If you’re looking for an imaginative read, this newest book by TJ Klune will certainly fit that description. Klune spins a unique take on death and what happens in the days following.

We’ve all heard of the grim reaper and heaven and hell, but each of us most likely has a unique view of the afterlife, whether you are Christian or not. Klune steers away from any religious ideas about death and refers to it as crossing over to a different place.

Wallace, our main character, has died of a sudden heart attack. Wallace was a high-powered attorney and is very much similar to Ebenezer Scrooge. His entire life was consumed with work. He had no special relationships and was not well liked.

When he wakes up one day and realizes he has died, he just can’t accept it. Mai, a reaper, shows up to help Wallace, taking him to a house where he will stay until he is ready to make his crossing. The house belongs to Hugo and he is the one that helps people get ready to cross over. Other residents in the house are Nelson, Hugo’s grandfather and Apollo, Hugo’s dog. All of these characters help to soften Wallace’s heart and open his eyes to the life he had lived.

My favorite part of the book was the interaction between Wallace and Nelson, along with Apollo. I love a story with a good dog in the midst. This is a story with great characters, much imagination and an a hopeful ending.

Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan-TOR/Forge for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review.

TJ Klune is at it again! Firstly this is not the same wholesome content that The House in The Cerulean Sea was. This book follows death, grief, and what come after. I felt like this book found me at an appropriate time and giving me a friend to be with.

We follow Wallace Price, who in the beginning is a huge asshole, and when he suddenly dies he finds himself at a tea shop in the middle of nowhere. Throughout the book Wallace grows a lot. Hugo (the ferryman there to help Wallace pass over) is such a sweet caring man!

The side characters are phenomenal! Mei (a reaper), Nelson (Hugo’s grandpa who is a ghost and sassy as hell!), and Apollo (Hugo’s old almost service dog turned ghost).

I honestly could not put this book down. I think TJ Klune does an amazing job with found families and acceptance. Truly going in you think this is about Wallace’s journey to the next stage, but in a way almost every character you meet in on their own journey and it was a pleasure seeing it.

10/10 will cry during the last 30%

5/5 stars!!

Under the Whispering Door was beautiful and heartbreaking. I kept thinking “how is a story about someone dying so funny and addicting?”

Wallace didn’t live his life to the fullest and now that he’s passed, he’s finding out just what was missing. As he’s in limbo, waiting to cross over, he forms a friendship with the ferryman, Hugo, and the rest of the gang. It is a little predictable, how Wallace learns from his mistakes while living and does his best to be a better…ghost.

The romance felt minimal to me. I wasn’t sure where it came from. It felt like they were becoming friends and then BAM.

But none of that really matters to me because I still adore Under the Whispering Door. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking, funny and sad, beautiful and crushing. It is still so surprising to me that a book about death could be so sweet and insightful and make me feel so much.

Lastly, Nelson may only be a side character, but he may be one of my favorite characters to ever grace a page. Under the Whispering Door was so well written and enjoyable and I’ll look forward to more by T.J. Klune.

If ever there was a fiction novel that I wished was nonfiction....

Beautiful interpretation of a period of the cycle of life as its focus. Whimsical with magical realism that comes across more YA than A, but still a heart warming tale that gives all the feels.

My only concern is that the cover will make this a hard sell to adults. I've already run into this problem recommending it to patrons.

I think my love for TJ Klune's books is not as much as before because I can't feel the excitement whenever I am reading his book anymore. I really thought that this book was going to be a five-star like his other books, but it was more like 3.5 stars. I feel like the writing for this book reminded me a lot of the Wolfsong series and his other books in general. Also, I wasn't really into the concept of this book like I was with his other books. I don't know if his next book can amaze me, but I have hopes for it!

It's such a sweet story! A life lived poorly can still be turned around. Redemption, even in death, is possible.

