A guide to TJ Klune’s books: from Wolfsong to In the Lives of Puppets

Ox Matheson grew up feeling like he was destined to be alone. So, when Joe Bennett moves in next door and the pair strike up a friendship, Ox is determined to hold onto him. As he gets to know the mysterious Bennetts better, Ox discovers their secret: the family are shapeshifting werewolves, immersed in a magical world he has never known. As Joe and Ox grow up together, Ox feels drawn to his best friend in a way he doesn’t understand but can’t ignore. The book that began TJ Klune’s cult queer fantasy series, Wolfsong is an absolute must-read. 

Outcasted and left to fend for himself when tragedy split the pack, shapeshifting werewolf Gordo Livingstone vowed never to get involved in the affairs of wolves again, until Mark Bennett came back, begging for his help. A year later and alone again, Gordo struggles to push away his feelings for Mark, despite everything that has happened between them and the heartache he has caused. The second book in TJ Klune's Green Creek series, Ravensong is a story of queer love, loyalty and loss, set in the same world as Wolfsong.

Step back into the dreamy backwoods of Green Creek in Heartsong, the penultimate book in TJ Klune's queer fantasy series. Werewolf Robbie Fontaine has always been a loner, travelling from pack to pack and never quite belonging. That is, until he's summoned to become second to Alpha Michelle Hughes, and join the wolf stronghold in Caswell, Maine. Finding a new sense of belonging, Robbie discovers a short lived happiness and a mate, until whispers of treachery and betrayal in the pack threaten to destroy his new life and rip them apart.

If, like us, you can’t wait to find out how the Green Creek series ends, Brothersong, the fourth and final novel will be published in September 2024.  

A tale of chosen family, The House in the Cerulean Sea is one of TJ Klune’s best-loved novels. With sequel Somewhere Beyond the Sea coming in September 2024, now’s the perfect time to add it to your TBR. It’s the story of Linus, a forty-something social worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, whose existence is flipping upside down when he’s tasked with monitoring six extremely dangerous youths, including six-year-old Antichrist, Lucy. Spending time at their orphanage, he realises he’ll do anything to protect these very special children. But, with his feelings for their eccentric guardian Arthur Parnassus growing stronger each day, he’s forced to choose between his duty and his heart. 

Wallace was one of those men who spent his whole life at work. Until he died, that is. Given just seven days and the help of a mysterious tea merchant to get out of his own personal purgatory and pass over to the other life, Wallace quickly realises that maybe there is more to life than work. Witty, charming and utterly unique, Under the Whispering Door will make you reflect on whether you’re working to live or living to work.

Witty, queer and packed with romance, In The Lives of Puppets is TJ Klune's reimagining of classic fairytale Pinocchio. Vic lives a quiet life with his chosen family; a sadistic nurse machine, a needy vacuum cleaner, and inventor-robot Gio. The family remain hidden from the rest of the world until Vic meets ‘HAP’, an android who knows Gio from their secret pasts. Vic and Hap soon feel a magnetism to one another they can't control, but, when Hap reveals the family's location and their enemies hunt them down, Vic and the robots must embark on a mission to another world to save Gio, and Vic must choose if their love is worth the risk.