(Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for and eARC in exchange for an honest review)

I had no idea what to expect with this book but i absolutely loved it! It had the best dark, mysterious vibes and was beautifully written. I read this in two sittings because it was so addictive. I was hooked from the beginning and loved every page. There is only a handful of characters but they are all written so well. There are also drawings included throughout the book that i loved!!

I would definitely recommend this book if your looking for a quick read filled with ghouls, mysterious family histories and the perfect dark/gothic vibes

To offer a spoiler-free review: I do not exaggerate when I say V E Schwab has mastered the subtleties of gothic horror with her new novel. ‘Gallant’ is dark. It is macabre. And it is utterly, utterly enchanting.

‘Gallant’ is a world of shadows and ghouls, a story that begins in an orphanage and quickly spirals into an uncanny nightmare. If you loved Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Crimson Peak,’ or Neil Gaiman’s ‘Coraline,’ you will revel in its pages like an emo kid at a Fall Out Boy concert.

Reviews for Schwab’s work often complain her pacing is slow. While I’d agree ‘Gallant’ doesn’t bolt from the gate, gothic styling isn’t something that can or should move quickly – as such, I see no negatives here.

To achieve the atmospheric chills that are so iconic to gothic novels, you need to introduce the terror in layers: a shifting shadow here. An inexplicably snuffed candle there. A key discovered not 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 where you left it. Rush this genre and it feels tacky: it is the difference between the growing tension knotting at your shoulderblades, ice tumbling down your vertebrae… or the excess of crimson paint and dry ice in a bad ‘Dracula’ remake. The long, looping spirals of Schwab’s narrative style suit this genre 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺. My skin crawled. My hair stood on end. I loved it.

The only reason I’ve removed half a star is I didn’t feel a real sense of danger until the very end of the novel. Chills? In ABUNDANCE. True terror? Not really, at least not ’til the climax. The slow descent into monstrous otherness was deliciously creepy, but I didn’t feel truly scared for our MC Olivia until the final quarter of the book. I’m splitting hairs here, but gothic novels are my fave, so I’m going to be picky. For fans of Schwab’s other work who haven’t studied the bejesus out of gothic fiction, this could easily be a 5-star read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

A HUGE thank-you to @netgalley and @titanbooks for this e-ARC copy. I’ll be ordering a physical one ASAP!

Again, V.E. Schwab doesn't disappoint with another masterpiece! Gallant had me gripped from the get go and I devoured it in less than 2 days! The characters were perfect, the world building was perfect, EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT!!!

Olivia Prior has lived almost all her life at the Merlance School for Girls. She apparently was left there by her mother when she was quite young and all she has from her mother is an old journal. Olivia's life has been a lonely one, much of it due to the fact she has no voice. One day a letter arrives from her uncle, inviting her to live with him at Gallant and soon Olivia is taking a long car ride to what is actually an estate. Once there it's clear something is amiss. Her uncle died a year or more ago and it's only a cousin and two servants remaining.

This is something akin to a Gothic novel, filled with darks and greys and ghouls and other remnants of death. Olivia is a likeable character. Although she cannot speak, she is intelligent and curious and quite rebellious in her own ways. The invitation to Gallant is like being called to her home. The one thing she longs for is to belong, something that's been missed in her life so far. Gallant as a setting is properly mysterious and creepy and there's always a sense of fear about what lurks in the night. The villain is equally nasty and, as is typical, rather full of himself.

The story is a really quick and easy read and I finished in just over a day of not-so-continuous reading. I really did like the book although I can't say I loved it. It was always going to be difficult to follow the wonderfulness of Addie LaRue so I think the simplicity of the story was ideal for this book. I think I enjoyed it just to the end, but the ending left me wanting and it lacked the satisfaction I was expecting from the end of such a story. Upon further reflection, I felt there were unanswered questions and it felt the story was unresolved in the end.

That being said, I still liked the book and I will give this 3.5 stars. I would like to thank Netgalley and Titan for providing the advanced reader copy. I have provided this review voluntarily.

i’m not sure how i feel about this book. three stars feels too low, but it felt like a bit of a chore to get through

things i liked:
i love v e schwab’s writing, it was as lyrical and lovely as always. olivia was a unique main character which i loved.

however, i struggled to get into the story, and then struggled to remain invested. i think how simple the story was didn’t hook me. i really liked the premise, it just didn’t deliver like i wanted it to

thank you to netgalley and titan books for the e-arc :)

