Crimson Peak meets The Secret Garden in this ghoulish tale of traveling over the garden wall.

I will read anything and everything that Schwab throws my way. She has a magical way of telling a story that automatically grabs you in its clutches and never let's go. There is also a special place in my heart for books that have things that go bump in the night or in this case ghosts that sit on your bed as you sleep. I've been there, seen that, and I don't recommend it.

This one intrigued me from the start. We meet Olivia who resides at an all girls school, she can't speak with words but can see ghouls hiding throughout. Then a mysterious letter arrives from a long-lost relative who has been searching franticly for her and invites her to move into his estate. Once she moves into the estate, things get weirder from there. Behind every door is a secret and Olivia is determined to find the answers to long ago questions.

I really enjoyed this. The pacing was great and made for a quick unputdownable read, the cast of characters, ghouls, and Death were all amazing, each one held their own as the story progressed, the haunted estate was eerily tempting, and the mystery was the glue that held this all together. It was all so fantastic but there was just something missing that her other books offered. I'm just not sure what was the missing link.

The one main thing that held me back was the quickly wrapped up ending. It was a typical ending to a haunted/deathly tale. I was expecting something big and shocking but we got something that has been done many times before and that was disappointing. It did take a bit away from the story. I'm not in any way saying that I disliked this because I didn't. I loved it, I just wish the ending had a little more oomph.

Gallant was a hauntingly brilliant read. Fans of The Secret Garden, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Books of Elsewhere will love this eerie story. The writing is beautiful and the story was wonderful. Schwab creates the perfect atmosphere for this beautiful gothic tale. It's one that I know I'll read over and over again and fall in love with each time.

Gallant is one of my most anticipated titles of 2022. I am a huge fan of just about anything Victoria. Schwab does so it is no surprise that I loved this creepy, original story. I had seen it compared to a terrifying version of The Secret Garden and that feels accurate. No one is better at quietly scary stories than Schwab is!

V.E. Schwab is a masterful storyteller. She builds detailed worlds and creates complex characters. One of my favorite things about reading her work is how real things feel to me. I was only slightly let down by Gallant. Pitched as a ‘Secret Garden meets Crimson Peak’ type of story, it seemed right up my alley, but I felt it was lacking something. The atmosphere Schwab creates is on point, but I found myself not really able to connect with Olivia, and while I understood what drove her as a character, she still felt a little hollow. The most interesting part of this book was the how the illustrations tied in. The images are repetitive, but with each new bit of information you learn, the images change meaning and add to the development of the story. Definitely an interesting idea! Overall it was an entertaining read, but it’s not going to be one of my Schwab rereads.

5 stars! Schwab is perfection and I will continue to read everything she writes! Her world building and character development is always fantastic.

Olivia Prior, orphan, is treated differently because she cannot speak. Bullied in the past by the other orphans at Merilance School for Girls and with little prospects once she is released into the world, Olivia reads her mother's journal over and over again hoping for a miracle. Of course others would send her off the a psychiatric ward if they knew she could see shades.

Her miracle does come as a letter from living relatives. Her mother's journal always said to stay away from Gallant but what choice does she have otherwise? How bad could it be? As it turns out, bad in a different way from Merilance but there is also good. She learns more about her family, more about her mother, her father, and Gallant and why she sees shades.

If I'd read this when I was 10-14 I would have loved it. Mysteries abound, spooky, a door that won't open, a mirrored place, and a tough protagonist make this a compelling read.

Eerie and atmospheric, Gallant feels like the dark sequel to a fairytale--not Disney but Grimm--wherein we find out what happens to the girl made of two worlds. Olivia is a haunting and heartfelt protagonist, and both Gallant and the other Gallant are exceptionally well drawn, viscerally places. For all that the stakes in this book are ultimately very high--and the ravaged state of Olivia's family certainly attests to this--it also a quiet story filled with shadows and half-formed ghosts and whispers echoing through time. All in all a solid, otherworldly read that lives up to its blurb.

Victoria Schwab is an insta-read author for me. I have read several of her books for all age ranges. I was very excited to be approved for Gallant. That being said, I was a little disappointed in the overall story.

There were many things I liked. Olivia is a wonderful character and I love that Schwab took on the challenge of a MC that could not speak and had to find other ways of communicating. The world building was very detailed and the ghouls were just creepy enough without being too terribly scary. I enjoyed the backstory of Olivia's parents and the other Gallant beyond the wall with its ruins and evil master.

