Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

126 reviews

jasper_moon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I knew nothing about this book going into it, but I am so glad I picked it up. There were so many moments that made me want to cry. It was so beautifully written, and I already want to re-read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment

madalina0_0's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

amandasky21's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Gore, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

themichellegray's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Blood, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Suicide and Grief

Minor: Animal death

_marycappiello3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

angeldevoursliterature's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicide and Medical content

leweylibrary's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death and Child death

rachtmh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

kgreer's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Terminal illness

lauramcc7's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent