Another masterpiece by TJ Klune!

This follows Wallace, a stone cold lawyer who doesn't care about anyone but himself and his success. That is, until he suddenly dies!

Wallace attends his own funeral and makes some harsh realizations about his life. A reaper shows up to take him on his journey and from there it is a wonderful story of friendships, heartbreak, coming to terms with death, and discovering what makes us human.

It was beautiful and sad and eye-opening all at the same time. The characters were so well written they felt like long lost friends.

It was the kind of book that you don't want to put down but you NEED to put down to just digest what's happening and give your heart a breather lol

I was hoping for it to end in a different way and felt low key disappointed UNTIL literally the last like 3 pages when everything tied up PERFECTLY and then decided there was no other way for this story to end! Just fabulous!

Highly recommend this book. Actually no, I am TELLING you to go read this book no questions asked, go... right now. What are you waiting for?

I read The House in the Cerulean Sea and absolutely loved it, so this became one of my most anticipated reads of the year. It did not disappoint. I adored it.

The story follows Wallace Price, who finds himself at his own funeral when he suddenly dies. A reaper, Mei, collects him and takes him to a small village where Hugo, a ferryman, and Nelson reside. He discovers what it means to be alive, although he is dead.

I didn't like Wallace at first. He was a prick, and he knows it. He's a lawyer, angry, selfish, has no friends, and only cared about his work. As he began to accept his death, he reflects on his life and regrets. He begins to become a better person and grows into someone I was rooting for to the end. I loved Hugo. He is so compassionate, caring, and kind. I quickly fell in love with Nelson, Mei, and of course, Apollo, the dog.

The found family and romance were so sweet and heartwarming. I loved the setting of the tea shop. I want to be there with them.

It deals with heavier topics of death but still has charm and wit as The House in the Cerulean Sea. It is a raw exploration of death, grief, loss, and what it means to live. It had all the feels.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is incredible. I loved everything it said and everything it did with its time, and I'm saying that first because I had a really weird entry into it.

I loved the premise, so I was going in planning to love it. And then in the first chapter -- I hated the protagonist. He was such an asshole that I couldn't imagine wanting to spend an entire book with him, even though I was sure it would be very Scrooge learning to be a better person. I resolved to try to get to 25% and if I didn't like it by then I'd put it down.

Well -- this is a five star read. It won me over, and beyond. It was genuinely powerful, and I cried through reading it. A lot. It says a lot about death and grief but also about hope and human connection and the things we do for each other. And I thought it was just fantastic.

Wow- this book emotionally wrecked me!

I picked this one up, not exactly expecting a story like Cerulean Sea but figured this would be full of magical characters and make me smile…and while it does have lovely characters- it isn’t necessarily a happy/feel good story.

This book explores life and death and the journey we take when our time on earth is through. It definitely makes the reader think about making the most of their life and reminds us to nurture the relationships we have. I struggled with the slow start to this story but the ending was truly special and once again, I wanted to hug this book- a response I’ve only felt after reading something from T.J. Klune.

Thank you Netgalley and Tor Books for this advance reading copy.

I think this is a 3.5 rounded to a 4 for me. It took me a while to get into the story, but by the second half the plot moves a lot faster. While the dialogue at some points is humorous and very relatable, I wished for more character development. Having said that, Klune's depiction of grief and the unknowns about what happens after death is beautifully written. This book gives the reader a lot to reflect upon and would be a great discussion starter. If you enjoyed House in the Cerulean Sea you will enjoy the writing alone despite the subject matter being much heavier. While the characters in UTWD are human, there's still a lot of fantasy aspects as Klune explores how the living and dead might interact with one another. Overall, this was a good book but in hindsight, I wish I would have read it in one or two sittings rather than a chapter here and there so that I could've stayed connected to the characters and their story more thoroughly.

I was a huge fan of Klune’s previous book, The House in The Cerulean Sea. It was heartwarming and delightful. This book is a lot darker. It’s about grief, death and the transition to the next life. It’s focused around a man who dies of a heart attack and meets his reaper. It’s a very whimsically written story for something with such a dark focus. Only T.J. Klune could write a book about death in such a heartwarming way. I thoroughly enjoyed this story.

I was lucky enough to get an advanced reader copy (ARC) of TJ Klune’s book Under the Whispering Door from NetGalley, so thank you to them! I finished this book in early July, but in typical me fashion, I haven’t gotten around to reviewing it until now. This book will be released on September 21st, so be sure to preorder it.

The first TJ Klune book I ever read was The House in the Cerulean Sea. And wow, that book got me right in the feels! In Under the Whispering Door, Klune once again trots out some of my favorite tropes ever, including found family, “reluctantly stuck together”, older gays in love, cozy cottage-core, and a curmudgeonly character whose heart grows three sizes.

The story follows Wallace Price, a capitalist, work-obsessed malcontent who wouldn’t recognize empathy if he read the dictionary definition. When Wallace dies in his early forties of a sudden heart attack, he doesn’t leave much of a legacy behind. In fact, most who knew him – namely his ex-wife and the co-partners at his firm – seem to be relieved that he’s gone.

