Gallant is a quiet and understated book, and I do respect it for that. The story takes some classic elements of Gothic and YA fiction and brings them together in this sombre and creepy tale of a girl discovering the darkness of her heritage. Ultimately, that is its entirety, without going much deeper or bringing more surprises. Olivia's non-verbal aspect is generally handled sensitively with plenty of development to her character beyond that part of her, but I do feel like the narrative undermines its acceptance of her in just a couple of places (I didn't personally need a "reason" for her lack of speech and I wish her signing had held more prominence, particularly in the later stages). But there are a few bold choices which I admire, and the overall book (particularly with the illustrations) is strikingly solemn and earnest.

One of the most anticipated books of this 2022, undoubtedly is Gallant by V.E. Schwab.
I'm infinitely grateful to Netgalley and the publisher that I'm now here to tell you about this book.

Olivia grew up in the Merilance School for girls, all that is left of her family is between the pages of her mother's diary. One day, however, she receives a letter urging her to return home,specifically to Gallant.
Once she set foot in what should be her hometown, no one was waiting for her. Olivia has no intention of leaving what she now considers home, but her cousin Matthew is of a different opinion.
Gallant is hiding secrets that Olivia is intent on uncovering, but when she walks through a ruined wall, her idea that there is something wrong with this town grows stronger.
Olivia finds herself in a city in ruins, the ghouls are very strong and there is one figure that rules over everything. And it is here that she learns about where her father might be.
Now Olivia will be at a crossroads and will have to choose whether to be a Prior and thus protect the world from the Master of the House, or take her place at his side.

The novel is divided into six parts, and each part has the task of telling an important part of Olivia's story. In fact, each subdivision has a title that opens the door to what you are about to read. As a matter of fact, for a good part of the book I wasn't at all surprised by what I was reading. The whole thing was a bit predictable.
Olivia is a lonely girl and scared of life, finding herself in a city unknown to her, before the arrival of that letter, only makes her sense of loss even more acute. Not to mention the unpleasant reception reserved for her by her cousin Matthew, who did nothing but make her presence inappropriate.
Fortunately, there are those who make up for it.
Now, comes the hard part.
I started reading Gallant with high expectations, given the success of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, a book I loved so much, my threshold for this latest release was very high.
I'm not saying Gallant is bad, the story lays the foundation for something solid, but the development didn't go as I would have hoped.
Let me explain... it's as if Schwab had commissioned an architect to design a huge mansion with a swimming pool, tennis courts and indoor parking, but once the work was completed, she ended up with a 2-bedroom apartment, a bathtub as a swimming pool, a parking lot for her car made of four poles driven into the ground and a tarp placed over it.
Get the idea!?
Gallant was this. For the first three parts of the book practically nothing happens, when you get to about 60% of the book you want to say "oh, finally something happens", but the surprise is short, because everything then focuses in the last two or three chapters. And the last two or three chapters are like 3% of the book, because then there's the epilogue and the acknowledgement.
In addition, the novel is really short, enriched by beautiful illustrations.
Well, about the illustrations I have to give my compliments, the most beautiful part of the novel, in addition to the cover.
From an author of Schwab's caliber I would have expected more.

GALLANT is a strange little book. The best way I can describe it is "what if there was something a lot less pleasant behind the wall in The Secret Garden?"

There is such a sense of mystery and foreboding about the wall and the house and the family secrets. Olivia slowly ferrets them out. Each time you think you know what's going on and what will happen next, there's a subversion of expectations - particularly at the ending. I really liked the ending, the not-quite-settled-and-resolved feeling of it. It fits the tone of the book so well.

Also, non-verbal main character! I loved seeing that rep, someone who's interacting with body language and signing (with those who can sign.) The contrast between the school and then two of the people at Gallant really helped make Gallant feel more like a home, like a place Olivia wanted to fight for. There's also a dyslexic side character.

There are illustrations and diary entries throughout. We see all the images three times, and the diary extracts (formatted to look like pages) twice. It's very interestingly done, but does take until the chunk of dark-edged pages in the middle to work out the why of them.

At first the heavy ink drawings (it's hard to describe them - some of them look like ink blots at first, and then the longer you look, the more detail comes out) and journal extras feels randomly scattered between chapters, more a memory of her mother and not telling a consistent narrative.

And then comes the section in the middle (which due to formatting has black page edges - if you glance at the page edges, it's a very clear midpoint, something that you're wondering what it will be when it comes.) The journal extracts and illustrations come in order, right on the heels of a revelation about them. That's when their meaning clicks, when they tell a story of their own.

After that, the illustrations are used to reflect what's happening in the story, adding another layer of meaning to the images. It is honestly such a clever use of images.