Wolfsong

T. J. Klune’s Wolfsong is the first novel in his Green Creek series, a contemporary fantasy that blends queer romance, coming-of-age narrative, and supernatural world-building. Klune—an award-winning author best known for his novels The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door—has built his career writing inclusive speculative fiction that centers found family, moral courage, and queer identity. Set in the fictional town Oregon town of Green Creek, the book follows Ox Matheson, a gentle, self-doubting mechanic who discovers that his neighbors, the Bennett family, are werewolves. Originally self-published in 2016 and later re-released by Tor, the novel combines elements of paranormal romance and literary fantasy to explore The Importance of Chosen Family, Queer Love as Liberation, and The Transformative Power of Loyalty and Belonging. Klune’s work stands out within 21st-century queer fiction for the warmth and emotional transparency of its tone, even as it addresses trauma and loss.

This guide is based on the Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The novel contains depictions of child abuse, kidnapping, torture, violence, death, sex, anti-LGBTQ bias, and discrimination against those with developmental disabilities, including the use of the “R” word.

Plot Summary

T. J. Klune’s Wolfsong takes place in a small Oregon town called Green Creek, where a boy named Ox Matheson, 15, grows up convinced that he’s stupid because he has a speech impediment. His father tells him that his life will be hard because Ox is different; he needs to grow up and “be a man” (3). Ox’s father abandons the family, leaving Ox and his mother, Maggie, several months behind on the mortgage payments. Maggie is a waitress at the local diner, and without Ox’s father’s income, the family quickly finds themselves sinking into poverty.

When Ox approaches Gordo Livingstone, his father’s former boss at the auto repair shop, to ask for work, Gordo shows him unexpected mercy. He gives Ox a job, an advance large enough to cover the missed mortgage payments, and a place to belong. For the first time, Ox is surrounded by men who model a different masculinity than Ox’s angry, resentful, stoic father. Tanner, Rico, and Chris are protective, teasing, and loyal. They care for him as he grows up. When Ox turns 16 and can officially work at the shop, they provide him with personalized work shirts like his father used to have. They tell him that he belongs to them now. This feeling of belonging marks a turning point in Ox’s life.

Nearly 18 months later, a family called the Bennetts moves into a vacant house on Ox’s street. On their first day, Ox meets Joe, Thomas Bennett’s son and Mark Bennett’s 10-year-old nephew. Joe tells Ox that he smells like “candy canes and pinecones and epic and awesome” and climbs into Ox’s arms (22). The Bennetts invite Ox and Maggie into their orbit, introducing the pair to a household filled with warmth, teasing, easy affection—and a lot of sniffing the air. Through them, Ox experiences what family can feel like when it’s chosen rather than assigned. When Gordo discovers the Bennetts are back in town, he warns Ox away from them, saying they can’t be trusted.

Gradually, Ox notices there’s something strange about the Bennetts. They are strong, fast, and at times almost animalistic. Joe’s father, Thomas Bennett, comes to respect Ox as an equal. He calls Ox into the woods and tells him that Joe had been silent for 15 months—until the day he met Ox. The implication is that something about Ox has healed something in Joe that was broken. Ox doesn’t yet know that Thomas is the Alpha of a werewolf pack and that the Bennett’s love of community is what keeps them tethered to their humanity.

Over the next few years, Ox becomes more and more entwined with the Bennetts. He’s best friends with Joe, protected from school bullies by the older siblings Carter and Kelly, and is informally adopted by Thomas and Elizabeth. He works at Gordo’s shop and passes his final exams.

When Ox is 16, he starts dating Jessie, Chris’s sister. The relationship stirs unexpectedly jealousy in Joe. Only after Thomas explains the source of Joe’s trauma does Ox understand the intensity of his attachment: Years earlier, Joe had been kidnapped and tortured by a man named Richard Collins, a rogue werewolf who sought revenge against Thomas. Joe’s emotional wounds are deep, and the family is always keeping watch for outsiders.

The family’s secret finally unravels one night when Gordo wakes Ox and brings him into the woods. There, Ox witnesses the Bennetts shift into wolves for the first time. Joe’s first transformation is agonizing, and he nearly loses control. Thomas and Gordo realize that Joe needs a “tether”—a person whose love and steadiness keep him anchored to his humanity. Ox steps forward, unafraid, and offers himself. He holds Joe and tells him the story of his father leaving. His steadiness and voice draw Joe back from the brink, and in that moment, their bond becomes permanent.

Through the rest of high school, Ox learns about pack structure and the difference between dominance and leadership. Thomas mentors Ox, explaining that an Alpha’s duty is to protect and unify, not to control his pack. Joe continues to heal, and his devotion to Ox grows stronger as time passes. When Tomas invites Ox to become a werewolf after he turns 18, Ox is honored but uncertain.

Eventually, Jessie breaks up with Ox, frustrated by his emotional distance. When Joe is 17, Ox finally realizes that he’s attracted to him. Joe begins to openly court Ox. Their relationship, full of humor and awkwardness, finally allows both of them to imagine a future together. But that future is threatened when Richard Collins escapes from magical imprisonment.

Soon, Richard and his Omega pack attack the Bennett home. Maggie is taken hostage and later killed. Osmond, the council member who’d been sent by the Head Alpha, betrays them. Thomas is mortally wounded. In his last moments, he asks Ox to become the pack’s new Alpha, but Collins attacks again before anything can happen. Joe kills Collins but cannot save his father. Grief and anger divide the pack. Joe, Carter, Kelly, and Gordo leave Green Creek to hunt the remaining Omegas, believing their distance will help keep Ox safe. Ox begs them to stay, or to take him with them, but Joe refuses, saying that losing Ox would destroy him. When Ox wakes the next morning, they’re gone.

Though Ox doesn’t become a werewolf, over time, he becomes their new leader. He comforts Elizabeth, who stays in wolf form for months; he trains with the shop men, whom he tells the truth about the Bennetts. He builds a new pack that mixes humans and werewolves. His loyalty and care draw others in—especially Robbie, a young werewolf sent by the overseeing council to report back about the Bennett pack. Robbie becomes Ox’s friend, and the pack grows stronger.

Three years later, after defending Green Creek from yet another Omega attack, the surviving Omegas submit to Ox, baring their throats to him in acknowledgment of his power. He’s become an Alpha—not by inheritance but by earning his pack’s trust. Still, Ox misses Joe. Over time, Joe’s texts grow more infrequent and then stop completely.

When Joe and the others finally return, the reunion is awkward: The territory answers to Ox, not to Joe. Ox and Joe struggle to sort out their feelings for one another and come together again. Ox finds out that Joe had gone silent again for the last year, regressing to a traumatized state. Working side by side, they slowly reconnect

The two packs merge, blending old and new loyalties. Joe tells Ox that he howled for him at every full moon; Ox invites Joe and his pack to run with them under the next one. The run rekindles their bond, but the peace doesn’t last. Richard Collins returns one final time. He kidnaps seven townspeople as hostages to convince Ox to come alone through the wards that protect the town to retrieve them. Ox goes, silencing the pack bonds so no one will know, but Gordo knows him too well and follows. When Ox realizes that Joe is coming to him, he runs in the other direction, leading Collins and Osmond to the unstable bridge. Before Joe can reach Ox, Collins emerges from the wreckage of the bridge and claws his whole hand into Ox. Joe kills Collins and gives Ox the bite to save his life, turning him into a werewolf. Ox wakes as a red-eyed Alpha, his bonds with the pack stronger than ever.