Sadly, this one missed the mark for me. I had such high hopes after the first chapter. I loved the tea shop setting and Klune’s trademark quirky characters, right down to their names. And that’s it. Those three things. I wanted The Midnight Library meets The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. Instead I got a story that passed slowly and tediously. Best paired with a sheet of homemade candy canes. XO, Tara

I love stories about reapers and the afterlife, so I knew I needed this book! I always find it so interesting the different variations cultures, religions, and imaginations have regarding what happens when someone passes. TJ Klune’s creative version did not disappoint. When Wallace dies, the reaper, Mei, a feisty, fun young woman new to the art soul collecting, leads him to the ferryman, Hugo. Hugo, an attractive and compassionate tea enthusiast, runs the tea shop and helps souls move to the next stage of afterlife through a mysterious attic door in the shop.

TJ Klune provides so much depth and connection to his characters and in such a gentle, subtle way. I loved seeing Wallace slowly open up from a closed off, work-obsessed businessman to a caring and selfless man through various trials and self-reflection. His and Hugo’s romance is slow building and brings all the feels. So many different elements, big and little, gave me smiles throughout the novel: the tea shop is called Charon’s Crossing (which I just thought was perfect:), Hugo’s grandfather is a hilarious prankster, there is a ghost dog who loves his owner too much to pass on, a quirky deity and so much more that held my interest while journeying thought this whimsical tale. This story has fantastical creatures, heart-warming moments, thought-provoking questions, lovable characters and valuable lessons that will stay with me.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillian-Tor/Forge for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a sweet heartwarming story with a small side of queer romance.
Wallace is a cut throat lawyer who gets an opportunity to redeem himself in the afterlife.
This was a very interesting modern and hopeful interpretation of what happens to us after we die. Is there a second chance? How far removed are we from the land of the living?

I was intrigued by TJ Klune’s imagination. This book did have a YA vibe to it though. The romance is very PG and the repercussions of death was quite mild. Even the scenes with ghost who were murdered or committed suicide were a tasteful surface level. This makes the book appealing to all others, but I found Wallace got off easier than Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.
This story is a feel good book with typical Klune humors. I enjoyed it!

This whimsical story focuses on expressions of grief, how to cope with loss in such a loving and gentle way. Both insightful and deep without being heavy, I was smiling ear to ear then shedding a few tears, this one has it all.

This was my first and not my last TJK book for sure, next up The House in the Cerulean Sea!

Thank you to NetGalley and TOR reading for my ARC

Wallace Price is an a-hole…and he’s dead.

A reaper, Mei, comes to collect him from his own funeral and take him to Charon’s Crossing Tea and Treats. The tea house is a transition point from this life to ‘what’s next’. Wallace refuses to cross over though, and the more time he spends at the tea house, with the rag-tag bunch of reaper / ferryman / ghosts, the more he actually learns about living and all the things he missed out on in life. Essentially, it took Wallace dying for him to find his humanity and work out what is truly important.

As always, the author has created such wonderful characters (both main and supporting) and I was getting some major Terry Pratchett vibes, which I’m always ok with.

There is some romance, but just like in The House in the Cerulean Sea, it isn’t the whole focus of the story. Parts of this one felt a tad bit slow, but overall I enjoyed it and while the point of the story really hits you over the head, it’s a good point so I think it’s ok that it isn’t very subtle.

A big city, high strung lawyer sent to a form of rural purgatory. I found the beginning to move a little slow, but as the main character comes to terms with his new situation, the story unfolds with a very heartwarming and thought-provoking tone.

This is a story about death, and about grief, and about how everything carries on despite those. Wallace starts out as this unsympathetic man who has dedicated his life to his job, at the expense of everything else. His marriage failed, he has no friends, no one at his place of work really likes him, and so on, and so forth. Then he suffers a heart attack, and comes to as a ghost at his own funeral. Barely anyone shows up, and while he's annoyed and upset, a Reaper shows up to hurry him along to a ferryman, who in turn will send him off to whatever comes next. The ferryman, Hugo, runs a little tea shop off the beaten path, and he assures Wallace that he can go when he's ready, and Wallace definitely doesn't feel ready.

Little by little, we get to follow Wallace as he starts to make sense of the things he missed in life, and how he is slowly starting to do and experience those things in his undeath. And this really is the bulk of the story. The event on the back (he only has a week before he has to pass on) happens fairly late into the story, but it was no less an emotional roller coaster.

