OMG this was so freaking good. Wallace is an attorney and not a very nice person. He is cold & rather mean. He dies suddenly from a heart attack & "wakes" up at his funeral & isn't very happen when there really isn't anyone there. His partners in the firm & his ex-wife. Enters Mei who is a reaper who is task with brining him to Hugo, the ferryman. When he ends up at the house/tea shop where Hugo is, he sees that he is tethered to him by a hook & rope. He also meets Hugo's grandfather & his dog Apollo who are both dead & just hanging out. Needless to say, he is not happy & demands to be sent back. We have a story of Wallace coming to realize that he is a better person then who he was prior to his death, learning from his mistakes and trying to make some things right as well as falling in love. I loved all the secondary characters, even the Manager. There are moments in the story where I broke down and cried not wanting certain things to happen, but it was the way it was meant to be. I have already pre-ordered the audio book so I can listen to the story over & over. I really don't want to give away any spoilers, but I highly recommend this book to all you TJ Klune fans out there.

*4.5*

This book had me feeling so many emotions throughout. Klune did a really good job of making you dislike the main character in the beginning then learning to admire him in the end. Watching Wallace accept his life was heartbreaking. I consider myself a workaholic, much like Wallace. I’m not an important lawyer but I do work long hours with very little down time. Reading this book made me question why I even have to work in the first place. Death comes for us all and what matter is life is the way you spend it. If you’ve been working too much, just remember to take a break and be around loved ones and do what you like.

The book starts with us meeting Wallace, a lawyer who is very serious and all about the job. His employees hate or fear him, he has no friends. It’s just work work work. Then he dies. But miraculously, he wakes up at his funeral. Seeing the amount of people that attended, (five) he realizes just how little he meant to anyone. After that the rest of the plot resumes with his journey to the afterlife.

What I love most about this book is the many different stages of death that’s represented. There’s the initial death, how loved ones are affected, how people move on, what happens when you die. There is no holding back when talking about death.

Throughout the story the characters grew on me and by the end I loved them all. You will feel the tenderness, suspense, grief, all the emotions they had and more by the time you finish. The only reason I’m knocking off half a star is the way the dialog made me feel. At times it felt forced, it didn’t flow very well. Most of the time when the characters talked to each other I was confused about what was so funny or why they would say something. I think that’s a personal problem though.

Overall this book was really great and I highly suggest anyone to read it if they can stomach the topic of death. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for accepting my request and providing me with this arc.

I was intrigued by the concept of TJ Klune's latest book - hard to ignore the fact that death has been on all our minds a lot for the last year, and I was intrigued to see how this particular author would approach the issue.
It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with 'The House in the Cerulean Sea' that this story takes you by the hand and gently steps up to confront that which we often avoid, making it hopeful and deeply human.
This book has a lot in common with Cerulean Sea but has enough differences that it doesn't just feel like a rehash. I particularly liked the idea of starting with a genuinely very unlikeable character and seeing how/if he could change. At the start of the book I was concerned, I wouldn't come around to Wallace but Klune manages to make his changes feel both genuine and profound. In another author's work this might come across as saccharine or just a retake of some kind of Scrooge story, in this case Klune's tone is so carefully balanced that it doesn't feel sickly sweet.
The themes of grief and death are prevalent in this book and a content warning is included in the book for some of the more difficult aspects of those themes. I personally felt they were handled as carefully as you might expect from this author and I found it very interesting as a person who has been exploring more around death positivity and grief in my own life. Once again I have to say Klune manages to keep things from becoming toxically positive, acknowledging that life is messy and so often death is the same. Obviously Klune's work is a fantasy but, much like 'The Good Place' it's a fantasy that I want to believe in.
Overall this is *exactly* what I was expecting this book to be, it's a gentle, hopeful love story that takes place among the dead and those who help them. I'll be interested to see if Klune breaks away from this style of writing in the future but I also secretly hope that we get more books like this!