V.E. Schwab is one of my go to authors, I have yet to find a book of hers that I did not enjoy, and some are firmly on my all time favourites list so you can imagine my excitement at receiving an advance copy of her latest book, Gallant .I am delighted to say that my excitement was not misplaced and Gallant is yet another wonderful book from Schwab.
The book opens in Merilance School for Girls where we are introduced to Olivia Prior, a girl on the verge of womanhood who does not miss the voice she never had but longs to know more about her mother and father. She has grown up at the school and the only clue she has is her mother's journal which seems to show her descent into madness , filled as it is with rambling passages and strange drawings. When Olivia receives a letter from her Uncle, a man she has never met, summoning her to his home, Gallant, she hopes to find the family she has longed for and the answers to her questions, but instead she is met by a haunted house filled with ghouls, and no Uncle as he died several years previously. His heir, Matthew certainly does not welcome her with open arms, but allows her to stay provided she does not go out after dusk and never crosses the wall which runs along the western edge of the property. Sure that the answers she seeks are beyond the wall, Olivia breaks the rules and uncovers the dark truth about her family.
This definitely feels like it is aimed at a younger market, older middle grade/young YA perhaps, but it is none the less enjoyable or magical for all that . It is something of a slow burn, with the story building gradually towards the conclusion which was quite dramatic and emotional. There is certainly a gothic vibe to the book, which is something I enjoy in general but may not be to every reader's taste. I also have to take a moment to mention the beautiful illustrations which really added so much to the atmosphere of the book and helped to illuminate Olivia's story, Having the main character of the book be non verbal may have been a real challenge for the author but you certainly cannot tell , it is integrated so well into the story . As I have come to expect from this author, the writing is beautiful, every word and phrase has a purpose .
Another hit from one of my favourites,
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher , all opinions are my own.

Another amazing book by the author, i love the nonverbal representation, the lore of the book and the pacing I just wish the climax was a bit longer and strong but overall an amazing book I also have a more in-depth review over my channel here: https://youtu.be/6Tg6SAGaPew

Oh how I loved this book, this made me feel so good and warm while reading. This is a book about longings and what it means to belong and to have a home.

This book reminded me a lot of Neil Gaiman's writing, especially books like The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which can be read both by younger and older readers, this type of fiction that exists in this liminal place where you're never too old or too young to read it because each age can interpret different things and give different meanings to what they read. Stardust also crossed my mind, with the whole Wall thing where if you cross there are different, darker things on the other side. The other comparison that cannot go unmentioned is obviously Coraline, the mysterious door that leads to a place just like the one you came from, but slightly different. I adore the eeriness and creepiness that stems from this type of plot and I think the author managed to work this really well. All of these inspirations made me love this book, even more, I was just super excited the whole time I was reading, especially in the first half when we are still being introduced to things and I just got that feeling of expectation about what was gonna to happen next and the anticipation was amazing.

If you've followed me for a while you might already know that I did not enjoy Schwab's last book, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. No one was sadder than me because of that, and it made me question: how would I fare in her next book? Well, thankfully I was hooked from start to finish and Gallant became a new favorite book. All is well in the world of literature for me.

Something I really appreciated and was one of my favorite aspects about this book was the writing, and how much WORK you can actually see in each sentence. It feels like those types of writing where you know each word has been carefully thought of and minutiously constructed, so that each sentence can convey its meaning. Kind of like the writing from Shirley Jackson. Gallant is not a tome, nor does it need to be. It constructs, develops, and delivers in a little over three hundred pages, showing off Schwab's pure craft.

I've said this before but the gothic tradition in literature is once again popular, and I'm here for all of it! Gallant is definitely a gothic fantasy and I loved all the descriptions and constructions of the atmosphere of the place, it all felt real and so tangible, I could see it all in my head and lose myself in the hallways of the house. The ghouls that live in the place reminded me a lot of the movie Crimson Peak (2015) and I started to picture them kind of like the effects from the movie. These ghouls are so creepy and unsettling but at the same time, they hold a tenderness to them, each having their own longings and sadness from being torn from life. I loved how the author managed to imbue all these feelings to these creatures from darkness and thus was able to humanize them for us readers.

I adored our main character, Olivia, she is so sweet and fierce. I just connected to her on so many levels. I also loved the representation, since the character doesn't speak, and I think the author inserted this really well into the story, making Olivia communicate in other ways that are non-verbal.

I don't know if I said all I wanted to say about this book, I still feel like I can't quite put into words what I feel about it. I do know that a part of my mind will always have a door open to Gallant because this story will not leave me for a long time. I cannot recommend this book enough. This is one of the best books I've read in 2022 so far.