But there’s life after life for Wallace, whose spirit is summarily snatched up at his own funeral by a sarcastic Reaper named Mei. Mei takes Wallace to Charon’s Crossing Tea and Treats, where he meets the kind-hearted ferryman, Hugo, his spry grandfather Nelson, and his ghost dog, Apollo. At first, like any other entitled rich, white man, all Wallace wants to do is return to the grind. The world needs attorneys, after all.

But as Wallace hangs around Charon’s Crossing and its delightful coterie of characters, he begins to see that his life was not much of a life. He has to come to terms with the years he wasted and the people he hurt. And even…open his heart for the first time ever. We love a good character growth arc and redemption in this house! Wallace grows to care about people other than himself and even falls in love with the kind and gentle Hugo. He also finds a role guiding other spirits deemed “too far gone” to cross over into the afterlife.

What I love most about TJ Klune’s books is the enduring message that it’s never too late. A lot of romance books focus on young, sexy characters, that you start to see yourself in less and less as you grow older. In Klune’s world, you’re never too old to find yourself, to grow, and to find love. Even closed-off people, whose hearts are guarded by cynicism, fear, or prior trauma, can reopen themselves to what the world has to offer. And I think that’s such a beautiful and important message to so many.

All in all, this is a five-star read for me. Even though Klune’s books are often marketed towards the Young Adult market, I think there’s so much for adults to find in them.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune will be out in bookstores and online on September 21, 2021.

This is my second book read from the author, and I guess their writing style is not in line with what I like reading in a book. The premise and the concept of this book are really intriguing and interesting to me, however, everything in this book moved so slow with too many descriptions that I found myself bored immediately. I wished this was a bit more fast-paced and written more concisely because it's definitely got boring more and more as I continue to read.

I was not expecting Under the Whispering Door to be so slow and philosophical. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book, and I still enjoyed reading it. However, I was definitely expecting something more like The House in the Cerulean Sea, especially since the publisher chose THAT cover and chose to market this book THAT way.

Anyway, I think you'll like this one if you enjoy reading slower paced books that focus more on philosophy and solving life's mysteries. That's not my favourite, pesonally. I found the world building to be very intriguing, though, and that's the main thing that kept me reading.

The main character, Wallace, is being marketed as being a massive knob. He's horrible when he's alive and upon dying he realises he probably should have been a better person. I feel like this all came on way too quickly, especially considering the early reviews that talked about what a butt the main character is and it put some people off the book. He really wasn't that bad.

I didn't like the romance between Wallace and Hugo, just because it was SO RUSHED. One minute Hugo was just being lovely and friendly and then all of a sudden they're in love with one another and they can't be apart. I didn't understand the build up. I felt similarly about the relationship in THITCS, though, however that relationship was so much better and CUTER.

Check this one out if you want, but go into it knowing it's not really anything like The House in the Cerulean Sea and trying to compare the two will leave you disappointed. You may like this one, but for me it wasn't what I was expecting, and I don't love slow paced books anyway.

Woah.

When I read any book, I want to feel alllll the feels and OMG- Did @tjklunebooks knock it out of the park. Wallace pissed me off, broke my heart, and made me cry for him. Just so BEAUTIFULLY done!

This book dives in to the journey between death and the afterlife. As a mom with a baby in heaven (Hey, Max! 👋) this book touched me to my core and will stick with me for years to come.
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

This book will be available on September 21. & you better believe I will be getting a physical copy!! Thank you @netgalley @torbooks for this digital ARC.

Death is only the beginning!

Another amazing story - this time dealing with loss, grief, and the journey into the afterlife. Where do we go? This author's take on that is very intriguing. Some people accept the journey, some struggle and fight, some are in disbelief ... much like in life!

The characters are quirky and amazing and I fell in love with them! Even Wallace, who you won't care for in the beginning. He grew on me and his "growth" in death was a pleasure to witness.

I love that this story is magical and that the author adds humor even in serious topics. This is another book that ended leaving me feeling like there is hope for humanity.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is such a difficult book to review, not because it's a difficult book, but because the subject itself - and the feelings the book provokes - are hard to explain.

I'm not sure if it's aimed at a Young Adult market but, if it is, I think it's going to be a wonderful way for kids to be gently eased into dealing with death not only as a concept, but the after effects on peoples' emotions when a loved one dies.

It also works perfectly fine for adults too! It's an interesting narrative, a tale which is better to be experienced without knowing what's coming next, so I won't be spoilering anything about the actual plot.

I found it took me a good quarter of the book, until around the 35% mark before I would say I was actually enjoying reading it, rather than just reading it because I had an ARC from the publishers.

But, once I clicked with the story being told, I couldn't put it down, staying up until 3am this morning to finish it because I had to know what happened to Wallace and the rest of the gang in Charon's Crossing Tea Shop.

It's a beautiful book, it's one which makes you sit and think, not only about what might come after death - although this isn't a religious book by any stretch of the imagination - but also about how we live our lives.

