Alpha and Omega--Cry Wolf: Volume One by Patricia Briggs/Lawrence/Herman/Frison

Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars


I am so enamored of Patricia Briggs, I will read anything she writes.  I was excited that my library has some of her works in the graphic novel format, since I do enjoy them.  I have already read Mercy Thompson:  Homecoming and I loved it.  Of course, I also love the Alpha and Omega series and looked on this opportunity to in essence get in a quick reread of Cry Wolf.
I have to be honest that I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as I had hoped. I think my problem was the illustrations didn’t quite work for me.  I agree with another reviewer friend that their faces don’t look right.  I especially didn’t think that the drawings of Charles, Bran, and Samuel did these adored characters justice.  I was more or less happy with the artist rendering of Anna.   The artist captured her sweetness, integrity and strength of character.

Also, the illustrations just felt a bit barebones.  Usually the illustration fills in for the sketchy dialogue which more or less defines the graphic novel format. In this case, I felt like I was missing something as I read through the panels. Let myself be clear in saying that I absolutely loved the prose format of this book, so I know that I am biased to have very high standards and took that into my read of this graphic novel.

Is this a bad graphic novel? Certainly not!  It’s pretty good.   Most likely I would have rated it slightly higher if I had read this GN before reading the prose version.  I think the artwork could have been better in comparison to my image of the characters from the book.    Although the rendering of favorite characters didn’t work for me, I felt that the drawings conveyed action well, and the colors were vivid and made me want to keep my eyes on the panels despite my not liking some of the facial drawing.  The lettering and dialogue was true to the essence of the novel format of this story.   This book does capture the menace of the villain quite well, and of course Charles and Anna together are magic (no pun intended).

I would say that if a reader is in love with this series and just wants to see it in a more visual format, it’s worth checking out. However, keep your expectations down to earth.  You might not be as disappointed as I was in that case.

Overall rating:  3.5/5.0 stars.  Hurts my heart to give my beloved Patricia Briggs less than four stars, but my reasons are sound and I have to stay true to my rating criteria.




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