As Wallace finds an unlikely place in the little house, we get to meet and follow along several people and their ways of handling grief, surviving the loss of loved ones, or finding peace in their own loss, and all of it is heartbreaking and beautiful. While so many of their stories are incredibly sad (losing a child, being murdered, losing their partner, taking their own life, losing family in an accident), the book vibrates with a sense of hope. Yes, death happens. Loss is terrible. But there is also hope for something better, for making your own peace with that loss, for finding a way to carry on.

I have lost many people in my life to age, to illness, to accidents, to suicide. In the past year and a half alone, I've lost over a handful of people, both close and not. And this book was just exactly what I needed to read. I had several hard but good cries while reading this, and I am making sure to pick up a physical copy for future occasions when I may need this little reminder that after grief, there can be hope.

Thanks to NetGalley, Mac Millan,/Tor to send me a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own

This book was a delight to read; when I started, I didn't want to stop.

Some of the characters are despicable, but they have something in them that makes them likeable. I love to see them evolve even in death and I become attached to them. I wasn't prepared to have that many characters and so many stories. Yes, we have the past of who they are/were, and those passages were so exciting and so real.

In this book, you also have some hints of his previous book, The House on the Cerulean Sea. Those elements mess a little with me as I wanted to know why they were here.

The ending was so beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. I was surprised by the epilogue; I didn't see this coming, and I'm still not okay with it.

Even if the theme of this book is hard as it talks about death, it's done beautifully, and it's not as sad as we think it would be. In fact, you sometimes have funny scenes. And especially one where I needed a break as I was laughing out loud.

There is a certain magic that I liked in his previous book and that I found here again.

“Under the Whispering Door” by T.J. Klune
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Release Date: 9/21
Genre: Fantasy
Ebook 📱

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC! It was wonderfully amazing! This is my second Klune book and I’m in love with the writing. This book captures so many emotions!
Life is many things; short, complicated, unexpected, but most of all what you make it.

Wallace is a truly unlikeable character. He slowly begins to redeem himself throughout the book. Wallaces only care in life was his work. Eat, sleep, breath, law, repeat. He has zero friends and he didn’t want it any other way. His expensive suits and fancy home was telling enough. One Sunday while getting some last minute work done he had a sudden heart attack and died. When a reaper named Mei comes to collect him he cannot fathom being dead. He is taken to a small village Tea shop where the ferryman Hugo was waiting to help him cross over. Wallace can take his time coming to terms with his death as long as he stay on the tea shop grounds. Throughout his stay Wallace learns things about himself. He also begins to realize what he has been missing. How will the story end for Wallace?

Thank you NetGalley for this highly anticipated ARC!! I have no words and many words regarding this novel all at the same time. I LOVED IT! I think I can finally say TJ Klune is one of my top authors. This novel didn't quite crack #1 against Cerulean Sea for me, but it was still enjoying as all his books are. This book makes you feel all the emotions throughout the journey that TJ takes the reader on. I highly enjoy how one moment I can be laughing out loud to the point where my husband is concerned to the next moment I can feel great sadness for the characters. This book is heavier than his others and I am glad TJ put a warning at the beginning of the book. Everyone deals with loss in one way or another and the different aspects and means of death that were covered were really good. Certain characters will hit readers differently and I think that's what helps make this book all the more special for readers as everyone will take something different from it. I believe that I am not the only one who, after reading this book, will be sad that they cannot spend their days drinking tea and reading books at Charon's Crossing. Thank you again to NetGalley for this ARC!

Now time to wait for Heat Wave as I cannot get enough of TJ's books!!

A beautiful mix between The Good Place and A Christmas Story (think Ebenezer Scrooge), Under the Whispering Door is a sweet story of redemption and what it means to love in life and beyond. The characters are lovable and fully fleshed out. I loved this story from start to finish and I’m so sad that it’s over. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC.

Review posted to StoryGraph and @thebookandcover on Instagram

Read if you like: dark, morbid fantasy, discussions around living life to the fullest.
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Wallace has died and he has to come to terms with that. He is taken to a tea shop where he meets Hugo, a ferryman who helps spirits cross over.
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I loved Wallace's journey in this book and how he figured out how to be a better person. Hugo was also lovely. He was compassionate and empathetic and truly just wanted to help as many as he could. The sense of humour in this book was also written in an amazing way.
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CW: death, heart attack, murder, loss of a loved one.

I’m forever fascinated by the myriad ways in which humans explore conceptualizations of the afterlife. By its very nature, we will never have concrete answers about death, and I find the endless well of speculation about death as a concept one worth returning to. Via main character Wallace’s journey after he dies suddenly and wakes up as a ghost at his own funeral, Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune explores themes of grief, loss, trauma, love, and what it means to live at all.

