I enjoyed this but didn't absolutely love it. Schwab always gets me with their writing and atmosphere, and this book was no different. However, I didn't feel quite attached enough to Olivia which meant that I overall was not nearly as invested as I could've been.

However, the atmosphere truly does shine here, and whenever Olivia would cross the wall/door into the other realm, I would feel the dread creep into my bones. I also really enjoyed where the character relationships were going near the end of the book, and would happily read a sequel. I just wish I had been more attached to the characters so that certain stakes would've felt higher.

I'd give it a 3.5/5 stars.
A huge thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the e-ARC! All opinions are my own.

*Thank you to HCCfrenzy for a copy in exchange for an honest review*

VE Schwab is one of my favourite authors, so I went into this with my expectations high. And it did not disappoint. The way that VE Schwab can create a world in a standalone like Gallant is phenomenal.

Gallant follows Olivia, who has grown up in the Merilance School for Girls, and the only relic she has of her past is her mother's journal, which seems to unravel into madness. Only she receives a letter from her uncle at Gallant, where her mother's journal says to stay away from Gallant to be safe. Yet when Olivia arrives at Gallant, no one is expecting her. But Olivia knows Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. When she crosses the ruined wall, she finds herself in a place that is Gallant, but not.
Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him?

I loved Gallant. I love Schwab's writing style, and this didn't disappoint. It's so easy to sit down and read, not realizing you just read 50 pages. Schwab creates this spooky world full of ghosts, mysteries, and questions that you are figuring out as you read the book.

The illustrations brought so much to the story, and I love how well thought out they are. They are placed perfectly, and without them, Gallant would not be the same.

Olivia is nonverbal, and to read a book where the main character doesn't speak is a whole different experience. I was curious at how Schwab would write Olivia, especially since she doesn't speak, but it was done so well. It was a new experience for me, and I loved it.

Gallant is the perfect book for October, just like Schwab's middle-grade series City of Ghosts. Gallant is filled with ghosts, and I want to reread this when it hits October 1st.

[4.5/5]

“Moving through the halls, she’s struck again by the size of this place, designed for forty instead of four. A skeleton staff, that’s what it’s called when there are so few left to manage a manor so large, but the residents of Gallant are less a skeleton than a handful of mismatched bones.”

Olivia is a young orphan, who was left at a school for girls with nothing but her mothers journal outlining her descent into madness. She has nobody in the world, until she receives a letter with the promise of family after so long. Olivia makes her way to the family home, Gallant, where something lurks beyond the shadows.

This was my first by Schwab but it definitely will not be my last. I really enjoyed her writing style - somehow cozy and creepy at the same time. This was a freaking eerie book!! It creeped me out a few times, but it was *too scary* for this chicken. I was also pleasantly surprised by how much heart a book like this could have in it. It was a beautiful book about family and home.

Thanks so much to @hccfrenzy and @netgalley for a copy of this book for review! #FrenzyFaves

“She had never believed in higher powers, because if there were higher powers then they took her father and mother, they took her voice, they left her in Merilance with nothing but a book. But there are lower powers, stranger ones...”

Just finished reading GALLANT by Victoria Schwab. Thank you to hccfrenzy for my ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. Official publication date is March 1st, 2022.

Had to get my hands on this one as a huge fan of her SHADES OF MAGIC series. Also the main characters name is Olivia 👏 👏!

Olivia Prior is an orphan at Merilance School for girls. All she knows of her past, is the crazy ramblings found in her mother journal.

Until a letter comes from a long lost uncle inviting her to Gallant. But Gallant is not what it seems, with ghouls around every corner, a cousin who doesn't want her there and a strange dark world located beyond the crumbling garden gate.

Just when Olivia thinks she's finally found her place in the world where she belongs, she will learn some secrets about her heritage that will leave her questioning which side of the gate she belongs on. What will Olivia do?

I wanted to love it so bad, but just felt like I got lost a bit near the end. It was missing some magic for me ✨.

