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A review by vermidian
Gallant by V.E. Schwab
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I am firmly gonna go with 3 stars for this read. It was definitely worth reading once, but I'm really on the fence about it.
I really enjoy the lyrical quality of V. E. Schwab's writing. It was what really drew me to her. And this story is no exception. Her descriptions and her ability to make things spooky while being artful is wonderful. I genuinely cannot fault any of the writing as a stylistic choice. That I absolutely loved.
I also loved how the author leads you to understand her talents as something inherited from her father, which was super cool. The illustrations and what they really mean was an awesome revelation.
But hoo boy, this book is constantly trauma dumping. Her parents are dead. Where she grew up has mistreated and abused her, both as a disabled person and a girl in a girl's school (presumably period but I'm not sure). When she gets to her family home, it's not what she expected and her living family member doesn't want her there and wants to send her back to the place of her abuse. She can see ghouls of people, and in her family home that means dead members of a family she never knew. It's a lot and it really is constant.
The plot is also quite slow at the start. The first half of the book spends a lot of time building up Olivia's anxiety about what's happening while the adults in her life explain a whole lot of nothing to her. She has no agency for about two thirds of the book, and then all of a sudden things shoot into action. The pacing is odd, to me, and I can see why people might get frustrated about the book moving slowly.
The ending is also not what I had hoped for. It isn't a bad ending, but it's not a hopeful one. I guess I might've known from the nature of the book as a whole, but it just wasn't the ending I had wanted for Olivia. After all that trauma, she deserved a happy ending and she just doesn't quite get it.
All in all, I'm glad I read it, but this is definitely one I'm going to pass on to someone else.
(Also the weird spinny house thing? That's on the front cover? Why does it have no relevance???)
I really enjoy the lyrical quality of V. E. Schwab's writing. It was what really drew me to her. And this story is no exception. Her descriptions and her ability to make things spooky while being artful is wonderful. I genuinely cannot fault any of the writing as a stylistic choice. That I absolutely loved.
I also loved how the author leads you to understand her talents as something inherited from her father, which was super cool. The illustrations and what they really mean was an awesome revelation.
But hoo boy, this book is constantly trauma dumping. Her parents are dead. Where she grew up has mistreated and abused her, both as a disabled person and a girl in a girl's school (presumably period but I'm not sure). When she gets to her family home, it's not what she expected and her living family member doesn't want her there and wants to send her back to the place of her abuse. She can see ghouls of people, and in her family home that means dead members of a family she never knew. It's a lot and it really is constant.
The plot is also quite slow at the start. The first half of the book spends a lot of time building up Olivia's anxiety about what's happening while the adults in her life explain a whole lot of nothing to her. She has no agency for about two thirds of the book, and then all of a sudden things shoot into action. The pacing is odd, to me, and I can see why people might get frustrated about the book moving slowly.
The ending is also not what I had hoped for. It isn't a bad ending, but it's not a hopeful one. I guess I might've known from the nature of the book as a whole, but it just wasn't the ending I had wanted for Olivia. After all that trauma, she deserved a happy ending and she just doesn't quite get it.
All in all, I'm glad I read it, but this is definitely one I'm going to pass on to someone else.
(Also the weird spinny house thing? That's on the front cover? Why does it have no relevance???)