Gallant
Gallant
By: V.E. Schwab
[This was on my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2022]
[Winner for ‘Best YA Fantasy’ category of the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge]
[Fulfilled ‘Book by an author who uses initials’ for Shelf Reflection’s 2023 Reading Challenge]
“‘Last night I went beyond the wall. And I met Death.’”
The only other V.E. Schwab book that I’ve read is The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. My opinion on that book was a bit unpopular. I concluded in my review of that book that nothing really happened. .
And that’s my assessment of this book as well.
Gallant is a YA novel so we at least don’t have to read about a love affair with the devil, but the book just really felt simple and empty and quiet.
Schwab does a good job of setting the scene and creating this atmospheric mysterious vibe. The main character- Olivia- is at an orphanage. She is mute. And she can see ‘ghouls.’
“Merilance may call itself a school, but in truth, it is an asylum for the young and the feral and the fortuneless. The orphaned and unwanted.”
It’s obviously the classic ‘orphan that gets made fun of and the matrons are bad people, and she just wants to find a place where she is wanted.’
Her prized possession is the journal of her mother’s that she has, but it only offers more mystery: what happened to her mom? was she crazy? was she haunted?
Her mother’s last coherent words to her in the journal are- “The shadows are not real, the dreams can never hurt you, and you will be safe as long as you stay away from Gallant.”
Enter: a letter from Olivia’s uncle inviting her to Gallant— the one place she must not go.
So yeah. She goes.
“There are not many futures for a high-tempered orphan who cannot speak.”
I’ve read enough books to know that if I need to warn my kids of anything or make sure they know important information, it’s going to be quite detailed. Just a command NOT to go somewhere with no explanation for why or what will happen if you do is basically a big shove to do exactly that thing. Rookie move, Olivia’s mom.
Most of the book is all this build up of what was going on with Olivia’s mom, and what these ghouls are about, and what’s the deal with Gallant?
“A place this wild, the outside is always trying to get in.”
Gallant is a mansion in somewhat disrepair. There are gray weeds choking the roses. There is a wall in ruins in the garden that her cousin continues to futilely patch. And the ghouls that she can see here are actually deceased family members.
Olivia thinks she finally found a place to belong, but her lone cousin (who decidedly NOT invite her to come) wants her to leave.
“In her mind a family was a sprawling thing, an orchard full of roots and branches. Instead she has been given this single, scowling tree.”
And nothing really happens. For so many pages. And then EVERYTHING happens in like 20 pages.
As I was reading I really wasn’t sure where Schwab was going to take the book. (I didn’t read the book summary beforehand.) Was this just a book of discovery for Olivia? Just learning about herself and a new place? What’s the catch? What’s the conflict?
And then suddenly we’re thrust into a rescue mission. From a villain who is “inevitable.”
This part reads quick and intense, but I wasn’t super invested in it.
I like the idea of a house that holds secrets, and when Olivia discovers the globe thing (as pictured on the cover) where there is this duality of houses, I was intrigued. Reminiscent of the Upside Down on Stranger Things.
But the direction everything took just didn’t do much for me. It wasn’t big enough or complicated enough. The stakes didn’t feel high enough.
And the intricate house sculpture was inconsequential. I feel like a cool and specially designed contraption should have a bigger role in the mysterious mansion.
I thought Olivia was a good character— I hadn’t read a book with a mute character (well I just finished Please Tell Me which has a silent girl but that was trauma-induced silence) so that was interesting to see how the author had her communicate to people and how the reader got to see that interaction.
There were really only a few other prominent characters but prominent is probably too strong of a word. They were there to fill the space and they didn’t do it with much.
I know there was dialogue and noise in the book, because of course there is, but at the same time, it felt like a quiet book. Too quiet. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but something just felt missing.
It kind of reminded me of The Paper Magician— or at least what I remember of reading that book because it was so long ago. There’s some world-building and some weird but potentially interesting stuff going on and you’re following along waiting to see if it’s going to come together and make sense but when you’re done reading you’re just kinda like- What just happened?
There is a unique aspect of this book (other than it’s square appearance). Schwab utilizes imagery. Ink blot art. Again, I’m not sure if this added much for me personally, but it was an interesting element to include as part of Olivia’s mom’s journal. Maybe if I had studied each of the pictures longer I could have picked up some clues or something, but there wasn’t much that ended up hinging on those.
Plus the excerpts that were included about the ‘master’ of the house were white writing on black background in a script-type font and were very hard to read.
Gallant is a book that’s going to be hit or miss for people.
I think for a lot of YA readers it will be a fine read— they’re probably not looking for too complex of a plot, and it’s a pretty clean read if they want to read something eerie. The ghouls are just described as basically partial shadows. The villain is described in more detail and is more creepy, but I don’t think it would be the stuff of nightmares for a teen.
For adults, though, I’m not sure if there’s enough there to really enjoy. The other reviews I read were pretty divided. For some, the writing style is enough to mark it as enjoyable. But others were looking for more plot movement and complexity as I was.
Either way, I think V.E. Schwab is just not the right fantasy author for me.
[Content Advisory: no swearing or sexual content; creepy, ghoulish villain]
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