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TJ Klune Books in Order

Explore TJ Klune books in order, from Green Creek to Cerulean Sea, with quick summaries, series guides, and clear help on where to start next.

Last updated: June 9, 2026

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33 books

Bear, Otter, and the Kid

by TJ Klune

2011

Bear McKenna has spent years raising his little brother after their mother walked out. When Otter comes back to town, Bear has to face old feelings and the possibility that devotion to family might include a life of his own.

Burn

by TJ Klune

2012

In a world where Elementals are feared and hunted, Felix Paracel survives under the name Atticus Vanesco. Old loyalties, buried power, and brutal betrayals drag him into a larger fight over who gets to live free.

Who We Are

by TJ Klune

2012

Bear, Otter, and the Kid have made it through the first storm, but real life keeps coming. Custody fights, family history, and new strains on their hard-won happiness make this a deeper look at what family means.

Into This River I Drown

by TJ Klune

2013

Five years after his father's death, Benji Green is still drowning in grief when impossible visions start breaking into daily life. In Roseland, Oregon, a mysterious man with wings pulls him toward long-buried truths.

Tell Me It's Real

by TJ Klune

2013

Paul Auster is sarcastic, broke, and convinced nobody could really want him, especially not sunny, relentless Vince Taylor. Then one accidental car hit and a family crisis force Paul to decide whether love is the joke, or the answer.

John and Jackie

by TJ Klune

2014

Over a single afternoon, two men look back on the moments that shaped their seventy-one years together. It is a tender, bittersweet love story about memory, survival, and the gift of being fully known.

The Art of Breathing

by TJ Klune

2014

Tyson Thompson comes home to Seafare carrying failure, addiction, and panic disorder. Reuniting with the family he left, and the first love he never truly got over, means facing both old pain and the person he might still become.

How to Be a Normal Person

by TJ Klune

2015

Gustavo Tiberius likes his quiet, odd little life just fine, until Casey, an asexual hipster barista, barges into it. Trying to become normal for love only shows Gus that the right person may want him exactly as he is.

The Lightning-Struck Heart

by TJ Klune

2015

When young Sam Haversford accidentally turns boys to stone, he is pulled into the orbit of the king's wizard and a much bigger destiny. Soon he is chasing magic, monsters, and one very inconvenient love.

Crisped + Sere

by TJ Klune

2016

Cavalo has twenty-one days to return Lucas to a violent enemy or see a whole town destroyed. In a world already burned nearly empty, love, survival, and the secret written in Lucas's skin become impossible to separate.

Murmuration

by TJ Klune

2016

Mike wakes in the perfect town of Amorea in 1954, with a good job, a sweet romance, and a growing sense that something is terribly wrong. The more he notices, the more the town's careful reality starts to crack.

The Queen and the Homo Jock King

by TJ Klune

2016

Sanford Stewart, better known onstage as Helena Handbasket, needs chaos magnet Darren Mayne to help save his drag club. Their fake seduction plan quickly turns real, and much messier, than Sandy ever intended.

Withered + Sere

by TJ Klune

2016

A century after fire destroys the world, Cavalo hides in a ruined prison with a dog and a half-mad robot. Taking a mysterious stranger prisoner forces him back toward other survivors, and the past he cannot outrun.

Wolfsong

by TJ Klune

2016

Ox Matheson has never felt like he fits anywhere, until the Bennett family moves in next door and changes his world. What begins as friendship grows into pack, love, and a dangerous bond that will test them all.

A Destiny of Dragons

by TJ Klune

2017

A prophecy from Sam's formidable grandmother sends Sam of Wilds across Verania in search of five dragons. The quest is bigger, stranger, and more dangerous than ever, especially when fate starts making personal demands.

Olive Juice

by TJ Klune

2017

One message brings David back to Phillip on a winter night, and together they sort through the wreckage of a life that veered off course. It is a quiet, aching story about guilt, memory, and the chance for grace.

The Consumption of Magic

by TJ Klune

2017

Sam survived his last battle with the Dark wizard Myrin, but the scars it left carry their own warning. To save Verania, he and his chaotic allies must unravel a deeper plan before it is too late.

The Long and Winding Road

by TJ Klune

2017

As Bear and Otter try to build a future, unexpected news and one small knock at the door change everything. The final Seafare book pulls the whole family together for one more test of love and chosen belonging.

Until You

by TJ Klune

2017

Paul and Vince just want a simple wedding. Instead they get meddling relatives, unhelpful friends, and enough pre-marriage chaos to test whether happily ever after can survive the guest list.

A Wish Upon the Stars

by TJ Klune

2018

After entering the Dark Woods in grief, Sam of Wilds returns to a kingdom that has fallen to Myrin. Verania is broken, the king is imprisoned, and taking it back may cost Sam everything.

Ravensong

by TJ Klune

2018

Witch mechanic Gordo Livingstone swore off wolves after the Bennett pack broke his heart. When Mark Bennett returns and trouble follows, Gordo must face old love, old wounds, and the cost of belonging.

The Bones Beneath My Skin

by TJ Klune

2018

In 1995, broken journalist Nate Cartwright retreats to his family's Oregon cabin and finds a wounded stranger and an extraordinary ten-year-old girl already there. Soon the three are on the run from forces that want her back.

Heartsong

by TJ Klune

2019

Robbie Fontaine has spent his life drifting from pack to pack, never fully safe from going feral. In Caswell, Maine, he finally finds a chance at home, but the wolf tied to his fate may also be a traitor.

