V. E. Schwab is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, ranging from middle grade to teen to adult. Her books have garnered critical acclaim and been featured in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, the Washington Post, and on NPR; have been translated into more than a dozen languages; and have been optioned for television and film. V. E. Schwab, an avid traveler, received her mFA from the University of Edinburgh, where her thesis was about the presence of monsters in medieval art. She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and on her website www.VESchwab.com. You can find more of my reviews of Schwab's work here.
All her life, Olivia Prior has wondered who she truly is and where she belongs. Her only clue is a slim, battered journal. Her mother's journal, full of entries that seem to show that she was unraveling and drawings that look like blots of ink . . . until Olivia notices a hand, a door, a bloom, a skull. Then a letter beckons Olivia home—to Gallant. The one place her mother's journal warns her never to go. Olivia goes anyway. Of course she does. What she finds is her last living relative and her family's manor. A manor with a ballroom and a sitting room with a study and a sprawling, vibrant garden—and the crumbling ruin of a garden wall with an iron door. A door she must never open. But no one at Gallant sent Olivia that letter. And no one will tell her what haunts her cousin's dreams, what happened to her mother, or what lies on the other side of the wall. Did the shadows call Olivia home? What will they ask of her in return?
One of the immediate things that drew my eye was the obvious parallels between Gallant and Victorian literature. I don't want to dive too deep into that, for literary analysis is usually never the point of my book reviews, but I was stuck by the Jane Eyre and "The Fall of the House of Usher" parallels I was able to pull from Gallant. Olivia being an orphan, off to some distant relation's home at the call of a letter, being one of the last of the few living Priors are all homages to Victorian literature, and in some cases young adult Victorian literature. I certainly have a lot more to say on the subject, so for now I will settle with saying that it is incredibly impressive how Schwab is able to take these familiar literary elements and breathe fresh air into them via the fantasy genre.
The fantasy element is a little subtler than maybe other readers are used to, in a sense that it's not high fantasy nor contemporary fantasy. Rather, Schwab builds up a world that looks and feels like Victorian England during the Industrial Revolution, which we know can't be the case, because a few specific details (ie, a motorized car) don't line up for that time period. Nonetheless, the aura of mystery and haunting and grit is there, but so is the feeling of otherworldliness. Despite knowing we're in some alternate England, we don't exact feel like we're on this world's England—maybe this story takes place in our own world's shadow? Maybe this is a form of contemporary we've never seen before? Don't hope for any answers on this; Schwab leaves us questioning exactly what world we left Olivia on, and who knows, maybe she's closer than we think.
The book itself is very much an art object. The endpapers are absolutely stunning, and the repetition of illustrations, done by Manuel Šumberac, creates a feeling of otherworldliness while also grounding us in Olivia's story. The pages meant to be from Olivia's mother's journals are also fascinatingly printing to look like old (or, at least not new) paper, and the snippets of the story narrated from the master of the house's perspective are in completely black pages with white type. While there is no color, per se, there is some color imagery that cannot be ignored. Olivia's life and life in this world is very drab and gray when she is at school, and when she is in not Gallant. All the elements of the book move to support that only life at Gallant is colorful, or not printed in different forms of gray and black. Having illustrations in a book where the main character uses nonverbal forms of communication and another character is dyslexic is also key, allowing the story to be read and interpreted in different ways than just via printed words on a page, or via characters speaking. Certainly much kudos to give for those responsible in putting together such a beautiful book, in more ways than one.
While the story was compelling, it also dragged a lot. While Schwab's storytelling prowess is clear by the evocative language, the story itself moves slowly. In a way, it reads like there's a scream building up in the back of your throat; a very fitting metaphor, for all Olivia wants to do is scream. And while I had hoped the story would pick up getting closer to the end, I found a very rushed ending (the last twenty pages are the most exciting), and the realization that this story, despite being slated as young adult, really wanted to be something other than YA. Schwab does a masterful job crafting gritty and dark stories full of ambiguity, but unfortunately that is not the market standard for young adult. Young adult readers want answers, and a clear sense of purpose after reading. Gallant does not provide readers with either of those two things, and without a strong young adult narrative driving the action of the story, there is nothing here that convinces me that Gallant should be young adult. This mis-categorization, combined with the inelegant pacing, gives me cause to lower the rating. Schwab's adult books are more my style, for sure!
You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and on her website www.VESchwab.com. You can find more of my reviews of Schwab's work here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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