Gallant

Gallant

So today I finished “Gallant,” by VE Schwab. It’s a young adult fantasy novel about a mute girl named Olivia Prior. Olivia lives at the Merilance School for Girls and dreams about having a home and a family. All she has of the mother she never met was her journal which has writings and mysterious drawings. One day Olivia gets a letter from her Uncle to come home to Gallant. Only when Olivia makes it there the inhabitants all claim they sent no letter. Olivia’s cousin  Matthew is hostile to her to leave for some reason. One night Olivia encounters the stone wall to the garden one night and it takes her to another world that is Gallant but not Gallant and the ghosts/ghouls are fully human looking and there’s the master of the house determined to keep Olivia for his own purposes.

 

Pros

The writing was descriptive. I also like the characters. It was different that the main character Olivia was mute but she could sign language and can see the ghouls/ghosts. The book reminded me of Coraline with the main girl going through a doorway to another world which is a copy of our world only scarier. “Gallant,” I feel is much darker and scarier than “Coraline.”

 

Cons

I felt everything ended abruptly and things were tied up a little too conveniently. I still enjoyed reading the novel though. I just think it’s like a recipe that we’ve cooked, its good but something is missing from it.

 

Overall

Overall if you enjoy novels like “Coraline,” then I suggest picking up this novel. “Gallant is similar to “Coraline,” but much darker.