Thank you for the ARC. I know this is going to be unpopular based on all the other reviews but I didn’t care for the book. Is it heartfelt? Yes. Do you care about the characters? Yes. Did I fall in love like everyone else? No. Wasn’t my cup of tea and that’s ok. The mainstream will love it I just didn’t.

This book was so heartfelt and emotional! There were times it had me crying like a baby. This was an amazing story of death, grief, and love. To be honest, the book starts out slow and I had to push through reading it in the middle, but the ending made it worth it. The subject matter really makes you think about what’s next after this life, so honestly the book can make you feel a bit heavy, but overall if you feel like you can handle that, it is a great read!

I don’t know why it took 4 book for me to realize TJ Klune is one of my favorite authors, but here we are.

Under the Whispering Door is everything I didn’t know I needed in a book, but I’m so glad I got it. It’s wholesome, funny, heart wrenching, and so so much more.

Wallace price isn’t a nice guy. He’s a dusky kind of a dick, but it never seemed to bother him…until he died. Turns out, dying sucks and is confusing, especially when you have to attend your own funeral only to realize no one really liked you.

But in death, Wallace gets a second chance at life. He wasn’t a good person alive, but he can be one in death. He just needs the help of his new friends, especially the tea shop owner, Hugo. In a span of a few short months, Wallace gets to experience love, happiness, and true friendship.

I can’t express how lovely the writing is. Klune can construct sentences and meanings like no one else. The humor in this book is too notch as well. But I think I like how much it makes you think. Not just about life, but death and true happiness. It made me question many things. Even though this is a work of fiction, obviously, it doesn’t mean it can’t change your perspective.

I love this book with my soul. And I need you to read it too.

I received an eARC of Under the Whispering Door by @tjklunebooks from net galley and devoured it almost immediately. House in the Cerulean Sea had been one of my favorite reads so far this year so I had a pretty good feeling I was going to enjoy this one too.
We follow Wallace, a less than nice guy, who finds himself dead. His reaper, Mei, picks him up at his rather pathetic funeral and takes him to meet his Ferryman, Hugo. Together, Hugo and Mei help souls pass on but Wallace isnt big on the whole idea of being dead. It takes a little while for Wallace to adjust but he's not the only spirit wandering around this weigh station that doubles as a coffee shop. Hugo's grandfather's and dog's spirits also reside there and grandpa's done with Wallace's shit. As a group, everyone is trying to get Wallace prepared to go through the door at the top of the house that will lead him to the next stop.

I laughed, I got scared, I cried...a lot. The entirety of the last chapter I was bawling like a baby.

Wallace is a rude and ruthless lawyer. He dies very suddenly and unexpectedly and is met at his funeral by Mei, a reaper, who tries to explain. Wallace doesn’t want to accept the truth. Mei shows Wallace to a very strange tea shop to meet and spend time with the “ferryman” who will try to help Wallace process and accept his passing and the cruel life he lived before crossing over. Will Wallace learn what it means to be kind and caring before he journeys on?

4✨

💭💜”She loved you, and she loves you still. No matter what comes next, that will never change. One day, you’ll see her again. One day, you will look upon her face. There will be no more pain. There will be no more sorrow. You’ll know peace because you’ll be together. But that day is not today.”

Thank you Net Galley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this ARC in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

“All that work, all that he’d done, the life he’d built. Had it mattered? What had been the point of anything?”

4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5) While this is not officially book 2 to The House in the Cerulean Sea (one of my top 10 of 2020), it still has the same magical feel. It has the cranky man who needed a change and finds it in a place he least expected. Klune is best at making light of the grumpiness and somehow making it endearing. The characters have the best advice, the best outlooks and I know I need a Hugo in my life!

This one started slow, which is similar to Cerulean Sea, but it was easier to forget in that book. In this book, it dragged a bit and I almost lost interest. If his other book hadn’t got 5 stars from me, I doubt I’d have continued. However, I did and I loved it. The characters are endearing and heartwarming and be sure to have your tissues ready!

Klune takes a difficult subject such as death and dying, and he’s able to make it hopeful and beautiful. It’s heartbreaking and healing at the same time. Having dealt with grief and death many times in my life, I found a truth and an admiration for this little story. Some parts were heavy, some were light but it was melded into a story that will have you contemplating your own life.