First off, those who loved The House in the Cerulean Sea should expect a significant tone shift, even if elements such as humor and lovable secondary characters remain consistent. This shift worked well for me; compared to other works by Klune I’ve read, where the drama veered straight into melodramatic, Under the Whispering Door offered much more consistency and believability in the serious moments. With one caveat I’ll explain later, I felt the emotional beats landed well in this novel and can see many folks being moved to tears by various sections of the novel. The serious moments are interspersed with humor and lighten the mood with varying degrees of success; if you enjoy humor that is often witty, sometimes slapstick, sometimes morbid, this book fits the bill.

As always, I appreciated how unapologetically queer this novel was, not only with central characters Wallace (bi) and Hugo (gay), but with other secondary characters you meet along the way. The secondary characters, in particular Hugo, Mei, Nelson, and Apollo were huge delights to me. The first half of this novel has a distinctly slice of life feel and approach; most scenes revolve around characters having conversations, and its through those conversations that you really get to know the supporting cast. I did find the first half slower for that reason, though not in a bad way, but readers who are looking for an plot-packed read from beginning to end may struggle. I also enjoyed the supernatural elements of ghosts, Reapers, and the enigma that is the Manager a great deal.

My main (and personal) issue with Under the Whispering Door, to be frank, is Wallace.

It’s hard to talk about the details without going into spoiler territory, but from the jump, we learn that Wallace is a privileged, rich, cis white man who treated everyone in his living life, from his ex-wife to one of the non-partner employees at his law firm, like absolute garbage. Even after he dies, he’s still an absolute asshole to everyone he can interact with around him for a considerable amount of time. I found it incredibly difficult to garner ANY sympathy in myself for Wallace, which made a lot of the book difficult to stomach as a result. While I recognize one of the bigger thematic goals of this novel is to explore the idea of redemption and healing—and I know some folks who have read the book will see this review and be like, ‘I think you’re missing the point!’—I was not sold on Wallace’s character arc, which means I didn’t buy into one of the biggest premises the novel operates on: that everyone, no matter how awful, no matter how much you think they’re beyond saving, is worth your care and compassion. Wallace was deeply, deeply unlikeable to me from start to finish, and though I tried to remain open to changing my opinion on him, it did not budge.

This subsequently meant the romance did not work quite as well for me as it may for some readers. I absolutely loved Hugo and appreciated how empathetic, sensitive, and caring he was. What I didn’t understand is why he would care about Wallace in particular beyond the compassion he shows to each and every spirit he guides to the afterlife. Pacing wise, there were also some issues to me; the novel goes from having them approach each other with extreme reservation to being super in love in a short amount of time, and (imo) with very little supporting action or evidence to justify this shift in their relationship. For the life of me, I could not see what Hugo would see in Wallace, which made the romance fall flat.

Overall, Under the Whispering Door will be a heartfelt, poignant, satisfying read for many. If you enjoy emotional reads that offer powerful reflection on death, grief, and what it means to be alive, and as long as you expect heavier, more serious themes than Klune’s last novel, you will likely enjoy this book more than I did.

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.

This book gave me all the feels. I loved the characters, the premise, the message, the dialogue, everything! So many times while reading, I caught myself with a big smile on my face. It was funny and touching.

I don't think I've ever said this in a review before, but I hope this book gets made into a movie! If done right, it would be visually stunning and emotionally powerful.

What will you do with the time you have left? This question is at the core of this novel and it was intense for me. Nine months ago I found out I have Huntington's Disease, a rare genetic degenerative neurological disease with no treatment. I don't have symptoms now but there's no way to know when I'll get them or what that will look like for me. So I've been pondering this question a lot anyway and this book really brought it back to the front of my consciousness. Because of that it was a slow read and difficult at times.

This is a beautifully written story about what happens after death. Wallace was a nasty person when he was alive, he knew it and didn't care. Soon after his death, he's met by a Reaper who takes him to a way station between life and what's next. It is here that Wallace gets some perspective on what kind of person he was and realizes that's not how he wants to be.

This is a very sensory book, between the visuals and descriptions of sounds and smells and tastes, I was right there in it the whole time. The writing is strong and there's some great humor. I wasn't fully satisfied with the resolution, which is the only thing keeping me from giving it five stars.

