma muy adecuada el ambiente opresivo del que escapa la protagonistas por casualidad con lo que se encuentra cuando llega a Gallant, que tampoco es el hogar acogedor que podría haber imaginado. Además, las descripciones de los ghouls que pueblan este mundo fantástico son bastante crudas, con miembros cercenados o rostros terriblemente deformados, pero en ningún momento llegan a ser desagradables. Son como uno espera que sean condenados al sufrimiento.

La representación del amor fraternal y de las relaciones familiares a través del espejo del sufrimiento y la entrega me resultan también muy atractivas, sobre todo desde la perspectiva de alguien que no las recuerda desde su infancia.

Si bien no puedo decir que sea una de las obras de la autora que más me hayan gustado, sí que es un libro correcto y disfrutable.

Olivia Prior is an orphan who can’t speak, sees ghouls and grew up in Merilance School for Girls. She’s always been an outsider at Merilance because she’s a bit different. Then she receives a letter from an uncle and moves to a mysterious family home called Gallant. The house has a garden where is a gate and you shouldn’t open it. Because the other side is where Death lives.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. I loved Shades of Magic books, but Addie LaRue was a bit of a letdown. And I guess this book lands somewhere in the middle. I mean I liked it and read it in one sitting, but there was something missing.

I liked Olivia but the other characters stayed kinda distant and I didn’t really care what happened for them. I liked that the main character was mute and I was fine with less dialogue. But most of the characters were kinda dull. I actually would have liked to learn more about Olivia’s parents and how they met. I did like the gothic feeling and the illustrations were pretty. But in the end, there was very little accomplished. Like things were pretty much like what it was in the beginning. So what was the point?

This is the first book I've ready by VE Schwab but it won't be my last. I loved the writing style, everything flowed beautifully.
For me this read like more of a short story or the start of a bigger story for our main character Olivia. While I loved the dark and twisty feel I wasn't completely invested in the plot.

This book is like a cup of hot chocolate on a winter's day. It's comforting and will give you the feeling of familiarity and belonging, even though it's filled with ghouls and ghosts and death. I don't know how else to describe it. I went into this book not knowing anything except the title and that there would be disability representation, and somehow I assumed that it would be a superhero story, but it is far from that. The themes in the book are dark, but the story still warmed my heart. It's about a girl who finds her place in the world.

The format of the book was also very engaging and captivating. I loved how the illustrations and letters/diary entries gave that extra depth to the story. It is no secret that V. E. Schwab has an enchanting way of storytelling. I love her writing. I could read the same sentence multiple times and it would still affect me. If you think about the story itself, it's got quite a simple plot, but her writing makes the emotions and atmosphere deeper and more intense.

However, the strongest emotion I feel now that I am done is the need to read all of her other books.

Over the years I've become a bit hesitant with Schwabs work. I tend to love her ideas but do not always enjoy the characters and the execution. So I was hesitant going into this book.

Gallant is a bit of a different work as it felt like a short story. It started as a typical story of an orphan in an orphanage who is different from the others and gets bullied. But Olivia can see ghosts and is mute. The diary she has of her mother is the third thing that caught my actual interest. It creates a bit of a mystery of what is going on. Why can she see ghosts and why is her mother's diary so jambled.

We move into a more interesting setting when a letter comes her way and she is send to her family. A big mansion and a garden. The idea of this legacy of her family and what they have to sacrifice for that really grabbed me. They are the kind of stories that I like to hear about.

The addition of the plants, the door, the secrets and the otherworld. It created something that I wanted to dive into. Deeper and deeper. There were the little things too. How Olivia felt when someone knew sign language and she could finally speak with someone. How heart breaking it was to see her nephew try to send her away. Those little bits I loved.

I feel like I would have liked to have gotten a bit more time with these characters in the mansion. Like her nephew. There was so much more to him than we really got. Of the two side characters too. It almost felt more like an introduction to a grander story of Olivia.

3.5/5. I love VE Schwab’s writing and am so grateful for the chance to read this early. I also love how different all of her books are.
I thought Gallant was an eerily beautiful book, t in bed with both sadness and hope.

