Shelf Awareness--Gallant

YA Review: Gallant

Gallant by V.E. Schwab, illus. by Manuel Šumberac (Greenwillow, 352p., ages 12-up, 9780062835772, March 1, 2022)

Gallant by Victoria Schwab (City of Ghosts) is the brooding, bewitching story of an estate, the shadow it casts and the wall that keeps the two apart.

Olivia Prior's most treasured possession is her mother's journal, a cryptic collection of emotional passages and mysterious illustrations. One fragment in particular speaks to her circumstances: "home is a choice." Olivia lives at Merilance, "an asylum for the young and the feral and the fortuneless," a "grim stone tomb" that will never feel like a home. It is a place where she is teased mercilessly because she cannot speak and where ghouls that only she can see roam the grounds. When a letter written by an unknown uncle invites Olivia to come home to Gallant, she is certain anywhere is better than Merilance. She decides to leave, despite the warning in her mother's diary: "you will be safe as long as you stay away from Gallant."

Gallant is a far-off estate and although the housekeeper and steward who greet her have no idea why she has come, it's immediately obvious to them that Olivia belongs: she looks just like the mother she never knew. Unfortunately, the uncle who supposedly invited her has been dead for more than a year, and her furious cousin--the only Prior left in the manor--insists she leave. But "the house leans in and whispers hello, whispers welcome, whispers home" to Olivia. She can still see ghouls, "pieces" of the people they once were, but here they are Priors, her family. Olivia doesn't know, though, that the Priors are cursed, given the task of making sure the gate is never opened and the wall never breached as they struggle to keep the "master" from entering their world.

Schwab's ethereal prose suffuses her tale with an otherworldly feel that is right at home with its content. Gallant weaves a spell, one which conjures the darkest of nights, the saddest of specters and the spookiest of secrets. Olivia's knack for seeing ghouls sets the stage for her ability to slip between worlds, challenge borders and defend walls. Manuel Šumberac's inky black creations are paired with specific pages of journal text, and Olivia pores over them as intently as she does the words. This atmospheric addition enhances the reading experience and further serves to illuminate the plot. Fans of Neil Gaiman, Melissa Albert and Rin Chupeco should find much to love in Gallant, a place where shadow "forces stain... the world like ink in water." --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.

Shelf Talker: Gallant is the mesmerizing tale of a young woman who leaves behind a grim childhood to find that her new home is haunted and her family is cursed to guard a gate between worlds.