What regrets would we have if we suddenly found ourselves in a way station on the way to whatever comes next? How would we deal with any unfinished business we might have?

It's also funny, Tj Klune does have a real talent for making you laugh while ripping your heart out at the same time and at its heart, it's about love.

I won't lie, the dedication made me get a bit teary and, like TJ, I really hope the late, and wonderful author Eric Arvin woke up in a strange place and that it might have been somewhere a bit like this...

How much of this book is directly related to Erik's death I don't know, but I think it will be a cathartic read for anyone who's had to deal with the grief of losing a loved one, whether it be suddenly or not.

It's beautifully written, as is anything from this author, and it carries a wry appreciation that the very things which make us human are also those which we may overlook until it's too late.

"𝐼𝑓 𝑤𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎe 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠."

This book will make you realize the importance of the small and big things in life.

TW: Before diving into this wonderful world, please be reminded that it will talk about death, grief and suicide.

It was nice how they portray and explain death. How the book tells you that death is a just beggining. To not be afraid of moving on and letting go. (Of course, it also tells us that its not that easy for everyone)

"𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑎 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑊𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒. 𝐼𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔."

What I really love about the story, just like The House in the Cerulean Sea is the new found family troupe!! (I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THESE)

"𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑎, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟.
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑎 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑛 ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡.
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑎, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦."

The first few chapters where, a bit dragging, hence the 4 star rate. Especially on the part of Wallace.

But there are also parts that made my heart ache. I got to emotional on the stories of Mei, Nancy and Lea (Middle Part of the book), Cameron and last the parts of Nelson (our best grandpa) and Apollo. I feel like, they are the reason why I kept reading. And, honestly, their parts where the best. Which made me fall in love with the story.

"𝐴𝑛 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔."

Wallace and Hugo's story felt more like a side story for me. But, I loved it either way. It was refreshing.

Thank you, TJ Klune, for another wonderful story made with love. Everything is writerm wonderfully. To more books!

To Wallace Price and Hugo Freeman, you are a joy to read.

"𝐼'𝑚 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒."


Thank you, Netgalley, TOR and TJ Klune for giving me a change to read your eArc copy and to review Under the Whispering Door ❤

I don't really have much to say about Under the Whispering Door. It's charming, heartfelt, I totally cried at the end (multiple times), and funny - the list goes on and on. However, I will say that while the intro was hilarious and intriguing, the first third of the book really dragged for me in terms of pacing. After that, it was smooth sailing; I really enjoyed how all the little plot points and conflicts were resolved very beautifully by the end. If you enjoyed T.J. Klune's other novel The House in the Cerulean Sea , or even Pixar's movie Soul you'll probably love this book.

The word on the street is true: Under the Whispering Door is not another rendition of TJ Klune's previous publication, The House in the Cerulean Sea, but if you go into this story with that logic I think you're still in for a treat. Wallace Price suddenly dies of a heart attack and is brought to a tea shop far from where he spent his last days and meets Hugo, Mei, Nelson, and Apollo, characters that shape Wallace into a much better person (as a ghost of course) than he was when he was alive.

While the beginning quarter or so of the book was a bit of a bore, I found myself really enjoying this story as we watch Wallace become a changed man thanks to the help of his new friends. I found the overall story to be charming in a different way than Cerulean Sea was which I think is wonderful because it doesn't put the author into a one dimensional box in terms of his writing. I loved the developing relationship between Wallace and all of the characters in this story, it made for a heart warming and wrenching ending all in one. And the small nods to House in the Cerulean Sea were sweetly included!

2.5 stars. I have a hard time giving books anything lower than a 3. I see I am in the minority that did not enjoy this book. The plot was drawn out and nothing really happened through the majority of the book. Yes there was some character development but I didn’t connect or care for any of the characters- except the dog, Apollo. The concept is simple- Wallace dies and is sent to a way station between earth and the afterlife and he refuses to pass quickly.

Under the Whispering Door is a beautifully written story about life, death, and what happens after that will not only have you dying (😏😏) of laughter, but sobbing the next.

This is my second TJ Klune book and has further solidified my love of this man and the worlds he creates with his words!

Fantastic. Absolutely loved it and would highly recommend it. The message of hope really spoke to me. I loved the black humor in places too. Wallace was a brilliant character! I wish I could read it again for the first time.

Under the Whispering Door is a surprisingly funny and ultimately hopeful book about death. Filled with TJ Klune’s signature wit and wisdom, I believe knowing little about the plot is the best approach to this book about grief, love, and growth. I found the story to lag a little in the middle but it was an otherwise unique and moving read. I also felt that the main character Wallace’s arc was a bit rushed - he went from a cold bureaucrat to an altruist quite quickly. However, the side characters and their found family dynamic made up for it. A little saccharine for me, but fans of House on the Cerulean Sea will not be disappointed by Klunes latest release.

I think TJ Klune isn't for me. This is the second book of his I've DNF'd. I found it boring and his characters bland and one dimensional. I found it unmemorable, and I just didn't care about anything that happened.