Wallace is a huge grump and honestly kind of a jerk. So when he dies and isn't missed, he has to reevaluate his life and how he's treated people. He ends up in a little house in a little village with a patched together family including Hugo, the owner. Now Wallace has to look back and figure out why he cant seem to leave behind his life that he barely lived,

Although this isn't the most unique story, TJ Klune manages to infuse charm and heart warming feels just like we've come to expect. I laughed out loud many many times because although Wallace is a huge jerk sometimes, its hilarious. I will say that it got way more serious than I expected and I really loved those portions. Its one of those books that begs you to reevaluate your own life and relationships. A delight!

Synopsis: This is a contemporary fantasy and one like I have never read before. In it, we have Wallace Price, who has recently died from a heart attack and who many considered not to have been a good man. He is sitting in a church pew watching his own funeral and begins to suspect that all might not be well and that he may actually be dead. While he is sitting there contemplating this, along with the fact that other than his ex-wife, no one attended his funeral, a reaper called Mei appears. She has come to lead him to the afterlife. She takes him to a small tea shop in a village. The tea shop’s owner, Hugo, is a ferryman – he helps souls cross over to the afterlife. The problem is that Wallace refuses to cross over – he’s just not ready yet and so he stays at the teashop along with Hugo, Mei (and Hugo’s grandfather and his dog Apollo, both of which are also deceased and not ready to cross over yet) until he is ready. While Wallace is waiting to cross, he begins to examine his life – to weight up the things he did wrong versus what he did right and he realizes that he made a lot of mistakes in his life and we watch while he tries to come to terms with this.

My thoughts: This is definitely a whimsical read, however, at the same time it also contains a lot of life truths. While there is certainly sadness and grief in respect to Walter realizing how he wasted his life, there is also a lot of humor and hopefulness at the same time. I enjoyed this book a lot and gave it 4/5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book is available now for purchase.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Books and TJ Klune for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this one so much, Klune always has the most interesting concepts and plot ideas. I will always be here for it. This novel is so beautifully written and I wanted to sit and just read it all day long. The characters were just so well thoughtout and loveable that I was really rooting for them all the way. This was such a nice way to view passing on and I would pass this book on to anyone, anywhere!

I loved House in the Cerulean Sea and this was equally as enchanting. The writing was excellent, the characters well-fleshed out. I'm also always look for relationships I can root for, and boy did Under the Whispering Door provide this! I loved this story so much!

I tried so hard to get into this book, but I struggled. After over a month I’m just going to accept that this isn’t a book for me. Like many after The House on the Cerulean Sea, I jumped at the chance to read this ARC when I saw it available on NetGalley from the publishers. Although the writing is wonderful, I just didn’t connect with it like I wanted to. Maybe I’ll come back to it in the future, but for now I’m just going to mope because I really wanted to love it.

*Although I am forced to leave a star rating here, I will no be leaving a star rating on goodreads since I did not complete the book.

Loved the quirky characters and their flaws and growth! The feelings this author brings out of readers experiencing his stories are so powerful!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

The first thing I have to say is that I was really exited when I receive the email saying that we could read the book. That we were accepted as readers for it before the release.

I have been looking forward to read books by this author for a long time so it felt great to read it! Now, after this book I'm a little bit less exited, but still I want to read some other books.

So I have mixed feelings with this book...

It started great! We have this character, Wallace Pierce, who is a lawer that is a bit of an a-hole to his workers, family and friends. So it is no surprise when he sees that no one is crying of feeling bad when he died. And now that he is a ghost he realises it. Now the interesting thing about it is that the tone is pretty funny for this topic.

And then it all went down quite fast. Once he meets his reaper, Mei, and the Ferryman, Hugo. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the story and the character arc that happens since the beggining, but that first part of the journey felt so slow and descriptive....

The thing is, that one it gets towards the ending... Loved that part! I cried so much! But still I had that slower part in mind...

I expected so much and I can't say that it was a bad experience or a bad book. It just felt too long at some point. I get it tho... It had an esential effect in the main character's development so it makes sense....

That is one of the two things I really liked: characters and plot.

The characters are sooo complex and interesting. The author is able to develop every character to a poin where you fall in love with all. I wanted to protect them all and try to make them feel better. Nelson and the dog were such a good comedic relief characters! And Mei! She was such a good and thoughful person.

But Hugo and Wallace. OMG! Hugo is such a lovable character. And their relationship is just perfect really. There is nothing toxic there and even if i am a sucker for enemies to lovers, i liked that. It was refreshing and new for me.

About the ending... Now, this is what made me have this exed feelings issue. I liked it, it was interesting and after all the crying ... I was thankful. But it just felt so like a typical hollywood ending and i don't really like them.... It just made all that development go down the drain for me.