In the way that a generation went to see Titanic over and over, to experience the love story that was Jack and Rose, I think that people are going to read this book over and over to read again and again about Wallace and Hugo. It's not just a love story though. This story is a comfort to queer people everywhere. For all of us raised to believe that Heaven was not meant for us, this is our story; this is a mythology to give us comfort about the unknown. I would gladly accept an afterlife like this. This story is about friendship; about family,the chosen-- our tribes. Most of all, it's a story that shows it's never to late to make changes in your life, (or death) and become a better version of yourself. I was not expecting the ending but I absolutely loved it. I was a fan of The House in the Cerulean Sea. But my heart is with this story.

I loved this book. Prepare to have your heart broken, to cry and to love these characters with all your Heart. It’s not only a story about death but a story about love. A love story about a ghost and a ferryman. A tea shop and family. A book everyone should read❤️ To mr. Klune thank you for one again writing a fabulous heart wrenching and heart warming story for us book needs to get lost in!

*Full review to be posted closer to publication on my blog, Goodreads, and Amazon.*

I, like many others, fell head over heels in love with The House in the Cerulean Sea when I read it last year, so I knew that I absolutely had to pick up Under the Whispering Door as soon as I could. This book had a very different overall setting and concept from Cerulean Sea, but it carried over many similar themes and overall messages about acceptance, understanding, love, and so much more. I will be honest and say that this one didn't grab me quite to the extent that I expected, but that's not to say that this wasn't also a perfect and beautiful story all on its own. It's heartwarming and heartbreaking, and I look forward to reading more from Klune.

Aaaand TJ Klune gives us another gay blanket of a book. So helpful to have this equal parts moving and hilarious book about death and dying after a year of so much grief and loss COVID-19 as well as individual and collective depression from lockdown. Klune writes very sensitively and warmly about a character who died by suicide which can sometimes be rare. It seems Klune definitely has a type for writing main characters - this book follows another curmudgeonly rule follower who reveals something extraordinary underneath. If you don't go in looking for Cerulean 2.0, you'll fall in love too. This book felt like a balm & helped me rediscover my love of loose leaf tea. Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan/Tor.

Wow! I absolutely LOVED this book more than I expected!

The storyline was so different yet enticing that I could not put the book down. Traversing through topics like making meaningful connections, living life to the fullest, and the infamous five stages of grief, it low key gave the feeling of awareness in some of life’s importance lessons, and books like that always stand out to me.

It wasn’t just the storyline I loved either. Wallace Price, the main character, was insufferable at first. As the story progressed, we meet more lovable characters like Mei, Nelson, Apollo, and Hugo. They’re all so strong in their personalities that it’s hard to actually pick a favorite character- I still can’t pick one! Even the side characters not mentioned have a way at getting to you, and the character development in the book is off the charts! I love some good character development, and I most definitely got some quality content in that regard.

Maybe it makes me biased, but as someone who has been surrounded by death a lot in their life, I truly appreciated this book. It was so beautifully written and presented. I’m not going to lie, I even shed a couple of tears in the Epilogue.

With a different yet enthralling storyline, well developed characters and meaningful relationships, what more could you want from a book? I easily gave this 5/5⭐️, and I highly recommend checking it out once it comes out on September 21st!

Wallace Price was a jerk in life and death isn't looking much better. As he is escorted to the ferryman by the reaper, Wallace continues to try to defeat the fact that he is dead. He always got his way in life, why not in death. Once he arrives at the awkward looking tea shop, he begins to realize there might have been more to life than making money while running rough shod over anyone in his path. Just as in The House in the Cerulean Sea, the author entertains the reader with witty and engaging dialogue while smoothly guiding the story along. I loved this book and all the characters! As much as I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea, I loved this one even more.

Thank you netgalley and Tor book for an e copy ARC of this book.

This is a book I loved so much I will order a physical copy.

This book is about death, a cranky mans death. But it's a book also about life and moments.