Olivia knows her mother only through her journal and longs to escape her life at the orphanage where everything seems to exist in shades of grey and ghouls that only she can see lurk in the corners and under the beds. When a letter from her uncle arrives at the orphanage and promises her a home and family, she leaps at the chance. But her mother's journal has warned her to stay away from Gallant, the family home. And maybe her mother was right that not having a family is better than what she'll face on the other side of the wall.

I confess that I hadn't read anything by Victoria (V. E.) Schwab until The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and I confess that I only picked up Gallant because I loved Addie LaRue so much. I knew that Addie LaRue differed from her other work, but I was curious. And I was not disappointed. Although it seems that Schwab has returned to something closer to her previous brand, her writing is just as lovely as it was in Addie LaRue, and the story is just as compelling.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

A feral animal of a book that you want to rush towards but can't for fear of startling it. GALLANT is a delight weaved around a nightmare that proves what a powerhouse of a writer V.E. Schwab really is.

The vibes of Crimon Peak meet Coraline meet The Secret Garden meet the video game, Little Nightmares. They all weave together in tandem, in perfect synchronicity, and slowly drags you by the ankles into a world that is both cozy and chilled, welcoming and not. I was immediately obsessed with the atmosphere of the books and was enraptured with Olivia. She is a character who knows what means to go unheard, to want to scream at the top of your lungs in frustration but dismissed because those around either don't want or care to hear or they simply don't understand. Being overwhelmed with the need to communicate but being unable to is a suffocating feeling that those with disabilities (including those of us that fall under the neurodivergent umbrella) are all too familiar with. It is infuriating to read as it is infuriating to face in reality which I thought was well handled based on my own experiences.

Schwab has once again given a book that is meant to be devoured, but carefully. The details needing to be admired in time. I chose to take my time reading it and felt I got so much more out of it than I would have racing through it's pages. I loved every word.

The secret garden with a twist. Lush storytelling at it's gothic best. Olivia in an orphanage having lost both her parents until ond day she recieves a letter from her uncle inviting her home. . However when she arrives the uncle is now where to be found and her cousin Matthew wants nothing to do with her. Who sent the letter? is just one question among many mysteries and secrets at the beautiful Gallant

More of a thought experiment than a full story, it read like a novella: all imagery and meaning. That is not to say it wasn’t enjoyable or it was too short, it just didn’t feel like a novel, and I was a little surprised when it was over 300 pages, even after I read them all.

But it was achingly beautiful. Olivia is an impossibility in so many ways, yet still easily understood. Her simple struggle for a family and a home is a universal want, a need we all have. The unique home she finds is anything but perfect, and yet fits her perfectly. I found her tenaciousness and bravery to be an inevitability, but also a startling reality.

This needs to be a movie. It’s written over a period that reads like real time and could easily be translated into a film, with so much gorgeous cinematography, the color and the gray!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

Another book that V.E. Schwab knocked out of the park! Schwab is an extremely talented author who always creates an atmospheric book with great characters and a compelling story. Olivia is unlikable to those around her, but readers will love her curiosity and sense of adventure. It does have a kind of open ending that leaves me wanting more, but that's consistent in all of Schwabs books. Anyone who loves a dark, gothic, story will love this one.

This book is so poetic, atmospheric and dark. Olivia is an interesting character, I enjoyed getting to know her more throughout the books. She felt very real and three dimensional to me. I wish we had gotten to know Mathew more. Schwab has a past of leaving her endings open and Gallant is definitely that way. I want more but can imagine the future in this book.

Gallant is a mix of horror and mysticism, of fantasy and the real draw of the promise of family and belonging. It is a book that exists in the middle of all we know and all we wish to know.

Schwab's writing enchants and ignites a wonder that spurs the reader ever forward in learning of Olivia's family and the mysteries left in their wake. Every page urged me to keep going, to keep reading, to find those answers whispered in the pages. It was a delight, and I have already begun to recommend it upon release to friends, with plans to stock several copies on my class shelf.

This was a book I could not put down. I started in in the morning, after a night of too little sleep. I found myself delaying my morning routine, pulling the book up in between shelves at the market, and spending hours on my couch desperately working to reach the conclusion, to see how this ends. It's been merely half a day since beginning this book and here I am at the end wanting to start all over again.

