No, that’s not how it works. In movies, maybe. But you can’t become a werewolf. It’s passed down. You have to be born a wolf. Everyone on my side of the family was.

p. 23

Introduction

After a bit of a break, I’m back! I’m trying to get through the backlog of stuff I’ve had sitting on my desk, and Artie and the Wolf Moon was a great thing to come back to. Artie Irvin is a teenager who, after sneaking out against her mother’s wishes, sees her transform from a wolf into a human wearing a bathrobe. Artie learns that she’s descended from a long line of werewolves and further learns that werewolves aren’t the scariest things in the woods. This is Olivia Stephens’ debut graphic novel and an exciting entry into the werewolf lore canon! Let’s dive in to this adorableness below.

The Good Stuff

Stories featuring classic monsters are such a favorite of mine. The tropes present in those stories are often familiar enough that to see them used and then remixed into a new story is a thrill, even for folks who don’t really get into horror. This book is a great example of that! This story is a one-shot, so you get the full picture in just one volume. That said, I could easily consume a One Piece-number of graphic novels in this world – it’s seriously adorable and it’s a cool way to reimagine werewolves as a hereditary gift rather than a disease to be managed.

The focus of the story is on Artemis, called Artie, and her relationship with her mother. Her father has passed at this point and it’s been just the two of them for a number of years. In many respects Artie is a perfectly normal kid – she enjoys photography using her late father’s camera, she has to deal with bullying at school, and she’s a good student. We jump into the story proper when Artie discovers her mother is a werewolf by sneaking out one night and catching her mid-shift. From there, Artie makes many discoveries about herself, her mother, and what exactly could be scarier than a wolf in the woods.

This is a story about family and fierce love at its core. In a werewolf wrapping though, you have a fun and fresh way to approach this kind of story. You can’t help but feel for Artie, her mom, and her larger family as you meet them and hear about Artie’s father’s past. The joy of discovery is tempered by the danger Artie and the other kids find themselves in toward the end of the book, where the point is to watch out for the people you care about.

The best thing is that a majority of the characters in this book are Black! This is so important because horror has traditionally been an overwhelmingly white space, so seeing a scary story with characters of color as the main focus without being a stereotype is such a joy. It also further makes the idea of lycanthropy as an ancestral gift rather than a disease all the more important. The book doesn’t go deep into this in a big way, but that in and of itself is a positive as it moves the genre towards including kids from marginalized backgrounds who want to see themselves as powerful supernatural creatures.

In Summary

For the sweetness of this story (and with the sincere hope that Stephens writes more), this book is highly recommended. You can buy your own copy from the publisher’s website linked here. You can also check out the author’s site to purchase and listen to her book playlist here. As always, gichi miigwech for reading!