Wallace Price was grumpy, mean, and not very kind in life. In death he listened, learned and changed his way of thinking. Hugo was so confident in helping people, even if he wasn't always confident in himself. And he surrounded himself with the best kinds of people to help him where he had weaknesses.

The characters come alive on the page, and the vivid storytelling makes you feel like a fly on the wall of the story. I loved it!

It's never too late. Listen. Change. Improve.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

This was my first TJ Klune book and I was not ready. This book SHOOK ME. I just finished about 30 minutes ago and I had to sit and process for that entire time before I could write a review.

I loved this book. I think it easily won the award of "book that made me cry the most in 2021" or maybe not even in 2021, just ever. What a deep and wonderfully heart breaking book. I am SO thankful I was given an ARC of this because this is probably one of the best books I've read all year.

Wallace is a man who is all business. He has let his work life of becoming a powerful partner at his legal consume his entire personality. He has lost his friends, his wife and all else to this, although he does not see it as a loss. He likes order and not having these distractions in his life has helped him focus on work and not feelings. Until one day, it all changes. Wallace finds himself at his own funeral, which only 5 people attend. He is forced to deal with his life choices when Mei, his Reaper comes to collect him to take him to the next step in his journey. Wallace is submerged in feelings he always pushed away and ignored when he meets his Ferryman, Hugo. This book tackles the reality of loss, death, suicide, losing a loved one, pretty much everything that breaks your heart and makes you want to cry. Words truly can not describe how amazing this book is.

I read the the first chapter of this book and literally laughed out loud. I had to read it to my husband because it was just SO GOOD. The humor that T.J. puts into this book that is literally all about death is so perfect that the first half the book was more of a "feel good" book. The second half of the book was equally as wonderful, but on a deeper level talking about death and dealing with grief. Being raised by my grandparents and being especially close with my grandfather, Nelson touched maybe a little too close to home for me. I think this book really made me reflect on what I would do if I lost everything like Hugo has and how much I appreciate the loved ones I still have.

I fell in love with all of our characters almost immediately. Nelson, Apollo, Hugo, Mei, Wallace and yes, especially Desdemona Tripplethorne. They were all so easy to love and connect with that I felt like I was apart of this cozy little tea shop and apart of their family. I cried about 75% of the time while reading because this book just touches on so many different level. Suicide, murder, unexpected death, losing your partner, child or parents. Dealing with your sexuality, accepting who you are and also allowing the path that the universe put in front of you unravel. T.J. touched on so much in this book but all these topics are blended perfectly in the book.

My only complaint (but not really complaint) is that I cried every time I picked up this book. I don't know if I necessarily was in the right head space to read such a deep book, but I am glad that I did. Before you pick up this book, please understand there are A LOT of trigger warnings, but they are never portrayed in a negative way. Hugo does such a fantastic job of comforting you while you cry so in the end I think I was ok.

Wow. This story was why I love to read. I don’t have the adequate words at this time to explain what a triumph this book is (mostly because I just finished it and I’m a sobbing mess). TJ Klune - you have an amazing gift and I want to thank you for sharing it with the world.

While I didn’t enjoy Under the Whispering Door quite as much as T.J. Klune’s previous novel, The House in the Cerulean Sea, it’s another very creative novel.

The characters are unique, each with a clearly defined personality that adds depth to the story (Wallace, Hugo, Mei, Nelson, the Manager, and even Apollo, the ghost dog.) There are people who are alive (and even some who are dead) who are unable to get over the loss of a departed loved one and it's Hugo's job is to help them face death.

Despite it all, the author manages to find humor amidst what might otherwise be a melancholy topic. There’s Desdemona Tripplethorne with her Ouija board who is determined to get the spirits to speak. (As Rocky J. Squirrel would ask, “Are they friendly spirits?”) I couldn’t stop laughing out loud at the line “I’m going to eat your diver.” (You had to be there!) And even though I figured out how the novel would end, it was a delight to find out how the author takes you there. Under the Whispering Door is a heartwarming, humorous, and poignant tale about grief, loss, building relationships, and moving on.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Wallace Price was not a kind man. When he died, it was more of a celebration than a time of mourning. Wallace wasn't ready to die so luckily, he ended up at an odd little tea shop. While there, he finally learned how to live.