An adventure, from beginning to end. One you will not want to miss.

This book is a masterpiece! The atmosphere! The stories! The characters! The ghosts! Everything comes together to form this perfectly spooky and intriguing story!

Also: I love that the MC doesn’t talk. That is just so unique in a story. I find sometimes dialogue just takes away from the story telling itself because characters fill in spaces with explaining things to the reader. This book was so cool in the sense that Olivia couldn’t tell us, she had to show us with her actions!

I was expecting this one to be good and it was not. Gallant seems more like a combination of her previous works.

Thank you to Edelweiss, Netgalley, and the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

A new VE Schwab book… need I say more? I’m a fan of VE Schwab since the Vicious and Shades of Magic days. While I typically like Schwab’s YA less than their adult, I still was interested in the premise of this book and wanted to read it!

Gallant follows a girl named Olivia Prior who cannot speak but can see ghosts/apparitions that she calls ghouls. She’s been raised in a home for girls after her mother’s disappearance, who left behind only one confusing and worrying journal as it seems she descended into madness, with the final entry warning Olivia that she would only be safe if she stayed away from Gallant.

When the house receives a letter for Olivia from her uncle inviting and welcoming her to live with his family, Olivia goes, despite realizing the family estate is called Gallant.

But instead of arriving and her uncle being there to answer her questions, she finds out that her uncle is dead, and no one knows who sent the letter. The only people left are her cousin, Matthew, and two caretakers, and they warn Olivia to leave because the house is not safe.

But Olivia is determined to find her answers, and find her place, so she remains in the crumbling estate, with its abundance of ghouls, long dead family portraits, a vast rose garden, and a dark, shadow-bending garden wall that holds back more than one would think. When Olivia crosses over the wall, she finds herself in a mirror version of Gallant, where the ghouls are solid, ruled over by Death itself, who is desperate to be free.

The first thing that comes to mind that I liked is that it felt as if it was a quick read. The overall vibes of the book were perfect, and I think VE Schwab nailed the gothic, haunted, Secret Garden-vibes, but I do think the vibes were the strongest/most compelling point of this novel. The mirror Gallant, the shadow Gallant, with its solid ghouls and shadow guards and Death itself was so interesting and spooky.

One thing I saw pointed out months ago is that others have noticed quite a few/all of VE Schwab’s female main characters are ALWAYS friendless/family-less, and always feel isolated/different, which leads to “not like the other girls” vibes. While I don’t typically mind this, Olivia is yet ANOTHER case of this. While it made sense for the story, I know VE Schwab can write male characters without the same core blueprint, so I wonder why this pattern persists through so many separate works. Between Addie, Lila, Kate, Marcella, Sydney, the protagonist of The Archived, and now Olivia, it’s simply getting old. This isn’t really something I immensely disliked or hated, but I feel like it’s worth note in a review.

Olivia’s similarity to all the other VE Schwab female protagonists aside, she was definitely the strongest character by far. The cousin and the caretakers and even the villain were…. lukewarm, character-wise. I didn’t love any of them. I did like that she was not interested in boys (though whether she is aroace or lesbian is unclear, as nothing else was shown about her interests) and that she communicated with sign language or writing or drawing. It was her and her story that drove the narrative, as she discovered her origins and her place within Gallant.

While I was compelled to keep reading, the ending felt very lackluster to me and too easily/quickly solved and tied up. Perhaps this is because it’s a YA title, but I’m not sure. It ended and I was like “okay…. That’s it?” even though it was a serious ending.

My resounding feelings of this book are that I loved the premise and idea and overall vibes, but I don’t think it was executed properly, at least not to the full extent of what the idea was capable of. This could have been pushed so much further and given more depth and weight, especially at the end. Regardless, I didn’t think it was bad, and certainly worth reading if you’re looking to read a YA gothic.

So I would say Gallant but at about a 3.75 out of 5 stars for me!

I tend to like everything Schwab writes and I wasn't disappointed in her newest release, Gallant. For fans of Addie La Rue, know ahead that this definitely reads like a YA. It's somewhat of a twisted Secret Garden tale and I was drawn to the main character Olivia whose greatest longing is to find "home". It's a quick read and a page turner!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Gallant by @veschwab is my first and potentially favourite read of 2022.