The beginning of this novel hooked me (pun intended to fellow readers). I loved the dark, cynical, dry humor. I liked this book chapter 1.

The thing is. This book made me laugh. When was the last time a book was funny or made me or my sarcastic heart laugh.... Books make me cry, they make me think, they make me bight my nails, they make me feel a lot, and for a logical mind like mine, it is honestly book therapy, or how I get my emotions out; but laugh, nope... not much, a few times a year at most. Books dont make me laugh, they make me happy, but that is not the same. This story and writing style made my soul laugh, the dry humor is my thing, the cynical to genuine story. I flew through this novel.

In the end if this novel, this story did not make me laugh, but I had other feelings, I won't spoil the ending with.

So thank you TJ Klune.

This is my first time reading a book of yours. It won't be the last.

Under the Whispering Door is a 5* in my opinion. This is almost my 100th book of 2021, so only maybe a dozen or so will make it into 5* category. Read it!

I am going to make a cup of tea now... if you know you know!

I honestly don't know where to begin with this review. This book was so profound, moving, endearing, and charming. I could make an entire list of adjectives to describe it, but first, I'll attempt to review it. This is my 4th book by Klune, and truth be told, I'm starting to think he was a mental health professional in a previous life. His words aren't hokey, or filled with Hallmark-card wisdom. They're achingly real, and reading them feels like breathing life into emotions. I'm assuming that TJ doesn't read these reviews, but if he did, I would say thank you to him. This story helped put a lot of my fears about losing my aunt to rest. I know that it is a work of fiction, but thinking about my aunt in this way was a wonderfully freeing thing. So thank you, TJ. You've made a 35-year-old feel light and breezy again.

Now on to the review. In the same vein of The House in the Cerulean Sea, Klune sets up a beautiful, fantastical world that is both somehow gigantic and small at the same time. My word to describe THITCS was "enchanting." With Under the Whispering Door, my word is "life-affirming." This book gave me all the good feels, but at the same time, made me acknowledge the concept of death (which isn't really anyone's favorite topic of conversation) in a positive way.

The MC of the story is Wallace Price, an asshole of a lawyer who dies suddenly of a heart attack, Even though he was horrible why he was alive, he can't seem to understand why no one really came to his funeral, and the ones that did, talked badly about him. He is then confronted by Mei, a tiny Chinese-American Grim Reaper (and she's HILARIOUS) who explains to Wallace that she has to take him to Hugo, the ferryman whose job it is to help the dead cross over to the next step in their journey. Naturally, Wallace is pissed about being dead, and when he comes to Hugo's tea shop (and portal to the next existence), he's angry and refuses to accept the fact that he's dead.

This is where the story starts to get both funny AND achingly tragic. Hugo, a young Black man who has panic attacks and deceased parents, is introduced as Wallace's ferryman. He is kind, empathetic, and honest. Wallace wants nothing to do with him. Wallace also meets Hugo's grandfather, Nelson--who is also a ghost. And a hilarious one. There is also the ghost of Hugo's adorable service dog, Apollo. Together, Mei, Hugo, Nelson, and Apollo run the Charron's Crossing Tea Shop. I could keep detailing the plot to you, but this is what it boils down to: Wallace eventually learns kindness, compassion, and love. These unlikely friends form a beautiful family who come to love each other. In the span of a month, Wallace does everything from scare a fake psychic (trust me--it's so funny that I cried), to learn how to change his "ghost clothes," to learning about the "Husks," (souls who are lost and want to cross over.) His journey is beautiful and romantic and profound and I enjoyed every single second of it. His redemption journey and his ability to sacrifice himself for others is what anchors the story.

I won't spoil the ending, but I can say this with absolute certainty: I cried harder at the ending of this book than I have any other book in years. But not because I was sad, but because the ending helped me so much in understanding grief and loss. Even as a work of fiction, Klune's words helped me heal in a lot of ways.