This book is funny and charming and just a touch bittersweet. The more time that passes, the more fondly I feel about it. It's definitely unforgettable. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What an incredible and beautiful book. I absolutely loved this. You get the same vibe as House in the Cerulean Sea. Lovable characters, redemption, found family, and people just trying to be the best humans they can be. This book can make you feel good about life and death. It touched my heart and I even teared up at times. What a wonderful story with a very satisfying resolution. It’s definitely a buy not borrow for me

After cutthroat attorney Wallace Price suddenly dies and finds himself bound for the afterlife, he must learn to love in a life that only truly begins with his death. His time as a ghost in a tea shop/celestial door to heaven gives him a chance to find home.

This is a charming world, clearly written with deep love for the characters as the author processes their own beliefs about death and grief. Always here for a queer romance. However, I felt this novel was a little under-steeped for me. It didn’t have a strong enough direction to push a reader through many pages of long blocks of heart warming dialogue. Like a tea pot in a knitted cosie, my heart was way too warmed. It was in an inferno of inspirational monologues. I just needed more depth and stronger narrative structure for it to satisfy me.

Still, this book is sure to appeal to fans of this author’s earlier work and those working through their own feelings of loss and struggle of feeling displaced in traditional belief systems around death and grief.

Thank you to netgalley and publisher for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I was so eager to read this book because I’m a TJ Klune fan, however, this was more different than I expected! It took me a little bit to get into it but overall, I enjoyed it. TJ Klune never disappoints!

AHHH SO MANY TEARS.

Wallace Price is dead, and a jerk. When his reaper, Mei, comes to collect him, Wallace can't believe his fate. But then he meets Hugo, the man who will guide him into the life beyond. What starts as a tenuous tolerance of Hugo at first soon blooms into something like friendship. With the assistance of Nelson (a ghost) and Apollo (a ghost dog), Wallace goes on an unforgettable journey of finding meaning in both life and death.

This was such a poignant story, wow. I loved Wallace's growth. I thought at times it was a bit extreme, and if Wallace were a living person it would definitely have been unbelievable. But I think the concept of being able to look back at his life and see his own faults was very well done, and his development worked really nicely with the story. Mei was so super lovable, as was Hugo, as was Nelson. While Wallace was a cool character to see go on a journey, the other characters made the dialogue and events of the story really fun to read.

The plot itself meandered a bit, but I found I was surprisingly invested for such a character driven story. Usually, those bore me until the last pages. But this one had a certain magnetism that pulled me all the way through. The world of reapers and ferrymen was interesting, and I almost wish I could see more of it. What are the other ferrymen like? What is the Manager's world like? and of course WHAT IS UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR?? While I had questions, it didn't feel like anything was left out of the story.

Of course, there is the message. I really liked that it wasn't left vague what Wallace thought the purpose of life/death ended up being. And while I won't put it here so that you all can go on a journey with him, I thought the message itself was satisfying. My only complaint would be that I thought some of the conversation about acceptance of death/the meaning/the journey got a biiiit repetitive. But really, everything else was amazing.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to cry, or wants a sweet romance, or witty characters. Definitely going to read T.J. Klune's other works!

Rating: 4.5/5
Pacing: medium
Intended audience: adult (but fine for YA)
Content warnings: discussion of suicide, grief, and death, death as a central theme

Who knew a book about death could be a love story? In this tale, a tea shop doubles as a crossing over spot for the recently departed. Depending on what they have to work out, their stays could be long or short. It's interesting to learn about the semi-permanent characters of the tea shop and their stories as well as meet the newbies as they trickle in. While I felt the book could have been condensed by 50 pages or so, it was still a very enjoyable read.

