Rightfully from her being not being taken seriously or when she refuses to wear a chalkboard around her neck. Olivia is a departure as well from the norm of Schwabs characters where she is both not delivering any spoken word dialogue and she has a temper. I loved that part since without it, the creepier side of Gallant just wouldn’t be enough.

This might not hit for many people but because this book is easier on plot and low on action but it’s still written so beautifully and with a real atmosphere.

Since her last novel, I feel like Victoria Schwab has hit the highest point in her writing. So I’m not shocked this was really up my alley. I kid but it really does give me a vibe of Crimson Peak by way of The Graveyard Book. And you are absolutely right, Gallant is not the cozy time it might sound at first. Think it’s safe to say, if you’re a Del Toro or gothic horror fan, you’re getting Crimson Peak vibes. Incomplete ghost like spectres with bits of their old lives attached. Extremely Dickensian and gothic with it’s school bullies, her mysterious past unknown to even her and ghouls she can see just living in the shadows. We follow Olivia, a non verbal orphan, as she carries out her daily drudgery at Merilance School for Girls. I love a good vibes book to cleanse the pallette, especially after a book that has some hefty plot or worldbuilding. 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.īeyond it is another realm, ancient and magical, which calls to Olivia through her blood… The estate is empty, save for the servants. But when she arrives, she discovers that the letter she received was several years old. 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. She grew up at Merilance School for Girls. Her mother vanished all at once, and her father by degrees, and her voice was a thing she never had to start with. Sixteen-year-old Olivia Prior is missing three things: a mother, a father, and a voice. So when this one was promised to be Crimson Peak vibes, I was cautious but excited. Granted I have yet to actually finish the Shades of Magic trilogy but I’ll still automatically buy anything she releases. Her work although hit and miss for me is still always enjoyable. ‘She knows too well what’s it like when people take one weakness and define you by it.’Ī new Victoria Schwab book always gives me a little giddy boost.

Gallant book