Okay, we already know I love everything V.E. Schwab writes, and this book is no different. When I heard that the first thing she saw in her head was a garden wall and a door, I was intrigued by what she would see behind the door. It lived up to my expectations. Think of Crimson Peak meets the Secret Garden if the garden was a parallel world; that's the vibe of the world of Gallant.

Our main character, Olivia, is a mute orphan living in a boarding school in what I see as a drab and dreary Victorian all-girls school. Side note: In her acknowledgments, she writes about the sensitive reader who helped shape Olivia's character, so kudos! Olivia finds she has a family she never knew about and is thrust into a mysterious house and a complex family, and some don't even want her there. All she has is a journal from her mother and the ability to see her family's ghouls (ghosts), and she is left to fill in the blanks. That door in the wall? It opens into a parallel world of another Gallant overtaken by death and evil ghouls who want to take over the regular world. She discovers that her family is the only thing keeping the evil on the other side of the wall.

The ghouls bring a different dynamic to the story; when Olivia doesn't speak, she signs with one person in the house, but the ghouls already seem to know what she wants and needs. It brings an exciting way of communication within the realm of a novel.