A review by hammie_32
Gallant by V.E. Schwab

dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This was delightful, I genuinely loved this book. It's been a while since something I've read has actually creeped me out or made me feel so intensely empathetic towards the MC. As far as I'm aware, the author is not disabled, however she seems to have done a great job writing for a
mute MC
and representing how frustrating it is to be so easily silenced and ignored. The reason this didn't get a full 5 from me is mostly the ending: most of the book was very slow-paced and did an excellent job at drawing you into the mystery and asking you to keep guessing, giving bits and pieces at a time. Unfortunately, the end felt really rushed. So much of the novel, we spend so much time in Olivia's head, and that falls off very quickly as the conclusion approached. It ended up feeling very impersonal to me, just because it stopped telling the story of Olivia's internal world/experience and moved on to the events as they were. It made it hard to celebrate with the characters at the end and connect with the stakes. Otherwise, I would read this over again just for the atmosphere and world-building that Schwab crafted, gripes aside. Had it been stretched to 400ish pages, I think this would've been perfect.
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