PUB DAY: March 1st, 2022

I know I’ve said this a thousand times to at least a thousand people but when I was younger I watched the movie Coraline every single day for at least two years. Gallant is definitely different from Coraline in many ways but it emulates a very similar energy. It is dark, gloomy and a bit sinister which I live for! The characters are unusual, and the plot was unpredictable (I didn’t read the synopsis prior to reading this book which may have added to the mystery). I also loved the lyrical writing style, illustrations and pacing of the story. I had the opportunity to attending my first virtual Q & A earlier in December with Victoria Schwab and it was exciting hearing about her inspirations for this book and seeing aspects of those inspirations imbedded throughout this story.

Honestly….. this book had no business being so good!!! After finishing this ARC I pre-ordered the hardback version because I need this on my shelf.

Anyways highly recommend ❤️ and thank you to the Author and @hccfrenzy for a copy of this ARC!

Gallant is a book with a spooky gothic atmosphere and it really pulled me in. The main character, Olivia, does not speak throughout the book - there are aspects to this that frustrate me, but I did like the way it changed how she dealt with the world.

The premise of this reminded me of Coraline - and I did love the general idea. I liked the ending of this the most - it’s what got me to round up from 4.5 to 5 stars.

The writing never dragged and kept my attention the entire way through. The descriptions never felt unnecessary but were important for setting the scene and vibe. I would have liked more information (or more after that ending!) but I think part of this books charm is that it leaves off in such an open ended way.

I liked the theme of family and finding out about Olivia’s parents. I thought the villain of this book was neat! I did like Olivia even though she had a bit of a “not like other girls” thing going on.

This was the first book of V.E Schwab’s that I’ve had the pleasure of reading - and it won’t be the last. It is a uniquely captivating story of life and death and all that we gain - and lose - along the way. The way this story unfolded - with some fascinating illustrations that were significant to the telling of the story - was absolutely incredible! This book was, at times, a bit on the creepy/haunting side as it deals with the paranormal - which is usually not something I’m really into - but I found I had a hard time putting this book down. I have no doubt that this book will fly off the shelves once it lands - and what I will say to the readers who scoop this book up is that this one is worth purchasing a physical copy of just for the cover/illustrations alone - but on top of that, the story will hook you from the outset and you definitely wont be disappointed!
Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Pubishers Ltd for the eArc in exchange for an honest review.

V. E. Schwab has done it again. Although I tend to enjoy the depth and complexities of her adult fantasies more, Schwab weaves a darkly magical tale with Gallant that captured my full attention with its deeply emotional current. Portal fantasies are my favorite kind of fantasy, and this one didn't disappoint. While the story is simple, the lush prose gives the reader an incredible sense of place and atmosphere. Throughout this book, I found I wasn't reading it for the plot so much as for the way the writing made me feel. It has the telltale signs of a V. E. Schwab book, which for me is being told a completely unique story while giving me a sense of nostalgia at the same time; a new adventure with the comfort of a familiar place. Recommended for anyone looking for something creepy, whimsical, heart wrenching, and full of hope all at once.

Immediately the enticing darkness of this novel drew me in. The character development was almost palpable. Olivia is an unusual character that does not appear to connect well with others. She has deep feelings that she does not share. Her inability to speak really compounds her problems in relating with those around her, and thus she is shunned. Olivia is, however, able to take care of herself and fights back. It is not until she is able to leave the orphanage that she finds a "family" and people that understand and care for her.

Gallant is the one place her deceased mother warns her about in her journals, yet that is where she finds home. Her cousin does not want her there initially but the two come to terms with each other eventually. Gallant is a mysterious place full of silent ghouls and shadow people. The caretakers are wary of telling Olivia much about the house and so the ghouls lead her to an understanding of what is happening. The last few chapters of the book are captivating as Olivia begins to discover the secrets of the wall behind the mansion and beyond. She and her cousin fight for their lives and the people of our world.

Although I believe this is a stand alone novel there definitely is room for a sequel. I would gladly gobble the next book up!