Either way I enjoyed the book so I recomend it, but I would explain that the beggining might feel to much.

-Ele

I got an ARC of this book.

I wanted to like this book, but Klune has ruined my view of him which is drastically impacting my ability to like his books. I found out that Klune took the pain of Indigenous people and made a profit. What the actual fuck. seriously?

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/03/17/the-big-idea-tj-klune/

This book in particular is a lot like the book that ruined Klune for me so I couldn't put any distance and pretend I didn't know for a few hours. Add in that this book was so slow and boring and I just didn't like it in any way shape or form.

TJ Klune’s “Under the Whispering Door” is a beautiful and fantastical story of life, death, love and loss. I loved the imaginative way Klune told this story and the fantastical elements woven throughout.

If you loved House on the Cerulean Sea, this is for you. Klune will not disappoint (and it’s worth noting that the audiobook is also really well done)

I love T.J. Klune's writing style. He builds wondrous, fantastical settings for his stories, but they still feel cozy and heartening.

I felt that way while reading The House in the Cerulean Sea, and Under the Whispering Door also follows this pattern. This story reflects on life and death with empathy and humor.

I enjoyed the beginning of this book, and I loved the ending, but the middle felt too slow for me. I found myself skimming portions of the story often.

Read this if you liked The Midnight Library.

I'm a sucker for a reaper romance, but with the reaped? It was actually a pretty GOOD time. If you enjoyed the character writing, setting or the feelings that The House in the Cerulean Sea gave you, then you should probably be checking this one out too.

A lovely, feel-good story about redemption, love, second chances, and faith. Fans of House in the Cerulean Sea will like this.

While this is touching (and downright heartbreaking), I just didn't connect with Wallace and Hugo and their story like I did with the gang in Cerulean Sea - but that might be my fault for setting such high expectations? Don't get me wrong, this is like a gut punch in the feels (in a heartwarming and life affirming way), but I think it being so soaked in death might have made it a bit too dark for my taste. I will continue to read whatever Mr. Klune puts out and did enjoy this engrossing and imaginative tale, but it honestly left me more contemplative and a tad bit depressed than uplifted and joyous. Take of that what you will...

4 out of 5 wine glasses.

(PS - the audiobook is PHENOMENAL though. The voice actor is uber talented.)

Under the Whispering Door- T.J. Klune

This book was just 🥺
Under the Whispering Door deals heavily with death, grief, and suicide. While this book is definitely heavier and sadder than The House in the Cerulean Sea, it also really reminded me of it. The way I fell in love with the characters and the setting was similar to THITCS. It was such a lovely and heartwarming story, and probably my favourite from TJ Klune so far!

I love that Wallace is a grumpy mean character that you don’t really like at first. He gets to evaluate his life after his death and he finds out he wasn’t a good person. (This reminds me of my favourite show, the good place.😂) This book takes place in a tea shop, which I loved. There’s a ghost dog named Apollo. Watching Wallace develop his relationships with the other characters, Mei, Nelson and Hugo (especially Hugo), was so lovely.

I really loved this book, the ending was unexpected but I’m so happy with the way the story went!

I loved TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea. I recently binged the Green Creek novels, and while I mostly enjoyed them, they were much darker and more intense than I've really been in the mood for lately. So when Under the Whispering Door came up on NetGalley, and the description and cover seemed a more likely match for The House in the Cerulean Sea, I jumped at the chance to grab it. (Thanks to NetGalley for this free book, in exchange for an honest review.)

Under the Whispering Door did ultimately feel like a more grown-up version of The House in the Cerulean Sea. Where the latter explored issues of prejudice and social justice, Klune's new novel was a very personal story of learning how to become a better person and to confront the realities of death. Like The House in the Cerulean Sea, it features a lovable band of misfits in a world that feels relatively ordinary but with fantastical elements. It even has the grumpy/sunshine dynamic of the earlier book, although it didn't feel at all like a retread of Linus and Arthur's relationship. The writing also felt more pitched to an adult audience; The House in the Cerulean Sea unfolds a little like a fable, while Under the Whispering Door had a more straightforward style.

I realize I'm spending a lot of time here comparing two books, but I do think it's worth noting the parallels and differences, especially since I suspect that, like me, folks who loved The House in the Cerulean Sea will enjoy this one enormously. I struggled initially, as Wallace begins as such an unappealing person, and Mei a bit of a cipher, and the first three chapters focus pretty much exclusively on them. Once Hugo and the rest of the household entered the mix, though, things picked up. Under the Whispering Door is an intense story, beautifully blending humor and grief and love. It's also meditative, so I didn't burn through it, but rather managed to savor the reading experience. I admit, I also sobbed through the last several chapters, so be prepared.

