The Belly of a Wolf by Julianne Negri

Title: The Belly of a Wolf

Author: Julianne Negri

Genre: Verse Novel

Publisher: UWAP

Published: 1^st March 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 200

Price: $24.99

Synopsis: How can you grow up with grief pulling you down?

Red is going back to high school six months after the death of her best friend Wolf. Their friendship began on the first day of Prep, when they were cast as Little Red and Wolf in a school play; ever after their lives were intrinsically entwined as two halves of the same story. Red is defined by Wolf in life and in death.

As she tries to move on with her life, try on new identities, make new friends and explore first love, she is forever pulled back by memories of Wolf and the guilt and shame she feels not knowing Wolf planned to die. Red becomes increasingly self-destructive and questions: can you ever recast who you are in a story?

The Belly of a Wolf is a moving verse novel exploring the devastating impact of youth suicide. Unflinching, emotional and darkly funny at times, Julianne Negri has written a novel that is a collision of idyllic childhood memories, overwhelming grief and loving friendship set to a soundtrack of classic indie rock songs.

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The Belly of a Wolf is a new verse novel from Julianne Negri about grief, high school and death. Red is due to back to school six months after her best friend, Wolf has died. And now, Red has to face high school alone, face up to the gossip that filters around her when she comes back, and how the teachers treat her. She’s expected to just slot back into things and move on. She’s not interested in much except English and Art, and she keeps letting memories of Wolf filter through her mind in between her painful recollections of Wolf’s death.

She surrounded by people, but has never felt more alone. She’s fifteen, and also dealing with a tough home life, where her stepfather’s way of ruling the house dictates how she lives in her own home. But when Red discovers the music room and meets Music Girl. She starts to teach herself the piano, finding a new identity and talent, and a place to hide. To cope with her grief in her way. Red has had her life and her identity defined by Wolf ever since Prep, and now, she’s embarking on her high school journey, or what is left of it, without her best friend. Without the other part of her.

But Red is still grappling with the idea that Wolf planned to die, planned to leave the world. Her sense of feeling adrift, lost and unable to cope are palpable in this verse novel that explores youth suicide and the fall-out or impact on people left behind. It examines the guilt the people still alive after someone takes their life can feel. Why didn’t I see it? How could I have helped? Why didn’t I do more? These are all questions that Red is constantly asking herself as she grapples with being back in the real world where she can’t hide from anyone.

Coping means trying on new identities to see what fits. To see whether she can move on, or let other people in. Nobody seems to understand she’s still grieving, except Music Girl. This key relationship is important because it allows Red to explore her grief and be who she is without judgement, without worrying about whether she is upsetting people – well, sort of. Red is still grappling with so much throughout this layered novel about a topic that most people probably don’t think about.

It might be something that is shocking. Or maybe it is something that people don’t think happens a lot. Either way, it needs to be talked about more, and there needs to be more awareness about youth suicide. And more awareness about how to help the young people affected. Telling this story as a verse novel is effective, because the style gets us into Red’s head her feelings, and her reactions. We’re able to see how she really feels, and what it means for her to pretend to be okay, to work on finding new ways of coping, whilst also exploring new ways of being as a way to cope.

The power is in the simplicity of the style, the words used and how the verses are shaped. They hold a heaviness that I don’t feel like I have seen in many other books, and this is what sparks the power within this verse novel. It is what makes this novel work so well, because it surges forwards with tough emotions, the reality and the ups and downs of being a teenager. I felt like it was one that anyone would relate to some of these emotions, but teens and young adults will see themselves in this novel in so many ways. Which is something that teens and younger readers need in their books. It is something that they can relate to, or find a way into talking about the tough things that they might be facing.

Julianne’s young adult verse novel is heavy, and filled with a gravitas that is hard to talk about. That people might not really understand much about, but through this novel, teens who have lost someone to suicide will feel seen. Their voices, and those of those lost to youth suicide are represented in this book. Readers will hear them, relate to them and understand them. At its heart, it is about the messiness of being a teenager, about what it means to grieve – at any age really., and the flummoxing emotions of grief that can threaten to consume people.

Reading this book, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was based on a real experience, something in Julianne’s life that affected her deeply. There was a sense of real life behind this novel. A genuine sense of knowing how it feels to grapple with this grief, and grapple with the messiness of being a teenager grieving. It’s powerful and pulls the reader along, and it was a book that I felt I couldn’t put down. I had to know how Red was going to get through it all, and how deeply she was impacted. What it was all going to eventually lead to, and how she managed to get through it, or at least, get through the months she was at school after Wolf’s death.

It’s a touching novel that explores deep emotions that as humans, we struggle with. It’s powerful and evocative, grappling with very tough emotions and issues that need to be talked about. This is a heartfelt book, a love letter to a beloved friend, and a tool to help people talk about tragedy when they might feel like there are no words to express how they feel. Sometimes, putting it in writing is very powerful and a verse novel is a great way to tell a story that needs to be told.