I just felt like there could have been so much more. When the book ended, not much had really changed for Gallant and the Priors. Matthew was dead, but Olivia was now taking his place and Death was contained but not really defeated. It really just put Olivia in a very hopeless place. And honestly I'm not sure what the point of the book was supposed to be if Olivia just ended up taking Matthew's spot. I guess finally feeling like she belonged to a family, but even then she had lost the last living blood relative she had. I wish things had ended on a more happier note or that Matthew's sacrifice would have been worth so much more.

Home is calling to Olivia Prior. It's a relief for a girl bullied for her muteness in an all-girls' home, but when she arrives at Gallant, it's not the homecoming she was hoping for. Though the Priors belong to a grand estate, they are survived only by a hostile and sickly teenage cousin, two caretakers, and the ghoulish forms of family members who never left the estate.
Olivia knows something sinister is at work at Gallant, and she is determined to find out before she is forced from the first place that has ever felt like home. Her curiosity brings her across the crumbling garden wall and to a sinister mirror world where Gallant stands, but crookedly. There, the Master of the other Gallant welcomes her and grants her a chance to prove herself to her family.
But does that mean joining him behind the wall or defending Gallant as the other Priors did?
Although the body of V.E. Schwab’s work plays in liminal spaces, she hardly depends on space to build tensions in her plot. Gallant is Schwab's best work when it comes to depicting the complexity of human relationships, especially between family members, in a manner that strikes not only younger readers but adult readers as well. Schwab balances so many of Olivia’s personal discoveries at once: her discovery of her parentage, the meaning behind the drawings in her mother’s notebook, Olivia’s tentative friendship with Matthew, and her growing antagonism with the Master of the House. Gallant is not sprawling. I imagine it’s a pretty thin book. Still, its emotional depth is astonishing.
To return to plot, I felt truly unsure of the protagonist’s ability to defeat the villain. Where normally Schwab’s characters are larger-than-life beings strapped with cinematic capabilities, the Priors felt disproportionately small. A ferocious girl who can’t talk and her sickly cousin debilitated by dreams and guilt against a being feasts on life itself? I could hardly get to the conclusion fast enough.
In the end, Gallant is a book about loss. Just as Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was a necessary balm to get us through 2020, Gallant will help us reckon with the end of whatever the hell these last two years were. In other words, it’s a quieter, more gloomy book, but one that is no less necessary.

A dark and atmospheric fairytale. I wasn't sure about it until I got to the half way mark, but I loved the creepy, unsettling setting and the straightforward but mesmerizing story.

Victoria Schwab has done it again! Gallant is creepy in all the right ways. Schwab's world building is superb. When you finish reading, you'll be wondering what's behind your garden wall and pulling the weeds will never be the same again!

A dark story with lots of twists and turns. I read this right after reading Addie LaRue and it reminded me a lot about that one. I enjoyed the letter to readers at the beginning that talked about doors being the portals from one world to another. This of this as the Secret Garden, but darker.

One of my favorite reads so far this year. Schwab has been my favorite author for a while now and she has yet to disappoint. Even before finishing this, I immediately placed a preorder for the book because I was loving it so much. The writing was beautifully done and the two worlds of Gallant were everything I wanted.

Filled with Schwab's characteristically lush worldbuilding and evocative description, I loved melting into this world and discovering its secrets through the main character's eyes. Following a bright and curious girl, Olivia is an orphan, raised in a home for girls but always held separate for her inability to speak, and her ability to see ghouls, half-formed spirits of the dead that linger invisibly to all but her. Summoned a letter from the family she never knew she had, Olivia is transported to the family estate of Gallant, a grand manor that has seen better days, and is filled with secrets. This gothic horror was perfect for a gently spooky read on a stormy day, and will be a big hit with Victoria Schwab fans, as well as have broad appeal for both YA and adult audiences.

This book reminded me of Addie LaRue. Beautiful descriptions of place and the character building was great. I cared about Olivia and her family and wanted to know why they were stuck at the house, destined to be driven crazy.

The plot wasn't all that enticing. I stayed for the descriptions and the characters, but wasn't overly excited by the ending or lack of resolution, in my eyes, to the problem Olivia faced as now the last of her family.