“It’s easy to let yourself spiral and fall.” “It is,” Nelson agreed. “But it’s what you do to pull yourself out of it that matters most.”

I’m torn about the end. On one hand it was perfect. On the other, it wasn’t. I expected something else, even if it wasn’t the “happiest” ending, but it would’ve felt more real.

Content Summary: Spattered cursing, murder (few details), death, grief, m/m sex but no details,

Thank you to Tor Books for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

The book releases September 21, 2021.

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

💙Under the Whispering Door ~ T.J. Klune

💙Release Date ~ September 21, 2021

💙I was ecstatic when I got the email alert letting me know I had been approved for an eARC of this book. The House in the Cerulean Sea has been my favorite read of the year, so I had high hopes for Under the Whispering Door. It did not disappoint. I love Klune's writing style, it's equal parts fanciful and profound.

Under the Whispering Door is a book about death and grief but also about love and friendship. The subject matter is heavy, and I would recommend checking out the trigger warnings before picking it up. I fell in love with the characters and their relationships. The growth and journey they all make together is beautiful to watch unfold. Throughout the story I found myself laughing out loud just as many times as I felt my eyes glaze over with tears. I would recommend this book to any and everyone. Do yourself a favor and grab a copy when it releases, I know I will. Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for gifting me this eARC to review.

I really love the worlds TJ Klune creates in his books. This story was funny, heartfelt, and emotional. Through Walter, I really understood that friendship and love are the most important things. Do not wait until it is too late to be the kind of person who people admire and want to spend time with.

I highly recommend this to anyone who can get lost into a fantasy world and enjoy the ride!

I adore TJ Klune. He has a deft touch when it comes to rending one's heartstrings into pulp. Personally, I found this to be one of my less favorite of his works -- but that's like saying it's my less favorite cut of diamond. It's still a freaking diamond.

Another beautiful masterpiece by TJ Klune. This book had it all grief, hope, laughter and many many tears.

TJ always manages to bring forth the importance of a chosen family, and that it is okay to not have the best relationship with your blood family.

How TJ turned a very unlikeable character, to someone you were immensely rooting for, takes skill. I should note he was successful!

Have tissues close by because the last half of this book is just pure water works.

Wallace Price is a stereotypical power lawyer. Rude, condescending, caring only about himself. When he dies suddenly and ends up at a way-station full of characters that help him come to terms with what he's lost, he learns what should be valued in life while you can live it. This is magical realism at its very best.

Thank you Netgalley and Torbooks for letting me read this wonderful and beautiful story early!

Klune is one of my all-time favorite authors, and this book just proves it.

Something I love about Klune's characters is that they are all respectful of each other. Like if someone is like "I don't want to answer that" the rest are like "oh okay" or if they are like "I don't feel comfortable doing that" they are like "then don't, absolutely don't" and it is just.. normal to be kind and thoughtful towards other people. It's so sad that it can be so foreign in our world today. We all want to get up in each other's business and go "okay but why?" or "you will be fine, come on" or something that undermines the feelings of others. It's something I am learning to not do. Be curious about yourself and the things around you, but also mind your own business.

ANYWAY.

My gay heart was already broken when I felt the chemistry between our ferryman (someone who helps souls come to terms with them being dead and helps them cross) and our resident ghost, Wallace. Wallace was an ass-hole lawyer when he was alive and just because he is dead doesn't mean he isn't an ass hole anymore. But when he meets the ferryman, the reaper and their own resident ghosts that live in the wayward tea house (think of it as a resting place between becoming a ghosts and going to what is next), something in his heart bursts.

Hugo, Apollo, Wallace, Mei and and Nelson are all precious and dear and my heart is warm because of them.

Wallace Price is a jerk and we open this story up with Wallace being cold and firing someone. A few days later he dies and is at his funeral. Only one person can see him and it’s a reaper. She takes him to a tea shop to meet a ferryman named Hugo. Wallace is a jerk to everyone at the tea shop and all he wants is to go back to his human life, but that’s not possible. With those in the tea shop, he learns how to be a ghost and be a better man and has to decide if he wants to move on or stay with the others in the tea shop as a ghost.
This book is heartwarming, heartbreaking, and hilarious. It makes you think of life as well as death. This is such a powerful story that will stay with you for a long time. The humor takes away from the heavy topics and makes this story charming. I loved Wallace’s character development from a jerk to a better man. There is romance, but it is later in the book and not super prominent. I love all the friendships that are formed in this book. This will definitely be on my favorite books of 2021 list. I highly, highly recommend this book to everyone and you won’t regret reading this book.

