Wallace has died, and when a reaper comes to take him, he struggles to cope with the face that he has died. When taken to Charon's Crossing, he meets a wide variety of people, some just like him (dead), some he cannot interact with (alive), and those who can interact with the dead and alive. As he learns to cope with his death, he learns about the life he lived and his regrets.

To start, I did not like Wallace. He wasn't a character I found myself rooting for which can make reading a book tricky. I did like the overall story though and how it approaches death in a different way. I loved Hugo, and enjoyed Mei and Nelson's humor. The ending was not my favorite, as I personally had hoped it went another way, but still an enjoyable book.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for this e-ARC.

I'm not going to lie, this took a little bit to get into but once I got 50% of it I was completely enthralled with the story. My throat hurts from crying the last like 10% of the book. This was beautiful

“It’s never enough, is it? Time. We always think we have so much of it, but when it really counts, we don’t have enough at all.”

This was a tug-at-all-your-heart-strings story of a reaper who’s meant to accompany a ghost to the afterlife, but instead leads him to the life he missed out on. There is a unique and singular swoon-worthiness to the romance between Wallace and Hugo.

I adore the LGBTQ+ rep and the found family trope because it always seems like you found your tribe within the characters in the book. Read it if you want a fantastical story that explores how to live well, life after life, and diverse characters.

CWs: death, loss and dying

I haven't been able to pick up TJ Klune's books since his ill fated recent interviews. As much as I loved his past works, i think unfortunately, I am going to have to not finish this book and avoid him for the foreseeable future.

I was underwhelmed with this new book. As many others, I loved Under the Cerulean Sea and was hoping for the same emotional impact. 2.5

I don’t think I’ll leave a rating… I’m just not feeling it. I honestly don’t care what happens. I have such a massive tbr, and while I loved Cerulean and wanted to love this, I don’t want to finish this one and if I did it’d be because I’m forcing myself through it.

The idea of the book is interesting and the characters distinctive in their personality. Throw in afterlife and you have a pretty good starting point to a story. The story was different than any I have read. It had its funny moments and it got me a little moved. But for me the story was too slow and too still so it got boring at parts. The story has a romance side to it which was also slow, which I do not mind, but the signs of affection were too small for me to feel much for them during most of the book.

I thought it was good, but not amazing. But I do also get why this book is so well liked by maby others. It just wasn't written in a way that touches me. It has all the ingredients for an amazing book, do if you do not mind a slower paced strory then go ahead and try this out!

In the beginning I loved Wallace and hoped to read more of him as he was in the beginning. He's change could've been slower in my opinion. I loved Nelson all through the book.

Ps. I got Morgan Freeman vibes of him!

If you haven’t read this book yet, you need to! It was just as good as the first book in the series. This book had me laughing, crying, and falling in love with the characters. This book was filled with witty banter, heartfelt moments, and touched on loss and grief. I highly recommend checking it out!

Another great book from TJ Klune!
Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

Welcome to Charon's Crossing.
The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.

And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.

I had high expectations for TJ Klune's work after reading The House in the Cerulean Sea, but I stopped reading this one at 77%. The characters were so unlikeable and the plot was so repetitive that I had no interest in the conclusion.

TJ Klune created a beautiful world full of whimsy and charm just like his previous book. The feeling you get from reading this is almost the same. Unfortunately that is some of the issue with it. While it is set in the wonderful backdrop of a tea shop in between life and death, the overall journey the characters go on is the same. It starts with an unlikeable, barely human main character who dies and has to confront all of the pain he caused in his life and change for the better. All of these techniques were done well, it's just that it wasn't anything new. I'd love to see the author take more risks and present something out of the formulaic comfort zone.

After reading The House in the Cerulean Sea, I knew I had to read TJ Klune's next book and this one was just as magical and heartwarming. Wallace is a big shot, callous lawyer with no time for anyone but himself and his work. So when he dies one day, unexpectedly, of a heart attack, the only people that care, or at least attend the services, are the ones that do so out of obligation. Wallace meets Mei, the reaper that will be helping him deal with his feelings on his death and on transitioning to what comes next, she brings him to her home where he meets Hugo, the ferry man, Nelson, Hugo's ghost grandfather, and Apollo, Hugo's ghost-dog.

What happens next is a journey so completely wholesome and heartwarming. I loved the relationships among all the characters and the family they found together. Wallace's transformation was made possible by the love, support, and time that he received and had no choice but to give himself. Hugo is my absolute favorite, he's so sweet, honest, and uplifting and he deserves happiness after what he's been through and deals with each day. Nelson is absolutely hilarious and is always willing to tell it like it is, and not pull any punches. Mei is ridiculously likable and her willingness to fight for the people she loves is so admirable. Overall, I really enjoyed this read, it had the right amount emotional and feel-good moments. The only thing that I didn't jive with me was the ending, it wasn't what I was expecting, and while I'm happy how it turned out, I also would have liked for us to have been see Wallace's journey completely through.

T.J. Klune has this incredible talent where going into each new book, the characters stick with you long after reading. I devoured this one and I am not one who usually reads "fantastical" type literature. I can't wait to see what he does next!