How to Be a Movie Star

by TJ Klune

2019

Josiah Erickson is sure fame is one lucky break away. When a writer-director named Q-Bert offers him a shot, Josy chases career dreams from Los Angeles to Abby, Oregon, and finds romance he never planned for.

Why We Fight

by TJ Klune

2019

Corey Ellis, who also performs as Kori, is trying to survive one last summer before graduation when he lands an internship under former professor Jeremy Olsen. As attraction and community politics collide, keeping things professional becomes impossible.

Brothersong

by TJ Klune

2020

After a shattering revelation in Maine, Carter Bennett goes looking for the feral wolf he cannot forget. The farther he travels from pack and home, the closer he comes to madness, buried secrets, and a life-changing truth.

The Extraordinaries

by TJ Klune

2020

Nick Bell may not have superpowers, but he does have ADHD, a huge imagination, and a massive crush on Nova City's top hero. One real encounter with Shadow Star sends him chasing heroism, danger, and feelings much closer to home.

The House in the Cerulean Sea

by TJ Klune

2020

Rule-bound caseworker Linus Baker is sent to inspect an orphanage for dangerous magical children on a remote island. What he finds there, in Arthur Parnassus and the children he protects, challenges every safe assumption he has.

Fairytales From Verania

by TJ Klune

2021

This story collection revisits Verania through offbeat fairy tales, side adventures, and deeper looks at beloved characters. It is a playful way back into the world, with plenty of heart beneath the jokes.

Flash Fire

by TJ Klune

2021

Nick finally has the superhero boyfriend of his dreams, but dating Seth does not solve everything. Between missing powers, mounting pressure, and new trouble in Nova City, growing up proves harder than writing fanfiction.

Under the Whispering Door

by TJ Klune

2021

When high-powered lawyer Wallace Price dies, a reaper takes him to a peculiar tea shop run by ferryman Hugo. Stuck between life and whatever comes next, Wallace has one last chance to learn how to live.

Heat Wave

by TJ Klune

2022

Nick, Seth, Jazz, and Gibby race toward the explosive end of their Nova City story when an unexpected visitor crashes into Nick's home. The final showdown forces Nick to rethink power, family, and what being a hero really means.

The Damning Stone

by TJ Klune

2022

With Verania rebuilding after war, Prince Justin is supposed to think about the throne. Instead he gets tangled in duty, unwanted change, and a magical disaster that turns recovery into a whole new kind of crisis.

Where should I start?

If you want warm, hopeful fantasy: The House in the Cerulean SeaUnder the Whispering Door
If you want werewolves, romance, and pack drama: WolfsongRavensongHeartsongBrothersong
If you want big comedy in epic fantasy clothes: The Lightning-Struck HeartA Destiny of DragonsThe Consumption of Magic
If you want contemporary queer romance: How to Be a Normal PersonTell Me It's RealBear, Otter, and the Kid

Author bio

TJ Klune was born Travis John Klune in Roseburg, Oregon, in 1982, and he grew up in rural Oregon. He has spoken about what it was like being a queer kid there in the 1980s and 1990s, looking for books that felt honest and finding very few. That sense of being on the outside, and wanting stories that make room for people who have been pushed aside, still runs through much of his fiction.

He started writing young. As a kid, he wrote fan fiction inspired by Metroid, which is a pretty good origin story for someone who would go on to write books about magical children, werewolves, superheroes, and the end of the world. Long before he became a full-time novelist, he also worked in insurance claims, including difficult cases involving injury, loss, and litigation.

That job left a mark.

You can feel it in the way Klune writes about systems, paperwork, grief, and the quiet damage institutions can do. Under the Whispering Door, with its dead lawyer and patient ferryman, turns bureaucracy into an afterlife problem. The House in the Cerulean Sea takes a rule-following caseworker and drops him into a home full of children the world has already judged. Even when the setup is whimsical, there is usually something serious underneath it.

His first published novel was Bear, Otter, and the Kid, and readers kept following him because he mixed humor with real emotional stakes. Later books widened the range. The Green Creek novels brought together werewolves, pack bonds, and huge feelings. The Extraordinaries leaned into teen superhero chaos, fandom, and ADHD. The Lightning-Struck Heart and the rest of the Verania books let him go gloriously off the leash with fantasy comedy, while still making room for loyalty, heartbreak, and love.

He also writes standalones that shift tone without losing that human core. Into This River I Drown blends grief, mystery, and the supernatural. The Bones Beneath My Skin starts as a lonely retreat and turns into a strange, tender chase story. Across the board, his books return again and again to found family, queer joy, people learning how to stay, and the stubborn idea that kindness matters.

He does not write the same book over and over.

What links the work is the emotional promise. Klune has said that positive, accurate queer representation matters to him, and that shows in the kinds of lives he puts on the page. His characters can be messy, loud, grieving, angry, awkward, or deeply weird, but they are still allowed love, safety, and a future. That is part of why so many readers stick with him from one genre jump to the next.

Success followed. Klune became a bestselling author, and his work has picked up honors including the Lambda Literary Award for Into This River I Drown and major awards for The House in the Cerulean Sea. He now writes full time, and recent interviews place him in Virginia, far from the Oregon childhood that shaped so much of his imagination.

For readers coming to him fresh, that mix is the draw: heart, oddballs, jokes, danger, and a refusal to leave queer characters at the edges of the story. Whether he is writing about a caseworker on a windswept island or a wolf pack in the woods, Klune tends to come back to the same question. What happens when people finally find where, and with whom, they belong?

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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All 33 TJ Klune Books in Order (Complete List 2026)