My copy of Gallant was gifted to me by the publisher, Titan Books, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Sixteen-year-old Olivia Prior is missing three things: a mother, a father, and a voice. Her mother vanished all at once, and her father by degrees, and her voice was a thing she never had to start with.
She grew up at Merilance School for Girls. Now, nearing the end of her time there, Olivia receives a letter from an uncle she’s never met, her father’s older brother, summoning her to his estate, a place called Gallant. But when she arrives, she discovers that the letter she received was several years old. Her uncle is dead. The estate is empty, save for the servants. Olivia is permitted to remain, but must follow two rules: don’t go out after dusk, and always stay on the right side of a wall that runs along the estate’s western edge.
Beyond it is another realm, ancient and magical, which calls to Olivia through her blood…
I was so excited when I was approved for an e-arc of Gallant on Netgalley. Anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while will know that I adore V E Schwab’s writing, but I’d missed out on a physical arc and thought I wouldn’t get to read it until it released. I have to say, it’s not my favourite Schwab book, but it’s wonderfully creepy and beautifully written.
Olivia is a great main character. At Merilance, she keeps herself to herself, partly through choice, partly because the other children don’t want to know her. She’s quick and clever and knows that her lack of voice means other people underestimate her, which she uses to her advantage. Once she arrives at Gallant, she’s not daunted by the things she finds there, even when her only known relative screams at her to leave. I really liked that Gallant was important to her, despite her mother’s warnings, because it was somewhere she belonged. And her joy when she realised that Edgar could understand her sign language was beautiful. I also really liked that, although her lack of a voice did other her in many situations, she knew her own worth and never wished to be able to speak.
The other characters are great too. Hannah and Edgar, the two servants in the house, are parental substitutes to both Olivia and her cousin, Matthew, and I loved seeing Olivia get used to having people who cared about her. It was also interesting to see the toll living in the house had on Matthew and wonder if that was Olivia’s future too.
However, as good as the characters are, Gallant’s real strength is the setting and world-building. In fact, it’s so good, it’s almost another character. Both versions of Gallant are described so vividly I can still picture them, and the whole concept of the two houses mirroring each other and the backstory we eventually get are so good. Schwab builds up the creep factor throughout the book, until we finally see the master of the other house and realise why everyone’s so scared of him. I loved this. I was almost holding my breath as I was reading so he didn’t discover me! And the ghouls! I loved the ghouls and the part they had to play in the story. I also loved the way we slowly realise why Olivia can see them.
There isn’t really much of a plot as such. There’s a throughline of Olivia discovering who she is and who her family are, but it’s very much a character piece. I can’t say nothing much happens, because that’s not true, and there is a big reveal of why there are two Gallants the connection of the Prior family to the house, but it’s much more about getting Olivia from point a to point b. I liked it for that, but the main reason this was a four star read and not a five star one for me was that there really wasn’t much of an ending, except in terms of Olivia’s journey, and it just felt a bit anti-climactic. I can’t really explain this very well without spoiling it, which I’m obviously not going to do, but I was disappointed. It was probably a good place to leave Olivia, but not a good place to leave the book if that makes sense.
I would still recommend Gallant. As I said above, the writing is gorgeous and it really pulled me into the world. I happily gave the book four stars. I just would have liked that ending to be a bit…more.
4/5
Gallant is out today from Titan Books
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