This book was fine. I guess. 

But it was just ... it felt like it didn't really know what it was doing, where it was going and what it was trying to tell and who it was telling it too. 

It felt very much like the reader was just drifting along for a little while, hearing a part of a bigger story, but didn't really get a real beginning or end from it all, before having moved one again. 

This book had a lot of potential. It had great ideas: 
1. The orphan girl who could not speak
2. the mysterious spooky house
3. the strange people and their unwillingness to tell anything
4. the strange garden and its wall
5. the mothers journal and its strange entries
6. the dead things the main character can see 


All those thiings added together?
Fantastic!
Great idea!
But... this book felt like it had no idea who its target audience was. 

For a middle grade it was too slowly written and given too little interesting monster things and focused a bit too much of whats going on with the house, the people in it and the mother but not actually giving any real information for too many pages. 
It also never really gets to a point where i felt like a kid between the ages of 10-12 would have absolutely loved this. 
I am not saying there isn't anyone like that. I am sure there are, lots of different reading tastes out there and the younger ones -if lucky and smart- just try what looks good and see if they enjoy it. 
So maybe this will work for a few. 

But i think there is too little monster for a wide range of middle grade readers -if you give them monster GIVE them monster, you know what i mean? If i was reading a book about spooky things and i would just be reading a book like this i would have been disappointed because i would have wanted more spooky elements and more interaction with the monsterish aspects of the story. 
Maybe thats just me and i always was different. possible. 


For adults? I think it was just a bit too tame, honestly. For most readers that want something spooky, this didn't do it. 
For horror readers? Ähm? No? 
For people that like some small spooky things? 
I don't know, but i don't think that this is the best book for that either. Because it wasn't cute. It wasn't horrific. It wasn't bloody and murderous. It wasn't horrifying it what was happening or how it was happening. 

It was basically a slow paced family story of a different kind. 

But this book also didn't really give a good ending, it didn't really explain a whole lot. 
Like for example, just a few random questions that i still have no answers for at all, but were pretty big parts of the story: 
How the heck did the mom get pregnant with Olivia? Why didn't she just get her out of the country and somewhere completely different if she really didn't want her daughter to ever get back to where she came from? Why couldn't Olivia speak? Is Gallant the only house like that or is there one everywhere, in -i don't know?- every country? If so do people know houses like that exist? 
How did the family even have money?
Did they even pay the people working there? Could those people leave and choose to stay or were they unable to leave? And if thats the case at what point where they unable to leave? Is there a specific time that you can and cannot leave the place after?
Also does Olivia go to school?
Does anybody care about that? Shes a kid. She should be. Is anyone asking if she's going? The state that just threw her into that place is not going to ask if she's going to school?
Okay... well. fine. 
Also why ghules? How do they exist? Are all dead just appear as ghoules no matter what? That would be a bit spooky to have all those dead people just hanging around everywhere! And how? Do other people see them too? Did any of the family or people in Gallant see them -did overread that? I think Matthew could? Maybe? wow i just finished this and i already forgetting stuff!- or is that because of Olivia's unqiue parentage?
But if more people from that family can do it, can't others do it too?
and if, as stated in the book, the family wasn't even the first to be the ones doing what they are doing in the house, how come they even continued doing it and didn't just let someone else do it once they noticed how they where dropping like flies?

There are just sooooo many questions i want answers too!

But nothing is really explain or answered or even finished in this book. 

It was very much one of those stories that i personally didn't get. 

Maybe other readers will have more fun and entertainment in this book. 
I can't say i enjoyed it overly much and i honestly have no idea who i would recommend it to either.