I'm sorry. I couldn't get past the first few pages of this graphic novel. It was hard to read in two ways: the font was problematic and the content was dense and difficult to understand. This is the first time on NetGalley that I have borrowed a book that I just could not read. I am not going to put up a review on GoodReads (where I usually do) because I do not feel it would be fair to review a book I have not completed reading. I had to leave a star rating below and get this to at least 100 words for NetGalley to accept it.

This was not a book for me. First, I often found the text difficult to read against the background — which made it harder to stay invested because I had to struggle to figure out what was being said. Second, the story is told in a sort of broken stream of thought and often repetitive. The art style is not to my personal taste, mostly due to the slightly muddy palette and the almost collage-esque, scrapbook style to some of the pictures. The vague plot — of the World Wolf meeting and falling in love with a female wolf and then losing her — is a little undefined, for me. There’s not much nuance to it, and — again — the stream of consciousness sentence fragments just didn’t appeal.

Normally I try to judge a book, even one I struggle with, on its own merits. But this book was almost impossible to read. The font used and the muddy white, the thick black outlines that blurred into the art and the kerning — sometimes a letter was randomly slightly larger or smaller than the one next to it; spaces didn’t seem consistent, and even turning up the brightness on my monitor and zooming in didn’t really help.

hank you to Net Galley and the publisher for granting me access to the ARC.

I began reading this title after thinking it was another story I was interested in. However it was quickly obvious I was mistaken. No matter, I gave it a shot but I didn't make it far before putting it down. Not only is the text disjointed and lacking cohesion, the artwork and text are both so dark as to make reading what is on the page very difficult.

Publishing date: 20.08.2024
Thank you to NetGalley and RDS publishing for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

The book as a meal: I ordered a mystery meal at a gimmick restaurant, and I still don't know what I ate
The book left me: Confused?

Negatives:
Text is very hard to read
Art is hard to interpret
Story seems to bounce a lot back and forth

Positives:
Fascinating concept (not executed at it's best imo)
Artstyle is very cool, if a little confusing

Features:
Watching what you knew change and grow into something different, loss, love, self-destruction, processing trauma

Why did I choose this one?
The artstyle really drew me in, the cover snatched me right up. I was intrigued by the idea of a horror graphic novel (have not read this before). And of course, I trust in RDS publishing to publish great books.

Pick-up-able? Put-down-able?
Put-down-able. This book is almost only text on top of a series of pictures. The ratio of text to pictures is nearly 70-30. With a font that is really hard to read ... It took me right out of what was actually happening. Although, I wasn't really into what was happening either.

What was the vibe and mood?
It felt like grieving all the time. Both grieving people (animals?) and the things you once knew. It felt like being stuck in your old ways. Like betrayal and hurt. Like becoming your worst nightmare.

Final ranking and star rating?
F tier, 1 star. This was a big miss. I didn't understand or care for the story. I couldn't properly read the book. Most of the time I felt like I was going blind from the blend of the raw art and hars font blending together on page. I also highly suspect that some form of AI was used either in the art or the writing. I have no proof, but it looks very much like it. Sadly a miss today.

My impressions of this book started out bad, and I wish I could say they turned around, but I would be lying if I did so.

To begin, we're treated to an overly long praising of the creator, which starts by bragging about how he's been praised by Neil Gaiman. Something that given the timing of the release of this book, isn't something you want to put at the front of your book. Granted, this couldn't have been foreseen, and doesn't reflect on the work, but it didn't bode well.

Over the course of the first 25 pages we are treated to full page, abstract cosmic scenes depicting the creation (or recreation) of the universe, with equally abstract (and IMMENSLY wordy) diatribes by a cosmic entity narrating the proceedings...and already tedium was setting in.

The overly purple nature of the language was trying from page one, to say nothing of the fact each page, and it's art, was DROWNED in text. Coming from an established artist, even one who doesn't typically work this medium, this is very bad GN design. It's ugly, its distracting, and reading fatigue set in quick. This wasn't the worst however, even within these first 25 pages I found myself asking... "Is this AI art?" Not good.

To answer that question: I'm unsure, but I'm convinced there's at least some used here, and I'm not alone in this. I spent some time researching the creator, and his work, and while he is a legit, talented, established artist...too much of this book just doesn't match his style, and screams of either outright AI art, or at the least, AI was used as well to edit/brush up the work. This isn't in itself a problem (I don't approve, but I won't cast judgement here), but the fact that this isn't listed anywhere is suspect. Is it 100%? No, but I was so distracted by the question, that tells me enough.

In fact, this very issue led me to my biggest criticism of the book. I spent more time researching this issue than I spent with the book itself, due to sheer lack of interest in returning to it, primarily from how unpleasant it was to read from a design stand point, the "I'm over using my thesaurus" writing style, and the question about the art.

If I research a creative after reading a book, it should be because I crave more of their work, not because questioning the legitimacy of it provides more to think about.

ARC provided by NetGally & RDS publishing

Very interesting novel really. A bit different than a regular graphic book as it has a lot more reading than your regular comic. This would be a very good big book for folks that love fantasy.

Ok, so ...