Wallace, a workaholic lawyer who lacks a personal life and respect, dies and winds up viewing his own funeral when a reaper comes to collect him. Mai brings him to the house of Hugo, an owner of a tea shop, who helps him cross over to the afterlife. Suddenly the realization of death hits Wallace and he has one week to cross over, so he starts living his life.

I received an advanced copy from #NetGalley and I really really wanted to like this book. I absolutely loved the last book written by Klune but this one was lost on me. I got halfway through the book and felt like the plot hadn't really gone anywhere, the characters had very small developments and I knew little about them. I didn't feel a big connection to Wallace's journey as he is learning to be a better person, realizing the things he missed out on while alive.

I would re-read House on the Cerulean Sea over and over again, this one just didn't do it for me.

Wallace has died, much to his annoyance. He had a lot of work to do, and this doesn't work for him. The reaper who has come to collect him, and the ferry man who will prepare him to cross over are not what he was expecting. Nor was he expecting what could come next.

When I started reading about Wallace, I could not stand him. I was certain that here was a character I could never sympathise with, and would not care about one way or another.

This book took me along in the journey with Wallace, and when it was over I felt moved and uplifted. This ended up being a thoroughly enjoyable read. A story to remind us that it really never is too late to be kind, or to grow.

TJ Klune did it again. Under the Whispering Door is a story about life and how it is better lived not just for yourself, but for and with the people you love too. It did a great job tackling grief, acceptance, moving on, and letting go of the things we so badly want to hold on to.

Wallace Price was someone you could describe as, honestly, an asshole. He was stern, selfish, and only cared about what will benefit him. He put work and himself before anything else, losing his friends and wife along the way. Wallace never noticed this, until he was dead.

I loved seeing Wallace’s character grow with the help of Hugo, Mei, Nelson and Apollo. I liked how he slowly recognized his faults when he was alive, and tried to be a better person despite not being alive anymore. How he felt more alive in death once he started to see that death is not the end, but rather the beginning of what’s next.

This story made me laugh, think, feel, and cry. It brought me so much comfort in knowing that growth takes time and patience. I love that all the characters are well-written and rounded, and not two dimensional.

I am so happy to have read this book. If you loved The House in the Cerulean Sea, you would not be disappointed in this book. Instantly, this is now one of my all time favorite books, and will surely be one of the few books that I’ll want to come back to and reread once in a while.

I’m not sure that I have enough words to describe or that I have given justice how good this book is, so pick it up and see for yourself.

Wallace Price is not a nice person. He is an arrogant narcissist, ruthless, self-absorbed, and rude. He is careless with the feelings of those around him, to the point of cruelty. He lives a solitary life, sad and boring, and when he finally dies of a heart attack, no one cares.

I’ll be honest, folks. I also did not care when Wallace Price died. In fact, I was glad. I disliked the man immensely, enough to genuinely consider marking this book down as a DNF, because there was just no way on god’s green earth that any redemption arc was going to be enough to redeem… that.

I finished the book, obviously. But I still don’t know how I feel about the redemption arc.

I feel very torn about this book, in a way I was not expecting. On the one hand, I found it a profoundly beautiful book, slow and meandering and full of deep, affecting moments which had me crying more often than not. I loved the conversations between Hugo and Wallace, and between Wallace and the other residents of Charon’s Crossing. In many ways, it’s a very cathartic book to read, and I think anyone who has ever felt grief will get a find a great deal of comfort within its pages.

Separate from these moments, however, the book was dotted with scenes of comedy which seemed wildly out of place. There were many interactions which were slapstick-esque in their delivery, and wouldn’t go amiss in a sitcom. For some people, I’m sure these moments will break up what might otherwise be quite a heavy read. For me, I felt like I was being uncomfortably yanked from one extreme to another. I found it wildly jarring and the switches left me feeling like I couldn’t quite pin down the tone of the story the author was trying to project. I think there is a way to intertwine lighthearted moments into a story like this, but I’m just not sure if this book quite nailed that feat.

