The story is relatively simple and straightforward, but it was also beautiful, sad, curious, lovely, and very atmospheric. Olivia just wants is to belong to finally have a family and a home.

Enter: ghouls and curses and doors in mysterious walls.

Until one day the school gets a letter from her long-lost uncle, and she’s brought to Gallant, the family estate. All she has is her mother’s last journal, which starts fine but descends into seeming madness. It’s gray and miserable, and she’s bullied and outcast (for reasons I loved discovering on my own so won’t name here). The main character, Olivia, grew up in a school for girls, sort of like an orphanage. If you’re into dark (but not too dark) fairytales written in an atmospheric storyteller voice, this is the one. It’s a standalone, early-YA novel billed as The Secret Garden meets Crimson Peak (!). OK, so Gallant doesn’t come out until March, but I was lucky enough to get my hands on an early review copy thanks to a truly wonderful bookseller friend. “Rain drums it fingers on the garden shed.” Readers of Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Melissa Albert, and Garth Nix will quickly lose themselves in this novel with crossover appeal for all ages. An eerie, standalone saga about life, death, and the young woman beckoned by both. New York Times bestselling author Victoria Schwab crafts a vivid and lush novel that grapples with the demons that are often locked behind closed doors. Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him? Now Olivia sees what has unraveled generations of her family, and where her father may have come from. The manor is crumbling, the ghouls are solid, and a mysterious figure rules over all. When she crosses a ruined wall at just the right moment, Olivia finds herself in a place that is Gallant-but not. Olivia knows that Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. But Olivia is not about to leave the first place that feels like home, it doesn’t matter if her cousin Matthew is hostile or if she sees half-formed ghouls haunting the hallways. Yet when Olivia arrives, no one is expecting her. Then, a letter invites Olivia to come home-to Gallant. Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal-which seems to unravel into madness. A seam, where the shadow meets its source. And as with every shadow, there is a place where it must touch.

Gallant by victoria schwab