I just finished reading this quadrilogy of books, tore through the whole series in less than two weeks. I couldn’t put it down and I’d never read something so voraciously in my entire life, so here I am putting those feelings and thoughts into words.

But first a primer on what this series is for at least some context.

The Green Creek novels are a series of four books: Wolfsong, Ravensong, Heartsong, and Brothersong, all written by the author TJ Klune. They are adult oriented. That is to say that the prose gets pretty graphic in places.

Each book follows a different character’s perspective, diving into their head and telling the story through their eyes, though I admit that the greater plot of the books focuses heavily on the protagonists of the first two novels. It isn’t so much that it necessarily takes away from the individual stories of the other protagonists as it is the plot demanding these other characters to be present. Main character energy be like that.

Alongside that, every book centers around the queer relationship between the protagonist and their “mate” as the books put it. They are books about werewolves afterall. It makes sense for the language in the books to reflect that, something I intend to look into later in this introspection.

I don’t wish to dive too heavily into the plot of each book as I highly recommend you read these for yourself. So, I’ll try to be as broad about it as possible.

Wolfsong follows Oxnard “Ox” Matheson as he grows up in the small town of Green Creek, Oregon. With time, we watch him discover that magic and monsters are real, terrifyingly real. Through the trauma and heartbreak, we watch as Ox grows into a great and powerful leader unlike anyone who had come before him.

Ravensong follows Gordo Livingstone, a witch with a troubled past and a troubling present. He too has seen loss, but more so he has been abandoned by those he thought had loved him. His story focuses on working through that and learning to love the ones who returned to his life, begging for forgiveness.

Heartsong follows Robbie Fontaine, a lone wolf who found a home, only to be ripped from it and his memory shattered. The bulk of his story follows his journey to rediscover himself and learn how to merge the man he had become with the one that had been ripped away from his loved ones.

Brothersong follows Carter Bennet, the oldest of the three Bennet brothers, as he chases ghosts far from home. As the final book in the series, the core theme of family, both found and blood, takes center stage. The strength of the bonds between those who love one another is the heart of this final entry.

With all of that out of the way, I ask myself, why do I need to write about this? What in these books hooked me so completely that I had to keep reading, not stopping until I had exhausted myself?

There are many reasons I believe.

The first is the writing. While there are aspects to the writing style that irk me, they did little to deter me from reading further because the story, the Writing, the foundation under the style was great from start to finish.

Each story has strong hooks. Each chapter refuses to resolve so cleanly that you feel like you can set the book down and do other things. I’d like to think that partway through the book, it knows you’ve been hooked and teases you with certain resolutions that you expect to come and dangle it ahead. One more chapter. If I can just get through one more, I’ll be satisfied, but the next creates a new burning question that demands an answer. And on and on it goes.

One. More. Chapter.

Similarly, the heavy use of repetition deepens those hooks, reminding you of critical information about the characters that directly inform their decisions and what is set to happen next.

Second are the characters. They feel rich and realized. I won’t go as far as saying that they all feel alive, but the large cast of characters all feel unique in their mannerism and quickly recognizable, both from their speaking patterns and from their characterization within the prose around their dialogue.

Even though the books center on a singular character’s perspective, there are moments that show characters changing in the background of the story as the passage of time marches forward. The supporting cast rarely feel static, aiding the belief of this world and its characters as alive and breathing.

Thirdly, and less consequentially is the bait, both the queer bait and the furry bait. It’s a series with gay romance, drama, and werewolves. It’s hard to resist that allure. While I bit the bait, I stayed for everything else. The romance and the werewolves are huge parts of every book, but they rarely feel like they are the singular focus of the narrative. It’s refreshing.

Lastly, I want to touch on the language of the books, the words chosen and how they are used.

This is the crux of why I would recommend these books to other furry writers. It’s the language this series employs that I think has grabbed me most, at least in the writing part of my brain that is.

While “Blank said” is still far and away the most common verbal tag, there are other verbal tags that struck me. Growled. Whined. Whimpered. Roared. It’s these kinds of verbs that struck me most because they aren’t used nearly as commonly in writing with more human characters. At least in what I noticed. The use of these verbs, these tags, went a very long way in building the characterization that most of the characters weren’t human. When we write, growled, whined, whimpered, and roared aren’t particularly common descriptors for how someone uses their voice. You could make an argument for growled, but the context of the narrative leans it toward the animalistic connotation that TJ Klune appears to aim for.

When I think of a person talking, I would usually gravitate to yell, scream, sob and the like. Theres a more human connotation to how we use those words rather than the more animalistic connotation of whine, whimper, and roar.

It’s this language of words that builds the belief that these werewolves aren’t quite human, even if they look human. It highlights the animalistic nature in a relatively subtle way, interwoven so cleanly that you almost don’t even realize what’s happening.

That language of words I think is what made these works so special to me. Of course there are many aspects that make this special to me now, but the language of words is what made the writing so special to me. Why I felt the need to write about these books.

I hope I wasn’t too rambly and that my thoughts ended up making sense. I don’t think I could recommend these books enough to other furries, especially furry writers/authors. They’re something to study I believe, an inspiration to the construction of a furry/furry adjacent story.