Thank you Titan Books so much for the ARC! My first ever Schwab arc and she is one of my fave authors so... Well, I am on the moon right now.

3.8*

Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for approving me of an ARC. Gallant has been on my radar for a while because the premise sounds very unique and I always loved that trope of a mystery surrounding a house/a family thing, so when I was approved of Gallant, I was thrilled.

And I actually did like the plot. We follow the story from Olivia's POV and she can't speak, so what we see is usually her train of thoughts and occasionally some of the other characters' dialogues. Olivia can also see ghouls , which made this book a whole lot creepier and when I discovered this fact about her, I stopped reading immediately because it was already nighttime where I live and the house felt eerily silent than it should've been. Basically we follow Olivia as she was swept from her orphanage that she didn't like to this house in the middle of nowhere named Gallant, when she received a letter saying that turns out, she has an uncle who has been looking for her. But when she got to the house, she discovered that her uncle was dead, and the cousin she still has want her out of this house. But Olivia has been hearing about Gallant all her life from her mom's journal and she wants to know why her mom and her cousin both want her to stay away from Gallant.

My issue with this book is only how slow it is - we don't get to the main plot until 50% in, and we spend most of it just wandering around with Olivia in the house. I also didn't really like the wriiting? I think it got too confusing at some point but I think this was just a "me" issue, and everyone would definitely love VE Schwab's writing (I too didn't connect with ADSOM's when I read it). I also would've loved getting a side plot of Olivia finding a family in her cousin and the crew in Gallant (I love Hannah and Edgar so much). In fact, I was looking forward to it, and it would've definitely made the ending a little more emotional in my opinion.

A haunting tale of finding home, family secrets and fighting darkness

Our main character Olivia is a young girl yearning for a place to call home, having spent her life growing up in an orphanage school, aware that both her parents are dead, she longs for connection and answers and clings to her mothers journal which is full, for the most part, of the nonsensical musing of a woman she has been told was mad. When she receives a letter from an unknown uncle beckoning her home, she makes her journey to the estate known as Gallant where she finds more than she bargained for.

An initially frosty relationship with her cousin leaves Olivia continuing to feel lost and alone, but when she ventures through the door in the wall of the garden she finds both answers and more secrets to be uncovered. An interesting addition to the story is that Olivia is mute, therefore the unsaid becomes all the more important.

Schwab does a fantastic job of creating an eerie, gothic setting. Gallant is filled with ghouls who become key characters in the story and the darkness really comes alive through the wonderful writing.

I found this a quick and easy read that I was keen to devour. I enjoy Schwab’s style of writing which is not too detailed or flowery but still able to tell an intricate story with lots of suspense and character development.

A really great gothic fantasy that did not disappoint. Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much Titan Books and NetGalley for providing me with the e-arc of Gallant by VE Schwab in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Gallant is a dish concocted from a recipe of love, loss, curses, darkness and shadows, gothic eeriness, desire, longing, wishes for things not had and longing for a home.

For as long as Olivia can remember, she has been alone, living in an orphanage, ostracised because she is non verbal and aching with the loss of family. Her only knowledge of her family is her mother’s journal, which brings comfort in the knowledge that she was loved, but also pain and fear for the contents are rife with madness and warnings to stay away from Gallant.

Olivia is what appears to be a down trodden character, she has no voice, those around her do not sign and she is very isolated verbally and mentally, but beneath that sad exterior beats a heart that yearns for family, love and home.

The other key characters in the story, Matthew, Hannah and Edgar are brought forth like pencil sketches, not quite fulfilled, slightly unfinished, but sufficiently detailed enough to have the potential to fulfil Olivia’s dream, but the Master, shaped of darkness, shadows, ash and dust is there, waiting, the epitome of a gothic villain.

Once again V. E. Schwab doesn’t disappoint, from start to end she delivers an eerie atmosphere, that cold feeling down your spine, that sense of haunting loneliness and darkness that you just can’t nail down. Schwab delivers that something you see out of the corner of your eye that niggles, and haunts, enhanced by the hauntingly, dark, sensuous illustrations interspersed between chapters.

Truthfully, whilst I was totally engrossed and immediately drawn into the story, its brevity and the suddenness of certain points were a little disappointing. Maybe because I just wanted the story to go on, being greedy for Schwab’s beautiful prose. Or maybe, I was expecting another Addie…which this book definitely isn’t…however, I did feel definite NearWitch vibes.

If you’re looking for a read with haunting, gothic overtones that will pull you in and not release you, even after the book is finished, then this is definitely one for you to pick up. This book has beautiful prose, haunting characters, light, dark and shade, and is another strong offering from V.E. Schwab.