Highly recommended.

Under the Whispering Door was a peaceful ride into the great beyond. It is filled with some fantastic surprises and great twists on Western mythologies. This is a story that captivated my attention and made me feel Zen, maybe even at one with the universe.

What happens to us when we die? Where do we go? Who do we get to spend eternity with? These are the questions that Klune uses to look at what is really important in life. After all, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

When I finally dug into Under the Whispering Door (it had been sitting on my Kindle for quite some time), I was introduced to Wallace Price, and I thought, someone get me a two by four so that I could knock some common sense and humanity into this poor excuse for a human being. Well, apparently, Klune could do what I wanted, but without the violence (who knew that could work). The way that Hugo interacted with Wallace was the best part of the story; their interactions had a calming effect on me as I read.

It was the characters who drove the story, the events were few and far between – this was a story of interactions, and how these interactions can change someone. Could you imagine a place where people sit around and really listen to each other and not just wait to fire off their rebuttal?

What I appreciated most was Klune’s piecing together of this story. Some twists to what’s part of our mythology: reaper, ferryman, redemption, etc. He expertly pulls from many places, and pulls it all together into a complete, entrancing story.

*4 Stars

TW: greif, discussions of death and dying,

Wallace Price is a lawyer that you love to hate. He is mean and cold. Cares little for anything but his job. The people and relationships in his life have always taken a backseat to his career. Unfortunately for him, his last moments are spent in his office.

Wallace emerges at his barely populated funeral only to discover that he isn't as well liked as he thought he was. In fact, hardly anyone is at his funeral and the few people that did show up are speaking of him very poorly. Wallace is shocked he isn't loved better than this.

Wallace meets a sweet grim reaper, Mei and she takes him to a house in the woods to meet a ferryman named Hugo. Hugo is a kind and gentle soul who adores tea. We also meet Hugo's dead grandfather named Nelson, and Hugo's rambunctious ghost do named Apollo. Both Nelson and Apollo provide quite a bit of the comic relief in this dark comedy.

This is Wallace's journey to discover what his life actually meant and what he was missing from it. Wallace is a character that experiences a ton of growth throughout this story as he finds a place to be happy.

This book is significantly darker then House on the Cerulean Sea as we deal with heavy issues concerning life and death. I think this book was really well done but it doesn't hold the same kind of reverence that House on the Cerulean Sea does for me. It was really fun that the author included Easter eggs in this book from House on the Cerulean Sea.

This book also is huge on the found family trope, which is really consistent with TJ Klune's other books. Found family is one of the signatures of his story telling and you are always guaranteed to find friendships that feel like home when you pick up one of his books.

I really enjoyed this overall but the dark undertones made this a heavier read. I still really loved it, but not quite as much as House on the Cerulean Sea. If you enjoyed this previous books, Under the Whispering Door is a must read for any TJ Klune fan.

Thank you to Netgalley for an early ARC of this book.

Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune is a beautifully heartbreaking exploration of life, death, and grief. Charon's Crossing is one part tea shop one part waystation for the dead. When Wallace dies, he could never imagine he would see his own funeral, meet an energetic Reaper, or be lead to Hugo, the man who will help him cross over. Wallace must decide what it means to die and how to live in this odd tea shop amongst friends.
The book is magnificent. This is less a measured review and more exultation. Somehow it is sad and hopeful and funny and careful. Aspects of workplace fantasy Klune plays with in his other novels is flawlessly executed in an afterlife with Management. Wallace is the most unsympathetic lawyer alive and the warmest muffin dead. The rest of Charon's Crossing is wonderful and well-rounded to boot. Under The Whispering Door is a book that can easily be spoiled with a detailed review. Be careful if death, dying, suicide, and grief are subjects that you would like to avoid, but if you are open to deep consideration, the novel holds your heart gently in the palm of its hand.
Thank you, Macmillan-Tor and Forge via NetGalley for providing the eARC of Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune in exchange for my honest review.

This is the heartwarming tale of Wallace Price.

Wallace is a jerk. Everyone hates him. Now he's dead and no one mourns him. He finds it quite rude.
Then a reaper comes to collect him so he can cross over. So why is he being taken to a tea shop in the middle of nowhere?

This is such a beautiful story! The characters are fantastic. I said it's heartwarming, but it is also heartbreaking and full of hope.

I need to read everything by this author.

Heartwarming story about a man named Wallace who dies suddenly and finds himself looking back on his life as Hugo, the ferryman, gets him ready to crossover to his final destination. Wallace learns to be a better person, find love, and that its never too late to make your life what you want it to be.

TJ Klune's endearing characters, quirky humor, whimsical  writing style, and the intriguing premise of the story will keep you reading and entertained.  It was a thought-provoking story that I won't soon forget.