Also, I don’t want to get too far into spoiler territory, but I simply did not like the way the book ended. I feel like it cheapened a story which could have so easily been very profound. This is only my opinion, however, and I know, even as I write this, that many people (if not most people) will disagree with my stance.

So, three stars. The book is beautifully written with what I understand to be TJ Klune’s signature whimsical voice. It’s a gorgeously imaginative tale – I just wish I could have enjoyed it more.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Tor Books for providing me with this ARC.

A surprisingly cathartic tale of love and tea after death.

Wallace Price is unlikeable within the first page, his character is quickly and skillfully set in the “Scrooge” category without anyone needing to say “asshole", though you are likely to think it.
Then Wallace is dead.
Wallace is taken from the big lawyer high rises, away from his expensive suits and brown nosing minions to a tea shop in a mountain town in the middle of nowhere.
And that’s when the real story begins.

Wallace is joined by his firey reaper Mei who's always ready to fight off an attack, the tea brewing ferryman Hugo, a ghost named Nelson who embodies "cantankerous" with every ounce of his celestial being and ghost dog Apollo. This assortment of beings gathers to help and guide Wallace to the afterlife, whatever form that may take for him - their jobs are solely to be there for him in his path to the "door".
By day Hugo and Mei work in their tea shop while the ghosts chat and terrorize deserving patrons and in the evenings they work to help Wallace and others like him find what they need in order to walk through the door. Some folks are ready to cross that threshold in a day and the longest anyone has stayed has been two weeks… but after struggling through the phases of grief Wallace wants to stay on just a bit longer. The threat of corporeal disintegration and zombified ghost husks isn't the only thing that keeps Wallace in the shop, it's something more, it's the feelings he's having and learning what it is to have friends.

Wallace builds something he never bothered to have when he was alive, a family, friendships and maybe love. As he grows he learns to do for others, something he'd never have bothered with when he was flesh and bone. From drinking tea and haunting a ouija board to helping grieving parents find peace, Wallace sets about doing things that would make him completely unrecognizable to his pre-heart attack self. Wallace begins to truly care about things beyond himself and it might bring a tear to your eye at times the way he goes about it.

It's all evening walks in the garden, humping ghost dogs and wardrobe malfunction fun until Management reminds Mei and Hugo that this is a job - and there is a deadline looming.

It’s a familiar enough tale of a jerk finding his humanity seemingly after he’s lost the chance to human - but in an unfamiliar way
At first I worried that the “gee I was a selfish loathsome guy” introspection starts kinda quick considering how much of a thoroughbred prick Wallace was in life but my concerns were quickly put aside. Fortunately there is a good lengthy personal development for our antagonistic protagonist that doesn't feel like anything's been shoehorned in. Wallace really seems to recognize the depths of his churlish ways, see and feel the shame in it and grow from it, he grows into a feeling human in death and grows to love himself truly.

This book was much more emotionally gratifying than "The House In the Cerulean Sea" and less predictable; that could just be because I as a reader find death to be a pretty heavy subject and this book is all about life and death. Without spoiling the ending, I did imagine that we'd reach a similar tally in terms of "alive" and "dead" characters but I wasn't sure how we'd get there and I appreciate being surprised.

As an LGBTQ+ reader it was wonderful to read a book with gay and bisexual characters where their sexuality wasn't some tragic affliction and we didn't need to go through a painful coming out phase etc. It simply was a part of the characters, it felt like a normal story but one that I could connect with a little extra. I'm so glad to see more of that hitting the shelves and cinema, young baby gay me would have been tickled to witness something like this in the wild.

The world that Klune has crafted here is much like our own but with some fantastic extra elements and it is definitely a world I'd like to visit again should he choose to return us to Charon's Crossing Tea and Treats.

Definitely a read I'd recommend and it will pair well with some peppermint tea.


Big thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the advanced reader copy. Absolutely tickled to be an early reader.

I loved this book! The writing was phenomenal, I found myself captivated through the whole story despite the stagnant location and small cast of characters. I thought Wallace’s character development was incredibly well executed, and the end was quite the tear jerker for me.

This is a gorgeous book, but I was just not able to finish it since I was not in a strong enough place emotionally. This is a book that deals with tough topics with Klune's signature compassion. I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea, but I just never connected with these characters in the same way. Maybe some day when I feel emotionally stronger, I'll complete this!