I’ll be honest I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy this when I first started it as the synopsis didn’t grab me, however I have enjoyed most books that Schwab has written so I thought I would try this and see how I felt. Overall I thought it was okay.

The writing is simple and I found it very easy to read, it was a quick read for me. Schwabs writing style just works for me and I find I can read her books quickly, I know others probably will feel different. I did think the pacing could have been better, I personally found the beginning part of the book to be a little boring but once we got to Gallant then I got more interested. The whole thing was wrapped up conveniently and things were revealed quickly, I think there could have been more mystery to it. I loved the illustrations in the book and I would have them as prints in my house. The illustrations made me enjoy the book more as it just added something extra.

The setting was okay, I enjoyed the gothic atmosphere of gallant and the ghouls were an aspect I liked. The gothic and creepy atmosphere made me enjoy the book because i just love that sort of atmosphere. The orphanage/school at the start didn’t really interest me. Gallant and it’s opposite were interesting and I enjoyed the parts I read about. I wished there was more time spent developing the world and other areas.

The characters were okay, i don’t think they were very interesting and I probably won’t remember much of them in a few days. The main character Olivia is mute which was something new to me. I don’t have anything to compare it to and I don’t know much about muteness so I don’t know if it was written well. I could have done with more character development as I didn’t connect with the characters.

Overall I enjoyed it and I would have loved it even more if I read it when I was younger.

This was a great quick read, and a lovely story that has V.E Schwabs eloquent writing, the ways she puts words together is like music, it's so soothing!

Saved this to read as a birthday treat, and I'm surprised at how I flew through this - it was a very quick, fast-paced read where I expected something slower. I just wanted something a little more from it, unfortunately.

I mostly enjoyed Olivia as a main character. She is non-speaking, which was nice to see in a book. I can't judge if the rep was done well, but it felt respectful. I liked seeing her find where she belongs after growing up in an orphanage. Sadly, I did feel like her character was a little underdeveloped, like we didn't really get to know her well, and that also goes for the other characters. She also felt rather young for her age, which is fine, but it made the book feel more like upper MG/lower YA.

The plot was fun, and a touch creepy, which I enjoy. I love the concept of a mysterious house and I definitely felt intrigued. I just also felt like everything was revealed rather conveniently - I would have liked a little more of a puzzle/mystery - and ultimately, the story feels like something I've read before and I have a feeling it will be fairly forgettable for me.

What a beautiful little fantasy book

I’ve always been a fan of V E Schwab - I, along with every other person on the planet, devoured her Shades of Magic trilogy, and now anything she puts out I just have to read. Gallant is her latest release and for me it’s up there with Shades in terms of sheer quality and pure reading enjoyment.

Described by Schwab as a play on The Secret Garden, Gallant follows Olivia Prior, a young orphan girl who can see ghosts out of the corner of her eye. When she’s summoned to her ancestral family home she didn’t know existed, she’ll be embroiled in the house’s mysteries and the world that lives beyond the garden wall.

This was such a fun read, with both a propulsive plot and poetic writing that sweeps you into the scenes. I found myself getting wrapped up in the mystery, trying to guess the twists and turns, and getting more existed with every reveal. Schwab’s writing, always beautiful, but it was particularly on show here, feeling like a dark fairy tale full of shadows and death.

I also loved the main character - I don’t read much YA anymore, but I do have a real soft spot for books where the main character is a stubborn young girl who isn’t afraid to make a scene or stand her ground (think Lyra in the Golden Compass, or Bri in One The Come Up). Olivia Prior is filled with that kind of obstinate rage, and every time she threw a pot on the ground or went investigating somewhere she wasn’t supposed to I was just delighted.

Highly recommend this if you’re after a fantasy that you can read in a couple of days and just get completely engrossed by. The chapters are short enough that you can breeze through them, and I struggled to put it down because I just had to know what happened next.

Olivia’s life is one of absence: a voice, parents, belonging – she has none of these. Instead she has the ability to see ghouls, shadowy people in varying states of decay. She also has her mother’s journal, which ends on the sentence, “You will be safe as long as you stay away from Gallant.”

But when a letter arrives from an uncle she never knew about, her need to leave Merilance School for Girls is stronger than her fear of Gallant, her family’s estate. When she arrives, though, there’s no warm welcome, only servants and rules: don’t go out in the dark, and don’t cross the wall in the garden. But whatever lies beyond calls to her – to Olivia and to her unwelcoming, cursed cousin, who screams in the night, tied to his bed.

