Booklog 37/2023: V.E. Schwab: Gallant

[jacey]

Audiobook read by Julian Rhind-Tutt
Sixteen year old Olivia, bereft of speech, grows up in Merilance School for Girls, a dismal place where she is an outsider. She has only her mother's journal as a reminder of what her life should have been. There's one warning in it. Don't go near Gallant. Then a letter arrives from her (unknown) uncle, inviting her to come home to family she didn't know she had. Home is a house called Gallant, a strange place with a secret. When she gets there, her uncle is already dead and her cousin, Matthew, doesn't want her there, though the housekeeper, Hannah, and Edgar, general factotum, are welcoming. There's a wall in the garden with a gate which leads to a dangerous shadow version of Gallant. This is a fantasy which owes a lot to the horror genre. I found it fascinating. The audiobook is read very well by Julian Rhind-Tutt - though why on earth does he pronounce drawing as drawring.