Gallant: wonderfully gothic and spooky, the review

Gallant

Another world, mirroring ours and at the same time the dark shadow of the latter, in which something evil stands on the threshold, waiting for the right moment to enter. A shiver runs down the spine at such a thought and reverberates on every page through the reading of Gallant, the gothic and supernatural novel by V.E. Schwab in which dense and frightening shadows thicken and lead us to ask: how is darkness itself exiled? Published by Mondadori for the Oscar Fantastica series, Gallant is a magnificent, poetic example of how gothic literature can still be frightening and exciting today, if well crafted and packaged (as in this case). Inside the life of the protagonist, Olivia, and the fragile world in which she lives: let's open the door and go into this story together, through our review.



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Everything casts a shadow. Even the world we live in

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Arrived in Gallant, the surprise: the uncle who signed the letter died a year earlier and no one knew of the existence of Olivia, the daughter of that woman who fled the estate many years ago. Does all this have to do with that mysterious iron door on the ruined stone wall that casts a cold shadow on the ground? Why was Olivia forbidden to open it or to cross that miserable piece of wall, if Gallant's land still extends on the other side? And why does the cousin, Matthew, intend to send Olivia away from the estate at any cost? Olivia wants to get to the bottom of it and finally live in a real house, despite Gallant being haunted by ghul too, despite her mother's warning and despite something sinister that seems to be waiting beyond that door in the garden.

Don't stay away from Gallant

Burnett's Secret Garden has ripened into dark, scary, bittersweet fruit. And we love it. Gallant is dark, wonderfully intriguing, a novel that, if already unsettled with the ephemeral presences visible only to Olivia in the Merilance orphanage, literally gives chills in its evolution towards a more horrifying and mysterious narrative with the change of setting in the Gallant residence. Without macabre and bloody scenarios: to V.E. Schwab is enough to play with the right words, to build strongly evocative and synaesthetic sequences (mainly for the use of terms that have to do with colors and touch), to perturb the reader with a novel in which the supernatural is at its best. maximum. The American author knows how to strike the right chords by simply narrating dark and creaking corridors; ghul watching you from the corners of the rooms; or an iron door on a crumbling wall, suffocating presence and harbinger of disaster despite its harmless appearance.


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As we said, however, Gallant also contains a core that makes use of the gothic setting and supernatural events, that is a sort of coming-of-age story. It is clear from the outset that Olivia is no ordinary girl: not for her silence or for her innate ability to see ghosts, but for her great sensitivity which, instead of making her more vulnerable, instead allows her to understand how to deal with events with courage (and in his situation he needs a lot) and fortitude. From an orphan to Merilance who takes revenge for the misdeeds by her companions by putting insects in their hair, Olivia matures and evolves into a young woman ready to plunge into the unknown and dense abyss of darkness that is hidden in the Gallant estate. A maturation that is part of the game of dichotomies within which Gallant himself moves: childhood and growth, loneliness and affection, light and shadow, outside and inside. Life and death . And it is precisely in these dualities that Schwab holds the essence of Gallant. A story of painful growth, which passes through loneliness, the awareness of the sacrifices made by those who loved us with all their soul, the elaboration of death: in a path where the shadows that lurk beyond the borders with the our world (and therefore with our understanding) are nothing but horrible fears that we are called to face in order to survive and evolve in this ruthless universe.



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The effect is extremely engaging from an emotional point of view, thanks to the characterization of a protagonist who, although she can never really converse with her supporting actors, tells her stories in first person and we are cloaked in them. The acts of bullying to which she is subjected, the nostalgia for a mother never known except through the diary bequeathed, the resolve and courage that Olivia must summon to face the threatening and unintelligible presence behind that cursed door. Gallant takes us by the hand and gives us more than one reason to let ourselves be carried away by the emotions of this story so melancholy and at the same time full of hope; at the same time, it accompanies us slipping into the dark meanders of its estate and envelops us with mysteries and frightening suggestions that keep us close to the pages, leaving us with the absolute certainty that, despite everything, we at Gallant do not want to keep ourselves away.

A poetic jewel

When we referred to the “packaging” of the work, we were talking about the magnificent edition of Gallant that came with Mondadori: a fine workmanship volume with graphic elements that make it extremely attractive. From the dust jacket with the suggestive illustration made with shiny and slightly embossed elements; the choice of enhancing the red with a bright color; with a hard cover in black and ribbed in red with an insert that almost feels like a fabric to the touch; to the red cut of the pages which overall is harmonious and intriguing, heralding the shock given by the emotions that await us inside. And here too, between one chapter and another, the graphic elements abound and build an atmosphere of suggestion and mystery accompanying the narration hand in hand, as if to recall the contents of the diary that Olivia keeps, made up of both words and images. . In Gallant, therefore, the drawings are recreated, black and dense with ink as they would be in the diary, with a touch as dark as it is delicate and sensitive, maintaining the line drawn by the novel made up of nostalgia, melancholy and emotion.



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Gallant is, in short, a small gothic jewel set in a wonderfully crafted volume and, no small matter, with a really low cost for a work of this kind. Mondadori therefore continues to create satisfying volumes for both the eye and the touch (also paying attention to the quality of the paper, this time thicker), but above all it knows how to choose its collaborators carefully. The Italian translation of Gallant by Marina Calvaresi is a precious stone that enhances the novel: a work carried out through terms and phrases that build an almost poetic whole, elegant in its simplicity. The words seem to take on a concrete form, become almost palpable and are evidently the result of careful selection, which make Gallant a pleasure to read, a harmonious prose that has the flavor of poetry and that could be reread countless times again.