Blast. In a word: Unsurprising.

Between very little happening beyond what we are given in the synopsis and the already well trodden canon of “there is more to life than riches” thanks to Charles Dickens and the vein he tapped, nothing new is added here. Instead we have an entirely too predictable, unexciting narrative that failed to materialize into an investing and, dare I say it, interesting read.

There are pockets of Klune’s humour and charm here and the characters themselves are fine, but we only know them on the surface and never delve deep within their thought process, which is critical to the central conversation that Klune is trying to develop here: our lives are more than the monies we accumulate and the status we achieve.

While I agree to some extent with other reviewers that Under the Whispering Door isn’t like House in the Cerulean Sea, when I step back and look at both reads, they are actually remarkably similar – both are putting a paranormal spin on central topics of importance, acceptance and a life well lived spun in a comforting yarn and happy endings. But, for me, this formula doesn’t work for the central conversation in Under the Whispering Door: grief. So when a happy narrative is layered atop of it … it doesn’t ring true. Overall, very little meat is spread way too thin over too many pages with nothing to compel the reader onward. I believe people will enjoy Under the Whispering Door, but for most it will not match their love for The House in the Cerulean Sea … do with that what you will and decide on your own merit. For me, Under the Whispering Door was a miss.

I hadn’t realized death could be infused with such great vibrancy until TJ Klune’s “Under the Whispering Door.” It faces bereavement with a wit, charm and whimsy which softens the harsh truths it examines.

As a psychologist of forty years, I was with many people in their last moments and with others who mourned. Only a few approached death like TJ Klune, running towards it with a gentle glee that lit their transition with hope, decreasing my own fears. For the rest, I wish I’d had this romance to offer them … Because it is a romance through and through.

Here’s the premise. In life, Wallace was an unkind lawyer who believed the ends justified the means. After sudden death, he’s taken by a reaper, Mei (a human who can physically interact with ghosts) to meet his ferryman, Hugo. A ferryman helps the newly dead come to terms with unfinished business and get ready to enter the door to their afterlife… a door that is on the top floor of Hugo and Mei’s tea house. They’re human, after all, and need to earn a living, so they own a real bakery, which grows its tea leaves on the grounds. Also present are two ghosts who haven’t transitioned, Hugo’s dog and grandfather, Nelson.

Wallace is so busy recapturing human decency that he feels more alive in death than he did before. But change is hard and slow. “Honesty was a weapon. It could be used to stab and tear and spill blood upon the earth. Wallace knew that; he had his fair share of blood on his hands because of it. But it was different, now. He was using it upon himself, and he was flayed open because of it, nerve endings exposed.”

Throughout this process, Wallace’s conversations with Mei, Hugo and Nelson examine the unfairness of living past those we love, or of facing our own ultimate unknown. “Time. We always think we have so much of it, but when it really counts, we don’t have enough at all.”

Yes, I depleted a travel size tissue box while enjoying “Under the Whispering Door,” but didn’t mind or feel uncomfortable. Because as snot dribbled, I was either pondering a really wise throwaway line (“A river only moves in one direction”) or hungry, as tea and delicacies were passed out. Often I was swooning at these men’s love. Though Hugo and Wallace are unable to touch, their affection transcends sensory intimacy.

What makes a novel on the dreaded topic of mortality so damned approachable? First is Mr. Klune’s vivid imagination – a tea shop to the other side, indeed! Then, he paints people with a nuanced delicacy. I recognized and loved (or love to hate) them. The plot builds until my whole world became irrelevant in my urgency to learn Wallace’s fate. And finally, TJ Klune’s phrasing, his small details and observations, are as heady a brew as the tea Hugo serves, tea I could almost taste.

I full-heartedly endorse “Under the Whispering Door,” whose great care for, and respect of its audience, proves love continues on, rescuing the living, so that we may love again. Try it and you might just to lose a little fear of death, yourself.

