WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 38. Halloween Month Special Reviews: Wolfsong (Book 1 of Green Creek Series) by T.J. Klune

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29233804-wolfsong

Werewolves are a staple of gay fiction nowadays, thanks to the popularity of the shifter genre and the ABO/Omegaverse type stories. T.J. Klune though takes his series in a different direction and re-imagines popular myths about werewolves, but he does not go down the rabbit-hole of standard shift fiction. In a way, I think book 1 was written more like a fan-fiction novel with the gratuitous amounts of T.J. paying homage to Twilight, but with Werewolves instead of Vampires, it feels almost like he wrote parts of this story for AO3. At times, I almost lost interest in the entire book and even after finishing it, I was hesitant as to whether I should read book 2 or not. This is nothing like The Lightning-Struck Heart, it is darker and far more angsty. There is comedy, but T.J doesn’t find his writing groove until late into book 1 and book 2. It is not the strongest beginnings of a series I’ve read, which is sad, because the rest of the series is so much stronger.

Length-wise, it is 495 pages long and 18 hours 40 minutes on audible. It’s a very long book and T.J. dragged out certain things, especially the start of the book between Ox and Joe. I do advice readers to give T.J. time and patience, it’s not a bad story just takes a while to get where you want it.

Plot: Oxnard “Ox” Matheson grew up without a father. His father left him with the parting words that he’d face “shit all his life”, because of how slow and dimwitted he was. He learned to grow up fast, having to work at an auto garage owned by Gordo Livingstone, a surrogate father figure and big brother to him growing up. When Ox was 16, he met a boy named Joe, who was only 10. Joe said he smelled like “Candy Canes, Pine Cones, Epic, and Awesome”. He found out that Joe hadn’t spoken in months since a horrible event from Joe’s family, named Bennett. Joe gives Ox a carved stone wolf the next day, which has special significance. What follows is 6 years of discovery and growth for both boys, Ox learns that the Bennett family are in fact a pack of werewolves. Their town of Green Creek is their ancestral land. Gordo Livingstone is actually the pack’s Witch, who denies them. Joe and Ox are close friends, along with Ox befriend two other Bennett’s brothers Carter and Kelly, who are near his age. Ox falls in love with a girl, Jessie Alexander, who is the younger sister of Chris Alexander, one of Ox’s co-workers at Gordo’s Garage. However, the romantic tension and draw between Ox and Joe forces an end to Ox’s relationship with Jessie. Eventually, Ox and Joe begin a relationship when Joe is around 17 and Ox is 23. However, their courtship and love are cut short, when an old werewolf foe, Richard Collins, returns and murders the clan patriarch Thomas Bennett. Joe with his brothers, Kelly and Carter along with the Witch Gordo, go on a road trip of revenge against this man, leaving behind Ox, his mother, and his uncle Mark. Joe and his brothers are gone for 3 years, leaving messages for those who remained at Green Creek. The Werewolf leadership sends a spy to Green Creek, Robbie Fontaine, who changes loyalties during these intervening years to Ox, who has acquired "Alpha" abilities similar to his mate Joe. Ox also acquires the ability to create a pack with Human members such as Tanner, Chris, Rico, and Jessie. All of them face many trials and tribulations throughout the years, reuniting and joining the divided Bennett pack in the end to face a great enemy. The ending is only “happy for now” with much loss and unexplored territory.

Review: I won’t minced words, I didn’t much like the first book of Green Creek series as much as I wish, but I am happy I gave T.J. Klune a chance and read the other books. Overall, the series is very good and compelling reading. However, the first book was too long, too draggy, and too complicated as a romance story, shifter story, and ultimately gay love story between 2 boys who grew up together. While some reviewers have given negative reviews for the age gap of 6 years between Ox and Joe, I don’t think personally that’s an issue per se, since Ox kept his interest in Joe platonic until Joe was legally old enough and sexually did nothing until Joe was 20 years old and he was 26. Far older men with wider age gaps are married.

Ox and Joe are good characters with interesting backstories, they are a compelling couple. I especially enjoy the fact that Ox brings out the best in Joe, who’s abuse at the hand of Richard Collins as a 10-year-old was what drove him into a hunt for the man after he killed his father. They’re many layers of complexity in their love, Joe being purely gay, but having suffered childhood sexual abuse versus Ox being bisexual with what is likely an autistic spectrum disorder. They’re trying to figure their relationship and love out.

Individually, I liked the side characters in the first book: Gordo Livingstone would play a bigger role in book 2 with Mark Bennett, his ex-boyfriend and true mate. Carter as the heterosexual hound dog, while his younger brother, Kelly Bennett is the quite bookish asexual. Strong females figure like Elizabeth Bennett and Jessie Alexander play important roles in developing relationships and bonds. Add to that, the three side characters from Gordo’s auto garage, who were Gordo’s best friends in their mid-30’s: Chris, Tanner, and Rico, who serve as comic relief, you have a strong supporting cast.

There’s a lot to love in the story, but there’s a lot to dislike as well. T.J. Klune tried too hard to please everyone and himself in creating the story. His first few chapters were slow and it took far too long for Ox and Joe to be involved in a relationship. This is one aspect of the age gap issue that comes to impact the actual plot, which I do agree is an issue. He was trying to placate fears of readers to not label the story negatively, but in delaying a relationship from forming, he created unnecessary drag in the first half of the novel. Additionally, T.J. Klune also tried to create a villain that seemed too enormous, while I understand it helps to explain Joe’s motivation and decision making, it also makes casual readers have to think about character psychology for specific bad choices constantly. I have no problem with character psychology, I enjoy it, but when a novel is this long, you need to be careful about layering this kind of stuff. The last issue is probably the reason why I've deducted so many points from this book, World-Building. T.J. Klune relied on a lot tropes and previous concepts in order to create his story. Sometimes, I feel like I am reading a Twilight Fan-Fic by a Team Jacob fan. T.J. does fix this issue in later books, but the lack detail for this type of length in a book just didn't work for me.

My Review: 3.25 out of 5, I do recommend it for fans of T.J. Klune and I highly recommend It for fans of Shifter fantasy genre, because the series is among the better ones out there.