Title: Rose Volume(s): 1 Creator(s): Jeff Smith, Charles Vess Format: Unflipped; Left-to-Right Publisher: Cartoon Books MSRP: $19.95 Genre(s): Drama/Fantasy Rated: Mature (18+)

If you are reading this review with no knowledge of Jeff Smith’s Bone, then please, to save yourself spoilers, check out Bone from your library or buy it at a bookstore and read it thoroughly. Or read Kevin’s review, if you want to read that right now. Then come back and read this review of a prequel miniseries called Rose. I rarely recommend reading or watching prequels after reading the main story. Be warned that this review is short to avoid as many spoilers as possible. Rose is, as the title tells us, about a princess named Rose. She is the younger of two princesses, the elder named Briar, but Rose is the one more likely to get the crown because while her older sister’s dreaming eye is blind, hers is not. What is a dreaming eye? It is, for lack of better words, a spiritual force to enable the control of one’s dreams. Rose and Briar have been summoned to Old Man’s Cave for their final test to determine which one will get the crown. While there, Rose accidentally releases a rogue river-dragon, and has to kill it before it destroys the valley.

Art-wise, the story is drawn as if it were a fairy tale, and beautifully at that. It fits the story like, well, Lego pieces when put together right. I’m bringing up the artwork first because it is the first thing that readers will notice when they lay their eyes on the first page. Charles Vess was the same guy who drew the artwork for the Sandman issue that won the World Fantasy Award. He is a master with watercolors. Characters are as brilliant as the art, as even the ones who aren’t as important as they are in Bone imply that they are more complex than they seem. The same goes for the story. I won’t say who Rose is in Bone, as that will spoil some major plot points, but she is a main character. In fact, Rose spoils Bone enough to kill the climax’s impact if you read this first. This isn’t a flaw necessarily, but it does ruin the fun of discovering all those plot twists throughout the story.

The most heart-wrenching part of Jeff Smith’s story here is Rose and Briar’s relationship. It’s a sibling-rivalry relationship, a “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” relationship. Yet Rose loves Briar and cares for her, and how does her sister pay back the favor? She uses Rose’s love to her advantage! There’s one point where Briar tells Rose to lie and later accuses her of lying subconsciously. By the end, even though we feel a little pity for Briar, we feel more for Rose because her sister forced her into her journey. People who’ve read Bone will pity Rose even more and Briar much less because they know of the two’s eventual fates. If there is any complaint, then it is that the chapters aren’t arranged well. They are at most three or four pages, and some are only two, and those are only bridges to the next chapter. I don’t like thinking what this was like released in separate issues. However, the story flows nicely even with the chapter breaks, so this is a minor complaint. I’m not going to give this story an A, however, because it is essentially a prequel. We get a good story that can technically stand on its own without Bone, but it’s too short to have a true impact.

Unlike Death: The High Cost of Living, Rose needs Bone, not just to continue the story but to show why the prequel is so important in the first place, both plot-wise and character-wise. This prequel is for Jeff Smith’s fans, specifically the older Bone fans. I’m talking about the ones who preferred the story’s darker elements and themes, including me. Unfortunately, it’s not much more than that. It is like adding brown sugar to oatmeal. It’s not really required, but you do it for a better flavor. The texture remains the same. I speak from experience.

- -Review By Jaya Lakshmi - -