I'd like to thank Macmillan-Tor/Forge, NetGalley, and T.J. Klune for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for an honest review!

Under the Whispering Door is a charming novel about a tea shop that’s a stop for the recently deceased. Wallace Price - an arrogant man - shows up here and finds kindness, friends, and true love. I truly loved this book and how it discussed sensitive topics. T.J. Klune’s writing style is very unique and had me smiling, laughing, and crying, all depending on the page.

I really enjoyed the other characters in this novel as well. Hugo, Mei, and the side characters were all interesting and fun to read about. Nelson, however, was my absolute favorite. I mean, who wouldn’t want to read about a ghost grandpa who plays tricks on people?

The love story between a ghost and ferryman sucked me in and was incredibly sweet. I enjoyed the ending a lot as well and how Wallace makes amends for his past mistakes. I’ve heard reviews saying that it was too similar to his other novel, The House in the Cerulean Sea, and I agree to an extent. I don’t believe they were necessarily too similar, but I do think if you were a fan of the first you will be a fan of this one

4 stars for a moving, fun, and unforgettable novel!

** spoiler alert ** For the first several chapters of this book, I kept waiting for it to take a turn and become "A Christmas Carol." I'm so thankful it didn't. Klune puts death in a perspective that is not often thought about. It was refreshing to hear a perspective that doesn't center on those we leave behind, but what is next for our "ghost". Not all deaths are equal, and therefore coming to peace with how we died may be different for everyone.

While this book didn't bring me to tears, as some reviewers report, it is incredibly wholesome and will bring on a range of emotions.

Important to note: I will never forgive Klune for making me think about when my pets will pass on. Unforgivable. And now I am crying.

I wasn’t planning on it, but this is going to be a week of reviewing fantastical fiction. On Monday I discussed Cloud Cuckoo Land and today I’m back with Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune. It’s the story of Wallace Price, an astute and successful lawyer, who also happens to be a fairly terrible person (insert lawyer joke here). He dies of a sudden heart attack and finds himself in an unexpected afterlife. While this story line won’t be for everyone for me it was an unexpected, welcome respite from fiction that kept missing the mark.

Wallace is at work and then at his own funeral. Very sparsely attended, I might add, and most are there out of obligation. No one can see him so he realizes he’s a ghost, but he’s still not sure he’s dead. Until a young woman approaches him. Her name is Mei, she’s a Reaper and she’s there to help. In the blink of an eye he finds himself standing outside what looks like a hodgepodge house—each story unevenly stacked on top of the other. The bottom floor is a tea shop run by a man named Hugo. He’s the ferryman and he and Mei will help Wallace transition to the other side. For a frightened man who’s not sure he even wants to be dead and definitely has no belief in life after death, this feels like a very bad joke.

The tea shop is also home to Hugo’s grandfather, Nelson, and his dog, Apollo. Both are ghosts. Both quickly shut down Wallace’s attempts to ignore the truth—Nelson with tough love and Apollo by being a dog. This tight knit group is the heart of Whispering Door. The novel’s natural progression is towards Wallace’s moving through to the other side, but the story is less about that and more Klune’s vision of what happens after we die. Much like life there are almost endless variations and options. For some people the transition is quick and accepted, but for others, often those who have died before their time or died violently, it’s a much different matter.

Klune advances into the many varieties of grief, the multitude of emotions surrounding death. There is something recognizable in all the characters. For as outwardly sharp and acidic as Wallace is some of what he says is what many of us might think. He’s often dreadful in his self-absorption, but real in his insecurities and funny. Like the various teas Hugo serves, humor infuses Whispering Door.

There’s some question as to whether the novel is adult fiction or YA. For me, it leans YA in that while its message of hope applies to all ages, it wraps up in a way that feels better suited to younger readers. I was in a mood for uncomplicated so appreciated the sweet charm of Under the Whispering Door.