But ‘home is a choice’, as the journal said. Olivia wants to choose, finally, no matter the cost.

I absolutely loved the mood this book invokes: very gothic, full of longing and outsiderness and shadows, both real and metaphorical. Making Olivia mute is such an interesting choice, too, not least the allegory that she’s never been given voice to make her own decisions about her life, instead as impotent as the shadowy ghouls it seems only she can see.

I really liked the other world, too, on the other side of the wall. If Gallant is gothic, then what lies beyond in the shadow realm – well, I’ll leave that to the reader!

On the downside, I’d say this reads far more as a YA book than I was expecting. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it does mean the story feels pared down, lean and taut and with a relentless pace. It might have been nice to slow and tarry a while longer, build up more of the sense of unease before rushing to a finale. It also means several elements, including the beginning in Merilance and the ghouls, were a left a little under-developed and not quite used to the full.

Still, it’s as gorgeously written as any of VE Schwab’s novels. The story is about yearning to belong, family and duty, life and death. Her words are as much a painting as the lovely and intriguing artwork in the book, and I loved being able to visit – if a little too briefly – the worlds she’s created here, dark and ominous as they were.

Gallant is a story of a haunted, secretive manor, curses, walls that are not walls, and shadows that are not shadows. Olivia's lived all her life in silence but aching to be heard, alone but aching for a mother she did not know, left only with her journal to comfort her. But her mother's mad ravings leave her with more questions than answers, in particular, her last words - a warning to stay away from Gallant.

One of the things I liked the most about this book was the ambiance. V. E. Schwab never disappoints when it comes to this. Gallant has an eerie, lonely, and somber feeling throughout that just makes the story more haunting, more engrossing. The beautiful, dark illustrations between chapters only added more to this feeling as well.

I didn't love the characters, though. I mean, I really liked Olivia, she was very interesting and I loved the way she saw the world. But she didn't have a huge presence, as some main characters do, which I assume was intentional, but still. I wish she was more… demanding in some situations. The other characters were an all-too-brief presence in the story, but I liked Matthew and would've liked to see more of the master of the house. As a villain, his character was too stereotypically evil and I expected more from a Schwab book in that regard.

Another thing I wasn't a huge fan of was how quickly some things happened, particularly the conflict and resolution. The whole book just feels a tad too short, like it needed a little more in some parts - or perhaps it has just left me craving for more of this story? (Of course, I wish it was longer.)

The writing, of course, did not disappoint. Reading V.E. Schwab's writing makes me want to write; it's so engrossing and so thoughtful. Just gorgeous. This author's writing is probably my favorite of all time.

Overall, Gallant was a very enjoyable read for me. I was engrossed in the story, mesmerized by Schwab's gorgeous writing the whole time I was reading. It reads more like a YA than one of Schwab's adult books, which I prefer, but maybe I expected too much. I had high expectations but still, I thought, somewhat realistic after being one of the few people not being completely in love with The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Still, Gallant was a really good book, and I strongly recommend it.

I've managed to get to 40% of this before I decided that it's just really not my book. I love V.E. Schwab and tend to love everything she puts out in the world, but I was just really bored while reading this one, and I felt that nothing significant was happening to hold my attention.

Thank you so much to titan books and NetGalley for this arc.

‘Home is a choice’

Gallant is the newest masterpiece in a long line of them from Schwab and OMG she did it again!

The imagery is all so beautiful and you get just enough of an answer to the mystery of Gallant that it’s keeps you going on. It’s extremely well paced and just like Addie the prose is so poetic and beautifully haunting. It really showcases Schwab’s mastery of her art.

This book features a mute MC and non-verbal expression is tackled to tactfully. Even without her Voice Olivia is able to express herself so well, that as a reader you really emphasise with her.

I seriously don’t want to give anything away because for a book like this anything more than the already provided synopsis is akin to a spoiler. So I’m just going to stop here by telling you, you simply have to read this.

After reading a few back to back indies. It was so glorious to read this masterpiece and I literally read it in one sitting.

After the huge commercial success of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (which was also one of my favourite books of 2020), all eyes are on Gallant.
I had high hopes for this one, the cover art is stunning and I knew from Addie that V. E. Schwab can write incredible characters. But I'm really sorry to say that this kind of disappointed me. Even though it's marketed as adult fantasy, to me it felt like a middle grade novel, with a plot that lacked originality. It's not a bad novel, but I felt I might have liked it better if it was a short story, or if I went into it expecting a middle grade book.