ARC Review: Lupina Book One: Wax by James Wright

Lupina Book One: Wax by James Wright
Expected Release: November 30, 2021

Recommended: sure
For an intro into a series that promises to give more (next time), for an interesting art concept (that you might have to squint at), for characters well-portrayed even in their silence

Summary

In the coastal town of Kote, recently brought under the yoke of the Addalian Empire, four-year-old Lupa spends her days getting bullied by her older sister and hiding behind her mother’s skirts. But when tragedy strikes, Lupa finds herself alone in a new world… alone until she’s found by the she-wolf, Coras, and sets off on a journey of discovery… and revenge.

Thoughts

I’ve come out of this book feeling like I’m more interested in the next installment. This one was a lot of setup and not much actually happening. I know the summary is all like, “she’s out for revenge with a badass wolf by her side” but that is more of a future thing it seems. Definitely no vengeance here.

I kept going because there were some interesting elements worked into the story and world lore, and the art intrigued me. It’s a little bit of a love / hate with the art though, because there were an unfortunately large amount of scenes where I truly could not decipher what was occurring. It was difficult to distinguish the amount of greys, blacks, and shadows to figure out what the scene was showing, which really took me out of the moment. On the bright side, it made me focus a lot on the art?

This first section is mostly art, by which I mean there’s little dialogue or plot progression beyond the initial events. It’s more of the “getting to know them” portion. Introducing new colors in each chapter as time went by was awesome as a mirror of the growth of Lupa both physically and mentally. Her relationship with the wolf was conveyed quite strongly, considering they can’t communicate verbally. A behind-the-scenes at the end shone a little light on some of the decisions they made, and what was discussed was absolutely spot on for how it had come across. In that way, this was really successful.

Overall this first volume on its own is somewhat tepid, but it’s also only the first chapter. There’s enough promise here to make me want to see what else is coming.

Thank you to NetGalley and Legendary Comics for a free advanced copy. This is my honest review.