This is so beautiful, V E Schwab has done it again and made me fall in love and then broke me, like some sadistic addict I love it and come back for more.

Sixteen-year-old Olivia Prior is missing three things: a mother, a father, and a voice. Her mother vanished all at once, and her father by degrees, and her voice was a thing she never had to start with. She grew up at Merilance School for Girls.Now, nearing the end of her time there, Olivia receives a letter from an uncle she’s never met, her father’s older brother, summoning her to his estate, a place called Gallant.

But when she arrives, she discovers that the letter she received was several years old. Her uncle is dead. The estate is empty, save for the servants.

Olivia is permitted to remain, but must follow two rules: don’t go out after dusk, and always stay on the right side of a wall that runs along the estate’s western edge. Beyond it is another realm, ancient and magical, which calls to Olivia through her blood…


This book just gave me Coraline vibes, which Is one of my all time favourites, I loved how Schwab made a clear emphasis of speech isn’t the only form of communication in the world, how it becomes part of Olivia’s strength. Maybe it’s just me but I didn’t feel terribly sad for Olivia, instead I loved her strength, her character and resilience. I can’t say too much about this without spoilers, so I will simply say this book is everything I wanted in a novel, my only criticism is I would have liked a bit more connection to Matthew, I felt I would have been more touched by the end, whereas I felt a bit at a loss because I didn’t feel emotionally attached. Olivia, however was the complete opposite and I was drawn by everything she did or said and was worried for her several times. It’s atmospheric, but not really scary, I thought Schwabs version of ‘The Master’ was very original and clever. Overall I am in love with this story, it’s author and Olivia, I only knocked a star off because I wanted to love Matthew as much too.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

NGL I loved this. I whizzed through it in two days. I've always enjoyed V.E. Schwab's writing, and her ability to create these completely original worlds that surprise and intrigue! This one was no different. Olivia, our protagonist, has nothing. Not even a voice. So when she has the chance to escape her current situation, she grabs it by the horns - but is it a good idea?

I loved the Gothic elements and how centralised the story was on Olivia and her perception of things, even though it did include some history, it felt personal to her and she was very easy to connect with. The whole book also just had a ~spooky~ vibe which I loved.

I liked Addie LaRue but I think this one is more my cup of tea for sure. Not sure it quite beats Darker Shade of Magic though ;)

Thanks to netgalley for the free copy!

A mysterious tale of Gallant House.
Olivia Prior thinks she is an orphan until she receives a letter from her Uncle Arthur, asking her to come home. Except he died over a year ago. Quickly, she realises there are secrets not being told and unexplained events happening as she discovers who she is and how she is inexplicitly linked to Gallant.
A wonderful book to read. While on the shorter side, it still has depth and excitement as you follow Olivia along on her discovery.
#Gallant #NetGalley

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this review in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Gallant tells the story of Olivia, an orphan raised at an all-girls orphanage. Olivia, who is non-speaking, sees ghouls and yearns more than anything for a place she can call home.
One day, the orphanage receives a letter from Olivia’s estranged uncle, inviting her to live on the family's estate, Gallant. When she arrives discovers her uncle has been dead for over a year, and that her cousin, her one remaining family member, wants her to leave.

Schwab’s writing, as always, is beautiful and atmospheric. She has a very unique way of turning a metaphor and making the setting feel haunting and creepy, which really marks this story as a Schwab novel.

I gave this book four stars, but this is only because I regarded it as a Middle-Grade novel. It’s a quick read, with some clever turns and a delicious gothic setting, but the characters often left me wanting, and the story was very surface level. There wasn’t really any depth and complexities, and often the only reason things were kept in the dark was because of the most contrived way of miscommunication I’ve ever seen.
I appreciated that Olivia’s challenges as someone non-speaking were shown, but when her cousin wasn’t able to read, and the other character who was able to speak ASL often ignored Olivia (for no reason?) it really started to annoy me.

I recommend this for people looking for a quick and easy read, a story filled with ghosts and gothic mansions, and fans of the Middle-Grade genre!