Is it as good as The House in the Cerulean Sea? You can't compare these stories at all. They're both incredible in their own way, and in their own message. Everyone takes something different from these stories. Both of these books have moved me profoundly, and I can't believe I lived over thirty years without reading a TJ Klune book. THITCS was a 5-star read for me, and this book is, as well. If you liked the former book, I have no doubt that you will LOVE Under the Whispering Door. Thank you, NetGalley, for the wonderful opportunity to read this book.

TJ Klune has this masterful ability to weave pure imagination with humorous empathetic writing that immediately hooks me. Under the Whispering Door was no different. It has all the elements of another Klune hit. The story follows Wallace Price, a callous and unfeeling lawyer married to his job, who winds up dead. While he doesn’t know he is dead, a reaper named Mei takes him to deal with his newly found limbo in a remote mountain town’s tea shop. However, the living cannot tell this tea shop is just a ruse for the afterlife helmed by Hugo, a ferryman who helps the dead cross over, and is aided by a curious cast of characters including the ghost of Hugo’s dog. All the stages of grief play out for Wallace, yet, as the story progresses I felt the pieces just did not fit the triumphs or ending as well as it could have. At least in my reading perspective, the most important focal point of the entire story arc was the romance, however, the character development was minimal at most which further interrupted the potential individual character development for Wallace. Don’t get me wrong, the book is clearly sprinkled with humor, beautiful writing, delightful characters, and philosophical sentiments on grief and loss, but it just didn’t completely materialize into a cohesive plot nor was it something on the level of Cerulean I was hoping for from Klune. While I hold these feelings, I still recommend reading it though with revised expectations.

Many thanks to Tor Books for an advanced readers copy. Under the Whispering Door hits U.S. shelves September 20, 2021.

cw: suicide, death of a child, mental illness

Under the Whispering Door is a book I was initially reluctant to read. However, I trusted that TJ Klune would make it worthwhile, and I was absolutely right. His imagining of what happens to us after we die was at times inspiring, terrifying, and comforting. This book will stay with me for a very long time.

I want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for allowing me to read the eARC .

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4120484127?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I loved this book. There is something really special about this author. I didn't get my hopes up in advance of reading this, because how could you possibly top The House in the Cerulean Sea? That's a really good question. While this book isn't quite as magical, it does have ghosts and reapers and a ferryman. The characters are diverse, which I like.

But, this book deals with death and you should prepare yourself to have feelings. Not that you don't already have them, but this book will give you extra. This book is extra.

Under The Whispering Door
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Let me start by saying I have not yet read House in the Cerulean Sea which I think helped in not comparing the two. Second, I’ve heard about the authors comments about his inspiration for House in the Cerulean Sea. I went into this with no bias whatsoever.

Wallace is/was a lawyer who passes away suddenly from a heart attack and finds himself in the in between, Charon’s Crossing Tea Shop, a whimsical and funny looking house in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know what I expected this book to do to me. But it definitely wasn’t to love the characters so much. The character growth I saw not only from the main character but the other characters as well, was beautifully written. What would you do with life if you knew your time was limited? Would you go after what you want? Would you give up and just stew? Would you be totally different person than what you were while alive?

The book deals with death. A lot of it as it is the premise. It lightly touches on death by suicide, death of a young child, someone being brutally murdered & mental health issues such as panic and anxiety attacks. They are subjects that are there but not too heavily. If any of these should trigger you, it would be a wise idea to steer clear.
Things I loved:
-Character growth not only from main character but all characters.
-the love between Hugo and Wallace
-the witty and fun banter between Wallace and Nelson & Apollo
-the tears and emotion that tore from within me at 1am
-the amazing writing style
-the characters overall. I LOVED them so much
-the diverse characters
-LGTBQIA Representation

You can expect fun, humor, but overall love. Love for what we are meant to do while we still can…whether you are alive…or dead.

