Murmuration by T.J. Klune
Murmuration
by T.J. Klune
LGBTQ | Romance | Mystery
336 Pages
Released October 2026
Rating: ★★★1/2
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Content Warnings
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group | Tor Books for a copy of this ARC! This book was refreshingly different from T.J. Klune’s other works and I loved seeing his writing range expand!
This book follows Mike Fraizer, a 36 year old living in the quaint town of Amorea in 1957. Mike is doing pretty well. He owns a small bookshop called the Bookworm. He’s got a small group of friends. And best of all, there’s Sean - a handsome young server that Mike is falling for. But Mike’s been having these strange visions, and they’ve been getting gradually worse, and now they threaten to destroy everything Mike has worked for.
From the get go, this book instantly reminded me of a fairly recent popular movie (which I enjoyed) so when the book started going in a somewhat similar direction, I was intrigued and hopeful it would go in a similar direction. Of course to avoid spoilers, I will not be naming the movie but I’m sure you’ll know exactly what I mean once you read it!
To start, I really liked Amorea and all its inhabitants. I loved the small-town atmosphere. The romance in it is sweet and not overly spicy. I initially felt a bit bored but once Mike’s “visions” started picking up, I was more and more drawn into the story. I appreciate that Klune gave us enough hints to somewhat predict the way the book was going to go, without giving everything away because the ending of the books was still surprising.
This book also ended up being much more complex and thought-provoking than I expected. After finishing, I have some mixed feelings. This book is hopeful and tragic in a lot of ways, and there are many morally gray aspects to this book that I’m still not sure how I feel about. While ultimately, it’s a romance book that asks “How far are you willing to go for love?”, it didn’t really give me the warm-and-fuzzies romances usually do. Through Mike, the novel really does a deep dive into that concept and the romance becomes secondary to that question.
Overall, I think it’s a great book that many readers will enjoy, especially those that enjoy complex, morally-gray characters in romances. It was both exactly what I was expecting and refreshingly different.
This book is available for purchase October 28, 2026!