Wolfsong is the story if a young man, Ox, whose father has left him and his mother. Ox finds family and more with a pack of werewolves that move in next door. 

I didn’t know until reading it that this book was being republished (it was originally published in 2015), presumably to capitalize on the popularity of House on the Cerulean Sea.

I loved HotCS. It was unique and amazing. The same can’t really be said of Wolfsong. It is a good example of the wolf pack genre, but falls into the traps and tropes of the genre without distinguishing itself. I’m not a fan of the whole Alpha trope. For one, it is not an accurate way of representing wolf family structures, which we’ve known for 20 years (at least 10 when the book was written). For another, it feels like repeating it merely reinforces outdated ideas of hierarchy (see also Jordan Peterson’s lobster nonsense). 

The characters here are a combination of well-drawn and tropey placeholders. Some I liked others weren’t fully drawn enough to feel anything for. 

All in all, I think this book shows how an author can grow and mature as a writer. It is amazing to see TJ Klune go from writing something that is a decent example of wolfpack fiction to creating something that truly stands on its own. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for providing the advance reader’s copy.