Thank you Netgalley & Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the amazing chance to read this book in turn for an honest opinion!

4.5
This book is a warm cup of tea on a cold day. I'm having a hard time processing the emotional wringer I went through reading this.

I was worried that this book would ignite my anxiety that I have around existentialism, but it really didn't. It was so surprisingly... relieving. Death and grieving are really hard topics to tackle and to tackle well, and I think this book does such a good job of making the reader go through the emotional journey Wallace goes on.

My one complaint would be that I wished Hugo and Wallace had worked together to help the two people they needed to help instead of the focus being solely on Wallace. That part of the book felt a bit rushed and I wished it had slowed down a bit. I also wasn't the biggest fan of the ending, weirdly enough (though I did like the epilogue).

Thank you to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

The first book I read by TJ Klune was "The house in the cerulean sea" and I LOVED it. I loved it so much that I forced my book club to pick it. I was very excited to get the ARC for this. While I didn't love it as much as The house in the cerulean sea, it was very adorable and uplifting. These are just easy, feel good reads that still have substance, and reading one is like settling in with a warm blanket and a mug of tea.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune is the book about loss and grieving that you didn’t know you needed.

Wallace is a highly successful, thoroughly dislikeable man. Even after death, he’s a cranky jerk. To Mei, the reaper who collects him from his funeral. To the other ghosts. And even to Hugo, the ferry man charged with helping Wallace accept his death and move on to his next chapter.

But things don’t go quite as planned. Wallace finds reasons to stay. The biggest one being Hugo.

Following The House in the Cerulean Sea, this is the second book in what TJ Klune has called his kindness trilogy. Where the first book tackled prejudice and the uncaringness of bureaucracy, this one looks at living, dying, grieving, and loss. Weightier subjects but he’s again handled them with amazing deftness and a great dollop of humor.

The banter in Under the Whispering Door is so good! Wallace embodies the outrage of a drenched cat. Nelson, the ghost of Hugo’s grandfather, is a crafty old man at his finest. And Hugo is love and kindness in a cup of tea.

The relationship that develops between Wallace and Hugo is so incredibly heartwarming without ever sliding into being maudlin. And the found family of all of the characters, so willing to give everything to and for each other was profoundly moving.

Under the Whispering Door will wreck you in the most amazing, banter-filled, heart-wrenching yet kind way possible. It has it all:
• Found family
• Queer love
• Tea talk
• Ghost dog!

HIGHLIGHTS
~tea for all, and all for tea
~it’s okay not to be okay
~All The Feels
~fear the Manager
~what happens if you’re a better person as a ghost than you ever were alive?

If you’re reading this, you belong to one of three groups; either you’ve been following Klune’s work for a while, or you’ve read The House in the Cerulean Sea, or you’ve never read any of his books at all. How you should approach Under the Whispering Door varies depending on which group you’re in.

If you’ve read two or more of Klune’s books, you don’t really need to be here; you don’t need me to tell you that Under the Whispering Door is excellent, because by now it should be obvious that everything Klune writes is excellent; and you don’t need me to warn you to brace yourself for some serious Feels because again, you already know that everything Klune writes is packing hardcore Feels. Stock up on soft things to squeeze very hard during intense moments, handkerchiefs, and your preferred brand of chocolate, and you’re good to go.

If you’ve only read The House in the Cerulean Sea, then here is what you must know: yes, Under the Whispering Door has the same soft whimsy that so thoroughly captured your heart in House. It is present in the cheerful strangeness of the teahouse’s architecture. It is present in The Bunny Costume. It is present in the baffling, and yet somehow perfectly correct, placement of the eponymous Door.

But the gentleness of Under the Whispering Door is of a different kind to the gentleness in House. House is a snuggly, hopeful book, just a tiny bit silly, a lot of fun, and intrinsically optimistic. It is a feel-good book. It has lots of important things to say, but when you turn the final pages, you close the book not feeling overwhelmed, but glowing and comforted and a bit steadier on your feet.