While I would have loved a badass heroine who saved her family and lived happily ever after after solving a centuries old problem, I appreciate what I did get. I appreciate the idea that Olivia stays in this cursed place with Hannah and Edgar because they are family, that and the cursed house are her lot in life, and that is better than no family at all.

Once again, through her prose, Schwab proves that she is a master in the literary world. Every word seems to be chosen so deliberately and yet so effortlessly, it is a thrill to read her work and absolutely engaging in the way that all of the best books are. This is a wonderful follow-up after Addie LaRue and shows just how good Schwab is at her craft.

Olivia Prior comes to Gallant knowing nothing about who she is, where she comes from, or why she should stay away. Through the course of the story, she must find her place in the world that is, while fighting against the darkness that longs to pull her closer. While I could go into more detail, I think that honestly, the less detail you have, the more you will allow the story to draw you in and captivate you. I loved reading all of the descriptions of Gallant (both versions of it) and of how Olivia exists in the world. The magic systems in the novel seem logical but not over-explained, and the overall tone is one of dark fantasy. It's a simple story, but highly effective in the way of the best types of fairy tales. I cannot wait to reread this book in print and marvel at the illustrations in a larger format than the screen of my phone. I cannot recommend this book enough!

This novel seemed like it played with genre conventions in a really interesting way - it had the narrative arc of a YA novel (and “felt” like a YA novel, for lack of a better word) but the ending was much grimmer and darker than most teen-hero portal fantasies, even adding in the spooky gothic manor and dark family secrets and so on, would lead me to expect. I was expecting something triumphant or at least vaguely redemptive right up until the last few pages and got less of that than I’d imagined - which is not a bad thing. It’s like if The Secret Garden crashed into The Haunting Of Hill House. Again, not a bad thing, necessarily.

Victoria Schwab has done it again. Thanks to Netgalley for an eARC of Gallant. This book is amazing. I can't wait for it to be out in the world for all to read. We first meet Olivia at Merilance School for Independent Girls, a home for girls. Olivia Prior is mute and doesn't fit in with the other girls, doesn't like Merilance, the Matrons, or the rules. Also, Olivia can see ghouls, but they don't scare her. She longs for a home. All she has left of her Mother is a journal that she has read over and over. Her mother's writings and mysterious illustrations tell part of the story but she is left with many things unanswered. The last piece of advice that her mother leaves for her in the journal is to stay away from Gallant. One day a letter comes from someone saying he is her uncle and that he has been searching for her for years and that he wants her to come home to Gallant. Although, this causes her confusion, not long after a car comes to take her to Gallant. She arrives though not to her uncle, but to Hannah, Edgar, and her cousin Matthew. Her cousin is upset that she is there and wants her to leave. There are secrets about the Priors and Gallant. There is a strange crumbling wall at the base of the garden, a weird metal sculpture of two houses, ghouls, stories untold of missing relatives. She struggles to sleep and even starts having bizarre dreams, where she never used to dream before. Olivia must figure out the secrets of Gallant and what is beyond that crumbling wall, and decide if she will be able to make it her home.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! And THANK YOU VICTORIA SCHWAB for writing this books. It is a hauntingly beautiful story with a protagonist that anyone can find a way to relate to. The pacing is perfect and the world building is perfect. I can’t wait to read it again when it comes out. This is certainly one I will be buying to have on my Schwab Shelf!

Victoria Schwab has penned another beautifully written story. Her prose and storytelling ability are top notch! This time she brings us to a haunted mansion on a hill… one that carries a dark secret. Olivia, the main character, is a girl who has been orphaned and left at a girls school, until a mysterious note arrives and she’s whisked off to the mansion, to more strangers, and a devilishly good adventure. Opposite worlds separated by a wall, familiar obligations, and a devil wanting his due all await the reader as you crack the spine and immerse yourself in a story you won’t want to put down. I highly recommend this newest novel from the talented Schwab. She has definitely become one of my go to authors when recommending books of all levels to people who like a little fantasy, a great story, and books that you will consume with pleasure.

Thank you to #NetGalley, the publishers and the author for an advanced electronic ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion. This was a 5 out of 5 star read for me and one you will definitely want to spring to pick up on its release date this upcoming March 1, 2022.

Schwab has become an auto-buy author for me. Her prose is so beautifully poetic; I want to use it in my literature class to really break down and study. I loved this new story and the world we're introduced to. Her attention to detail when world building is unique and intricate. Olivia is such an interesting main character to follow and the eeriness of this story was really fun.