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 lives at Merilance, "an asylum for the young and the feral and the fortuneless," and her most treasured possession is her mother's journal, a cryptic collection of passages and illustrations. At Merilance, Olivia is teased because she cannot speak and ghouls whom only she can see roam the grounds. When a letter arrives inviting Olivia to come home to Gallant, she is certain anywhere is better than Merilance, despite the warning in her mother's diary: "you will be safe as long as you stay away from Gallant."
When Olivia arrives, the housekeeper and steward have no idea why she has come but tell her she looks just like the mother she never knew. Her furious cousin--the only Prior left in the manor--insists she leave. Olivia doesn't know his anger is because the Priors are cursed with 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. 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. 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