The gentleness of Under the Whispering Door is a merciless gentleness. This is a book that wraps you up in a blanket, not to make you feel cosy, but because that is what we do when things hurt. This is a book that holds your hand, not to be friendly, but because we all need a hand to hold when we’re facing death and grief. This is a book that does not tell you it’s going to be okay, because nothing about death is okay. There is sweetness, and there is peacefulness, and there is a lot of laughter, but it is fundamentally a different kind of book than House.

You need to know that, because if you go in expecting a book just like House wearing a different dress, you’re going to be disappointed. And you’ll miss how beautiful Under the Whispering Door is, just because it doesn’t look like what you wanted.

And if you’re in the camp that has never read a Klune book before…this might just be the perfect place to start.

Wallace is not an especially nice person when we first meet him, but rather than being frozen as he was, he lives and grows far more in death than he ever did while he was alive. Gone from a big-shot lawyer to a ghost confined to a very strange tea-shop, it’s pretty understandable that he freaks out a little. But he doesn’t have to go through the Door upstairs until he’s ready.

He’s not ready yet. That’s okay.

He’s also surrounded by an incredible cast of characters; Hugo, who owns the tea-shop and is a ferryman, responsible for helping ghosts be ready to move on; Mei, who is a reaper, someone who collects the deceased and brings them to a ferryman; Nelson, Hugo’s deceased grandfather; and Apollo, who is the sweetest ghost-dog to ever haunt anyone. Klune always rocks when it comes to characters, and Under the Whispering Door is no exception; this is not a fast-paced story, but it’s a quietly powerful character-driven one, and it works. It doesn’t happen instantly, but the way the characters come together, how they form a family, is just beautiful. The way they play off each other seems so natural that it becomes difficult to remember that Wallace is a new addition to the family, rather than having been there from day one.

What we see of the workings of the afterlife is a mixture of eerie and whimsical; Klune strikes just the right balance while neatly sidestepping issues of religion, giving us enough pieces to make it clear that there is a system behind everything…without trying to explain what that is. Which I think is the right approach; Klune isn’t trying to explain death away, never tries to challenge the fear and mystery that is intrinsic to it. This is a book about coming to terms with what death is, and death is scary and mysterious. There’s no getting around or away from that, and Under the Whispering Door doesn’t try.

That’s why there is no way for this book not to hurt. It hurts, because Klune is just too damn good at tapping into emotion, at making us feel. And this time, we have to feel things about something none of us really know how to deal with, something we’re all scared of, something that hurts.

And that’s okay.

There are rom-com elements, but this is not a romantic comedy. There is plenty of heart-break, but this is not a tragedy. There are one or two things which are horrifying, but this book is definitely not horror. It’s about regrets and loss and yearning, love and family and tea. It’s about how it’s okay to not be okay. It’s about opening your heart up even when it hurts. It’s about grief.

It’s a beautiful story. It is going to hurt your heart, more than once.

But it’s very, very worth it.

Content warnings for death, suicide, depression, and anxiety.

Wallace Price dies and is collected by Reaper Mei and brought to Charon's Crossing, a tea shop owned by Ferryman Hugo. Throughout the journey of the book, Wallace begins to live and find himself in ways that he wasn't able to when he was among the living.

Wallace in the first half of the book is quite simply an asshole. He has spent his life looking out for only himself and his career, to the detriment of everyone else around him, including himself. He dies alone in his office on a Sunday and the main story arc starts when he is collected by Mei, a Reaper, at his funeral. She brings him to Charon's Crossing where he meets Nelson, Apollo (an adorable dog), and Hugo, the Ferryman who is supposed to help him on his journey to what's next for Wallace.

This book is wonderful and insightful. The characters are diverse, fully realized, and complex. As the synopsis says, it is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, sometimes in the same paragraph. I laughed, I teared up, and I couldn't put it down towards the end.