16 December 2024
Teen Librarian
Teen Librarian
Gallant by V.E.Schwab
Gallant is a gothic novel at its core, with notes of thrillers & ghost stories. It holds onto all of the wonderful dark details of the genre without becoming tropey or unbelievable. It has a villain worthy of his own book series and a heroine worthy of many sequels; a setting that is a story unto itself and a plot that satisfies. Olivia is one of the best heroines to hit gothic YA since the disaster that was Twilight, and she alone is enough to put the genre back in your good books.
Gallant has the air of a fairytale or classical retelling, and kept me guessing for awhile before I realized that it wasn't one. It's story just has the ring of a centuries old epic within a two-year-old novel. It is a gothic YA with no creepy romance, no simpering, faux-everywoman heroine, none of the endemic problems of its brethren. Every word is calculated, for all of Schwab's customary sleepy, dreamlike prose style. It casts every stock character in a new light and makes every trope feel fresh.
Though it borrows from classical mythology, gothic novels, horror, fairytales, and even contemporary works, it has a few unique tricks of its own. Olivia's superpowers are, as far as I can tell, completely original to her.
Reviewed by Rosemary M., Libbie Mill
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