She is also mute which makes her life even lonelier than any orphan’s life already is. Olivia Prior lives in an orphanage/school where she is being bullied (but only until she fights back!) and where she can see ghouls (and only she can see them). So what’s this all about? It starts so well that I honestly thought this would be the book that made me want to follow Schwab’s career after all. And in the middle because I guess Schwab wanted desperately to publish a novel even when she only had a novella at hand… Oh yes, and very pretty illustrations that also repeat after almost every chapter. That doesn’t mean this is a bad book, just that you’re only getting about 150 pages worth of original writing, the other 150 pages are repetitions of that same writing, over and over again. Yes, I’m starting my review with this information because I think it’s only fair that everyone who’s thinking about buying it, knows what it is they’re buying. 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. Opening line: The master of thehouse stands at the garden wall.Įverything casts a shadow.

Ve schwab gallant review