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Tor/Forge for the opportunity to read this book.

I loved it. TJ Klune is a master at writing likeable, thoughtful, sweet, but quirky characters. And this book touched me deeply.

I absolutely adored this book!! It was definitely different from House in the Cerulean Sea but still amazing, cozy, and uplifting. I loved the characters and seeing them grow over the course of the book.

I love TJ Klune. His world-building is on point, his characters are relatable and loveable. Under the Whispering Door is sweet and one I will definitely recommend. I was left with soooo many questions at the end of this book, especially about the world. I hope Klune returns to it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for granting me early access to this book.

*I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Wallace is an important and deeply hated businessman who does not care whatsoever about being human or making and keeping interpersonal relationships. One day he's in his office and wakes up to see his own body dead on the floor. Unable to accept his death, a reaper is finding it quite hard to take him to a resting place; Hugo's house, where he can find peace and himself until he's ready to get to the other side.

I cannot say this enough, Klune always makes me smile and cry in equal parts and gets so deeply into my heart that I'm left with a huge empty hole in the pitch of my stomach that makes me need to cry and laugh out loud at the same time. Not many books have been able to do this throughout my life.

The story seemed to be going 'the wrong way' for a while and I was praying (I'm an atheist) the author had not written what I thought was going to happen. I'm so glad he didn't, but he made me suffer!

I believe his books are mainly character driven and it's literally impossible not to fall in love with these characters, not to understand and respect even their bad decisions and consequent actions. No character is perfect, which makes them human, relatable and, in general, real.

There's a topic I feel is a MUST when reviewing a book by T J Klune, and it's mental health. He does a fantastic job at making the reader know -and helping psychologists tell them- that it's ok not to be ok, that there's something that doesn't work properly in all of our heads. Mental health is all about acquiring the tools to deal with that in the best way possible and not let it stop us from living.

I said this to him on a live show about The Extraordinaries and wanted to say it again here. As a psychologist, thank you! Thanks for that, thanks for telling people it's ok to mourn and not be ok for some time when you lose someone and that the process will take its time, which is also different for everyone; thanks for reminding us that it's ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them, which is actually the point of being alive (or dead for the case of this book).

This, to summarise, has been my favourite TJ Klune so far and I need to continue reading all his books! Everybody should read them.

Links will be available tomorrow 6pm BST.

After dying from a sudden heart-attack, Wallace wakes up to find he is now a ghost. When he was alive, Wallace was a jerk lawyer, who didn't like anyone and had no life outside of work. After facing this fact at his poorly attended funeral, Wallace meets a reaper, who takes him to Hugo, the ferryman meant to help him crossover to what's next. Hugo also runs a quirky tea shop, where his grandfather and dog - both ghosts - live alongside him. There Wallace discovers he can be so much more than an up-tight jerk and starts living life now that he's technically not alive.

This book is adorable. I read it at a very inopportune time, dealing with the death of my mom, but it helped in a way to imagine an afterlife like this. Hugo is a patient and kind ferryman, good at listening and saying the right things to get Wallace to come out of his shell and discover all the things he might have missed. Hugo's granddad is a goofy old man that adds some levity until Wallace becomes a decent human being. The final epilogue made me ugly cry in a way I wasn't expecting, considering how lighthearted this book otherwise was. I also like that it was clearing the same universe as The House in the Cerulean Sea, but made no overt reference to it other than a photo description.

TJ Klune is a master at atmosphere and scenery building and then adding delightful and quirky characters that you can't help but love even if they do start off as jerks.

I have been a fan of Klune's for a while and this book just made me even more of a fan. It was a wonderful book. Klune, as always, is great at writing and developing characters and this was no different.

There are a couple of things that I want to address before I give my rating on this book.

First, PLEASE be cautious of content warnings before reading. This book contains mentions of de@th, including by sui©ide and murd3r, tense parental relationships, de@th of parents, children, pets and spouses, dealing with grief, terminal illness, and more. Read with care.

Second, I avoided reading this eARC for a long time after I saw TJ Klune’s comments about his previous novel, The House in the Cerulean Sea. These comments trivialized the experience of real Native American families and especially children in forcible removed and placed in boarding schools to just a plot device, which he exploited in that novel. As far as i know, Klune has not apologized for his actions or made any moves to directly support Indigenous communities, despite there having been an uptick in awareness of the atrocities committed at these schools. I likely would not have read this book if hadn’t received it for free and if I was not trying to clear my NetGalley shelf, due to the author’s behavior. I already owned the other book even before I was given access to this one, but it will likely be quite a while before I read it, if I do.

That said, I did really enjoy this book. It got off to a slow start for me, but by the end I was close to tears. The characters are likable and the story is both deep and whimsical, despite dealing with very heavy topics. In the end, it’s very hopeful and an uplifting read. It is also sweet LGBTQIA+ representation.

Based on the book alone, I would give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. I could see this book having a lot to offer for people who are dealing with grief. Still, I will always encourage reading critically and with as much information as possible, including considering when authors have been harmful in some way.

Thank you to #netgalley and #torbooks for the eARC of this book.