Multitudes

Under the Whispering Door is so much more than a love story. It’s a beautiful, emotional one but to me, this book at its heart is a story about family, friendship, acceptance, and finding the person you’re meant to be. Though Wallace was a difficult man to even like at the beginning, as he grew so my did my heart for him. His journey was so sincere and so real it brought tears to my eyes. It’s an absolutely brilliant, thought-provoking, at times humorous, and at others, heartbreaking read that I highly recommend. Just make sure you unexpect as you read.

This is a very special, wholesome, whimsical story about death and what comes after. I love TJ Klune’s writing. It’s lovely, warm, smart and it flows so nicely. And his characters are the BEST. They are all so unique and full of life and quirky in the best way possible. This book is definitely one of the best books I’ve ever read.

I think my expectations for this book led me to be disappointed. I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea, and I was expected a similar novel. Under the Whispering Door is a quieter novel that does not have the same quirky side characters or overt humor. Klune's skill as a writer is still evident, and the novel does share the same beautiful language as his previous novel. The book is well written, but it wasn't what I was expecting.

**ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Wow. Wow wow wow.
This book had me crying multiple times in good and bad ways.

These characters really grew on me and I feel they were made very convincingly. One minor thing that confused me is how quickly Wallace changed from grumpy business man to someone with humor and emotions. But I guess dying does something to you.

Something I thought was very cute was that there was a tiny reference to the title of the author's other book, 'island in the cerulean sea' with a picture on the wall. (Which I'm definitely picking up after this)

I really connected with Wallace on some points of his personality which I didn't think I would. "The why of things was Wallace's specialty" yup. For some reason Nelson also felt like a very relatable character. Hugo and Mei felt real, but their way or speaking was too vague for me to relate to.




//Minor spoilers//




One tiny thing I missed though was Wallace seeing the connection between 'the manager' and him being an aweful boss. I felt like that parallel could've been shown more, how he went from being one, to understanding how terrible it is to have such a boss as he was. His evolution as character was amazing though, going from "I don't care at all about anyone's feelings, they're a nuisance" to helping with things, thinking "It's the least I could do"

I genuinely love the ending the author chose, I was really dreading the last chapters because I felt like I knew how it would end and I didn't think I would like it.

For the publisher/author:
I personally think it would have been better not to include the 7 days thing in the blurb, since it happened only near the end of the book. It kind of made me on edge the beginning until he stayed longer than a week, then I became very confused and on edge to see when it would happen.
One small remark is there's a lot of complicated words I had to look up.
BUT GREAT BOOK NONETHELESS, BEAUTIFUL COVER, AMAZING WRITING AND HEARTBREAKING PLOT.

4.25 stars!

Secretly going "eeeeeee" and "omg omg omg" hours after having finished reading this book!

After having read 2 of TJ Klune's books last year, I fell in love with his writing and what he does with his stories. He brings humanity, kindness, sympathy, and most importantly, empathy to the characters, and as a result, to the human experience as a whole. The warmth and hope that his writing holds, tells you that we're not alone and that the light at the end of the tunnel needn't just be a metaphor for the sake of metaphors. He lets his words settle down deep in your heart, as if embracing you, and then consumes you with everything within, in the best way possible!

And I felt these same things with Under the Whispering Door. This is the story of Wallace Price, who is a very obvious a-hole at the law firm he started with 3 others. But he suddenly dies one day and he is confronted with a host of emotions ranging from denial to anger. He's about to undergo a much more profound experience and when he is told that he has 7 days to put his affairs in order before he's going to be taken away, he has to weigh everything that came before him and everything he came from, in order to realize things about life that will make death bearable, if not good.

If you thought you'd be learning a lot about life and death in this book, you'd be absolutely right. If not learn, you'll be reinforcing the knowledge you already have about life and death, and that's good too. A good, healthy, warm, empathetic reminder of what life is and what death must be seen as. This book is an out-of-body experience in itself. Talking to ghosts and humans, all peacefully coexisting, is a trip that you will be glad to undertake when you settle down and dive into the story.

It's just that...this book made me so emotional that I didn't know what to say about it yesterday when I finished it. I was full of warm, fuzzy feelings. Of hope, love, joy, positivity - there's so much in here that will give you a big tight hug like Mei's.

It takes time and effort, sure, to be a better person, but it's the better option always and it will always be worth it. Wallace Price is proof of that. Because as much as I wanted to punch the a-hole at the beginning, I wanted to hug and comfort him towards the end.

Also, Hugo. The wonderful, wonderful, wonderful man! His mere presence is comforting and he is one of the best characters I've read about this year. And that's all I'm going to say.

Go read this wonderful, warm, eye-opening book. Pronto!