Red in Tooth and Claw by Steven Archer was a very frustrating read.
(This may just be an issue due to the fact that I don't have a physical copy, and am basing this review on an ARC eBook.)

But the coloring of the art was very dark and the text was often dark... making it IMPOSSIBLE for me to read... Not to mention the font was incredibly difficult to read on its own.

I did enjoy the poetic, lyrical writing style. (From what I could read.)

And, while I DID really enjoy the artwork, it's giving AI vibes. (I've enjoyed Steven's artwork, and while I do see it in this book, there also seems to be AI. And it's not mentioned anywhere.

So, I don't know about all that ... I'll have to wait and see what others say after it's released. If I'm wrong, I'll alter my review accordingly.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a review copy.

This is an extremely hard book to review. It is absolutely gorgeous, with lush language that flips between poetry and prose. It's also a beautiful love story, and a creation myth. Reading the book inspired me to pick up the EP it is based on. My only complaint is that sometimes the text is hard to read. It may just be the galley copy making things a bit blurry, but it was a headache trying to make out the text. 3.75 stars

I rarely give a single star to a book. It’s got to EARN IT.

This one did. Because it contains UNCONFESSED AI art.

Now, do I think there’s real art, created by the actual author, in here? Yes. Definitely. Archer is an artist, and you can find his work online. There’s plenty of pieces that have a similar style and look. But there’s a LOT of pictures that have that Look. I showed some pieces to my husband and a few friends, and they not only agreed, but could point out the specific indicators of AI art (inconsistent shadows, missing limbs, weird teeth).

There’s also several images in here that look to be processed from other artists. One image of a prehistorical marine animal eating an ancient elk or deer looks like it’s two jpegs meshed together and given a color overlay to fool search engines. Like, even if that’s Archer’s real art, it’s bad art.

Now, should Archer be able to show process photos to prove all the work in here is his own, I’ll change my review. But even then, the rating wouldn’t be above a 3. Because this thing is an eyesore. Like, my eyes were straining to read the text. The lettering is scratchy white with a drop-shadow black background. The white is too thin to see well, and the black does NOT help things stick out of the already dark backgrounds.

The story has some promise, but it is also ultimately about a female love interest being fridged in order to give someone man-pain. Yeah, they’re wolves, and also cosmic beings, but the only function the She-wolf has in the story is to make the World Wolf fall in love and then freak out when she dies.

I’m interested in seeing how the whole release of this book turns out, fi it even makes any news, but I DO NOT recommend this for purchase by any library or individual. Do not support AI art.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher. Who I have to wonder, if they are aware of the AI thing.

Sad, dark and painfully beautiful!
We follow the Red wolf as it goes through life and the growth of the world
Finding and losing love, and becoming the ultimate monster
Through amazing art, the story is told in a woven poetry style that feels like each chapter is a rebirth
I found myself contemplating love and self destruction, what we do after the truama
I reccomend for VC Andrews fans and anyone who likes Shaun Tans dark asethetic

I thought this would be a great graphic novel to read, however I was very disappointed. The graphics were dark and made the story itself almost impossible to read. The artwork appeared to be good but overshadowed the story. Sorry to say I would not recommend this novel

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and RDS Publishing for an advanced copy of this graphic novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm not going to lie - I REALLY struggled with this one. The premise was so promising. I love Kaiju-esque storied, and paired with a graphic novel seemed so fun and genius. The artwork was breathtaking. But aside from that, there wasn't much else going on for me. I only gave this 2 stars because the artwork was so brilliant.

First of all, it was extremely difficult to follow the story. It felt very chaotic and discombobulated. I wasn't sure if it was the structure or the writing style/prose (most likely both I think?), but it just didn't really click with me. I think the biggest downfall for me though, was that for a graphic novel, the amount of words on each page was overwhelming. The font switching amongst the pages was distracting, and half the time it was extremely difficult to read. Even zooming in, I couldn't make out the story on some of the pages. The colors either blended together or the font was so small and the clarity wasn't very concise. I hated that the beautiful artwork was completely covered at times.

I feel like the concept was there but the execution wasn't. If this was more like how Brom does his books, with artwork incorporated into the pages and beginnings of chapters, it would have been a lot easier to read and follow. Otherwise, I think a lot of the words should have been cut down and the artwork used to tell the story.

Once again I've chosen I book I thought would be one thing, which turned out to be something entirely different from what I expected. I thought this would be a Horror comic/graphic novel, with lovely art work. I was right about the lovey art work. This isn't so much a story is it is an illustrated poem, or mythological tale.

My greatest praise is for the art.. This book is a joy to look at, with lots of action, and bright colors, with an energetic, painterly style. But I couldn't get into the story very much, (what there was of it), and it's not a book I would recommend for anyone under 12 or 13. There were pages where the story couldn't be read because the writing blended into the painting style.

But was the story any good? It's hard to say. I liked the poetry of the writing style, and that's the best I can say about it, because I didn't fully understand all that I was reading. Imagine if someone were to paint the biblical Resurrection without using any words. I understood the emotions behind the story, which seemed to involve a wolf/werewolf origin story, but I couldn't give specific details of what I read. I mostly remember the art.

This is definitely a book for adults, however, not a book I would ever display in the children's section of the library.