Review by Frank Plowright

A little girl missing a portion of her arm takes a walk in the forest and finds a strange dark plant. When she returns home she puts it in a vase with some water and goes to sleep for the night. The next morning she’s awoken by a small black three-legged wolf with a rose as a tail, and the vase lies smashed on the floor with no plant to be seen.

Natalie Warner’s almost wordless graphic novel – a parental note is included – is simply drawn, almost to the point of being layouts rather than fully formed panels. The deliberate sketchiness is perhaps intended to imbue energy to a very slow story in which so little happens, but coupled with the lack of words this can lead to difficulties comprehending what’s happening. Is that meant to be rose petals the dog’s defecating? Or is it just shedding? If that’s the case how does the dog poop? It’s all well and good having a wordless graphic novel, but if that’s the intention then clarity ought to be absolute, especially as Rose Wolves is aimed at very young children.

That both the girl and the dog are missing a limb strikes a sorrowful chord. The girl can obviously identify with the wolf more because of it, but rather than expand on that connection, the only reason the girl seems to be missing an arm is because it endangers her later when hanging from a tree.

Rather than being a hearwarming tale of friendship found for a lonely child followed by an acceptance of the wolf being best returned to its own kind, Rose Wolves is a daft idea lacking the intended poignancy.