The Belly of a Wolf
By Julianne Negri
Reviewed by Lara Cain Gray
Julianne Negri is a CBCA Notable author with middle grade and picture book works in her portfolio. The Belly of a Wolf is her debut YA novel. Written in verse, it explores the devastating impact of youth suicide through the eyes of 15 year old Little Red.
Red is returning to high school six months after the death of her best friend Wolf. Friends since Prep, their closeness makes it all the more painful for Red to come to terms with the fact that Wolf had planned to die. How did she not see it coming? What could she have done differently? Negri handles the trauma of grief, bewilderment and regret with delicacy across past and present, via Red’s messy memories and scattered thinking as she tries to find a way back into normal life.
A verse novel is uniquely suited to the young adult voice, moving from punchy, immediate, involuntary responses to poetic melancholy. The rhythms of sentences and stanzas, in addition to subtle page layout changes which hint at changing time periods, provide a pleasing sort of meta-punctuation to the story, keeping it pacey and surprising, despite the sombre subject matter.
There is hope to be found in the story’s subplots, as Red strikes up a friendship with Music Girl (all characters are known by nicknames) and begins to express herself by playing the piano. But Red also finds fleeting romance with Popular Boy, and he is careless with her already broken heart. Self destructive behaviour takes hold: Red feels undeserving of love, which only leads to loss, after all.
Red Riding Hood allusions are thick throughout, with characters described by pelt, teeth and ears. Most potent is the version of the story where the wolf’s belly is opened then filled with rocks, weighing it down so heavily it can’t survive. Red questions the many ways in which Wolf must have been weighed by burdens, and the heaviness of the ‘rocks’ Red herself now carries, dragging her back as she tries to move ahead.
This is a moving, sometimes funny, always piercing story of dealing with grief while navigating friendship, family, sexuality and self expression. Recommended for readers 14+.
UWA Publishing, March 2026
.julianne negri
Lara Cain Gray is the author of The Grown-Ups Guide to Picture Books
