Robin’s Rave Reviews – 2022

GALLANT by V. E. Schwab was a welcomed change of pace for me. Although it wasn’t my typical read, I really enjoyed this one! GALLANT felt like director Tim Burton took The Secret Garden and molded it into a Grimm fairy tale. Now that’s a description, isn’t it?

Maybe you’ll recognize one of the previous titles of V. E. Schwab books like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the Shades of Magic series, or Vicious. If you’ve read V. E. Schwab before, keep in mind that she purposely tries to write very different stories that will attract different readers with each of her novels. So, if you’ve read something by her before and either liked or disliked it, that doesn’t mean you’ll feel the same about another Schwab book. 

YA readers will especially enjoy Gallant, although adult readers can appreciate it as well. It’s a fast read with a simple (but interesting) plot and clear writing style. Don’t get me wrong – simple here is good, as long as adult readers aren’t looking for more depth or complexity in this gothic fantasy.

SUMMARY

Olivia has grown up in Merilance, an orphanage and school for girls. As a mute who sees ghouls, she doesn’t fit in with the other children. The only thing that consoles her is her mother’s journal, her only connection to family. In the journal, her mother warns her to stay away from Gallant, but it also seems to display her mother’s descent into madness.

Olivia, now a teenager, receives a letter from her uncle who stresses she is wanted and asks her to come to Gallant, the family ancestral home. When she arrives at the gothic mansion, her uncle is dead and her cousin doesn’t want her there. She realizes her cousin is hiding secrets about the family, his sickness, and the house.

When Olivia finds a gate in the ruins of a stone wall on the property, she discovers a dangerous duplicity to our world where she will find herself connected to both sides. She is drawn into danger in hopes of understanding her mother and untangling the mysteries of the journal.

 

 

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