This novel is incredibly atmospheric  and detailed, so much so that it does create a movie in your head. However, because of how detailed visually the book seemed to be written as, I felt as though the character development with the main character, Olivia, fell flat. The pacing took too long in getting her accustomed to Gallant, that by the third act I was already bored, even with her meeting

Death

. Even with the found family trope of the book, it felt cliche and forced. I felt as though the author could have done more with her bonding with her found family, and maybe create a balance in her finding out about her parents and appreciating her found family. I genuinely think that this would make a great movie, but as a novel, it did fall flat. 

A dark, mysterious story told with stunning atmospheric writing! While I enjoyed my time reading this book, I was left wishing there was a bit more explanation behind Gallant's secrets.

Gosh I love V. E. Schwab. This is so different from her other stuff I've read so far, and I loved it. It was the perfect amount of creepy and tense, the MC was really interesting and also pretty badass for a kid lol I love that she's mute and yet also kinda has this superpower to

bring life in the shadow Gallant.

I think that aspect of her identity also works well because so much of the narrative then can be in her own head through thoughts and memories rather than dialogue. And the

shadow Gallant being a place where the only one who speaks is the Master/Death but she doesn't need to speak, that this is a place where she SHOULD feel more at home, is really interesting to me.

The journals are also really interesting and the way the artwork in them works with the story, especially once you learn what exactly they are and who drew them. The entire

shadow Gallant aspect

is such a cool concept for a horror story like this.
Honestly I just can't wait to talk about this book with others in our book club! I feel like there's a lot of cool stuff going on that I'm only scratching the surface of on my own.

V E SCHWAB has done it again, I cannot dislike anything she writes. 

My main genres are fantasy, romance and mythology but have recently been really enjoying gothic, spooky & historic stories as well. 

This book is spooky in a really interesting and engrossing way. The characters are bound to family and the their history, but like all good stories, you are the one who will be bound. 

I could not put the book down and even more than a fantastic story, the book itself is beautiful. 

The alternate pages, illustrations and chapter pages are something else! 

Thank you for such a beautiful book and awesome story. 

This was such a good read, the spookiness and the mystery kept me engaged until the last page. The added element that the main character could not communicate with spoken word propelled the story forward: it added to the suspense, kept the mystery going, and allowed the worlds to develop in ways that it wouldn’t otherwise. 

I'm going to be honest here, I just don't think this really worked for me. This book just completely failed to pull me in. There wasn't a single point in the novel were I actually felt invested, and when I closed the book at the end, all I could think about was just how underwhelming the reading experience it was for me.
I do have to say that I did really like the concept of this book. The story was interesting to me. I read this book relatively quickly, and most of that was because I was intrigued enough to find out what was going on. The atmosphere was also really well build. I do think the resolution was a little dissapointing, but overall I did really like the story. I did also really like the illustrations througout the book. They were absolutely stunning.
I also quite liked our cast of characters. Besides Olivia they were quite one dimensional but I still quite liked seeing them. Olivia was a really interesting main character. I just liked being inside her head. She is obviously extremely smart, but also quite creative, and very brave. The cast of side characters were a great addition to the story, and I liked the role they got to play. 
So yeah, this wasn't a bad book at all, and I definitely wouldn't want to steer you away from this book, however it just completely wasn't for me. I would be quite curious to see this book adapted though because I do think this would make a great movie if done correctly (of course).