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.

What if there was a tea shop far far away and yet close enough to be anywhere, a place that looked like the smallest breeze could send it tumbling down and yet it could survive any earthquake.

What if this house, buzzing with the living in daylight and quiet in the serenity of death at night, had a garden, with tea plants rooted deep in its heart and each cup of tea made with those leaves was trickling with a scent of hope.

What if it wasn’t just a tea house but also a stop on our way ahead, a sanctuary for those who have died, to give them a second chance to reflect on the life they’ve lived.

Oh and what if we got it all wrong and death wasn’t an instant disconnection, not an abrupt end to our reality, but a short interval on the way to move forward.

Unde the Whispering Door is a beautiful story about life and death and about what rests beyond, something to make you pause and think. To remind you that maybe it’s not our actions or mistakes that matter at the end and it’s about people and about the sacrifices we make.

This book has it all, a message of love and hope, with characters that matter so much. A story that pulls you in and holds you under a halo of wonder. It keeps your heart beating for the destiny of fictional characters and your brain pondering the truth in our own existence.

Wallace is not a good man, he is not compassionate or kind or even nice in any way. But he is an amazing character. I never once disliked him, even when he was a total jerk in the beginning. He is what I’d like to call a “missed potential”. He could’ve been a better person, a nice man with many friends and a family who cared for him. But till the end of his life, it never happened to him. Instead, he’d turned his presence in this world into an efficient mechanical process that, right or wrong, brought him peace and a sense of contentment.

And then death comes and everything that once seemed to be so significant is gone. With his connection to the living severed, Wallace is left with not much choice. He is stuck in the tea house with a ferryman who, to Wallace’s annoyance, gladly admits to not knowing everything, a reaper with a temper and a heart of gold, an old man with a delightful sense of humour and a dog that refuses to leave his friend's side even after death. A combination that works like magic and awakens the forgotten humanity, buried deep in Wallace’s soul.

With his full potential finally realized, nothing stops Wallace to bring his version of order into this chaotic universe and oh what a glorious version it turns out to be..

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.

TJ Klune never fails to have me feeling both fuzzy feelings and all emotions. Like The House in the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door is filled with whimsy and an eclectic set of characters reminiscent to that of Pixar movies (and left me feeling the exact same way post-movie and post-read). Some parts of this book got too “Pixar-y” and feel-good for my tastes (although I’m being hypocritical because those were the exact reasons why I love The House in the Cerulean Sea), but I guess that’s part of the TJ Klune charm.

Although this book is about death, it is no doubt also a celebration of life. I just wish there were some more profound thoughts on death and coping with death to balance the humor and fluffy feelings. Nevertheless, I love this books and its message of finding comfort (or maybe acceptance is a better word) in grief.

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!

This book is completely different from anything else I have ever read by Mr Klune. I wasn't sure what to expect when I started and in the beginning I absolutely hated one of the MCs. I think most people will. There are other less than likeable characters but he is the one who undergoes the most positive changes. <br />This one is book book about death, change, growth, self-awareness, love, acceptance and moving on. Fortunately these weighty issues are not handled with a heavy hand. Yes there are discussions but there are also actions and changes both big and small that lead the characters to a happier place. About the only negative thing I can say is I wish the epilogue was a complete second book. There was an awful lot shoved into just a few pages. Being published by a mainstream publishers it does not contain graphic sex so is acceptable for teens as well as adults. I want to thank Netgalley and Tor publishing for this ARC which I chose to give.

After reading and loving The House in the Cerulean Sea last year, I knew that I needed to read TJ Klune’s future work.

Whispering Door has a smaller and more intimate cast of characters, slower pacing, and is more character-driven. Yet they have a similar feel. Both books are magical and make you think about life. Because of the slower pacing, it took me longer to connect with the characters, but by the end, I was emotionally invested and really appreciated the story’s commentary on life and death.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

I couldn’t imagine how Under the Whispering Door could possibly compete with the joy that I found in reading The House in the Cerulean Sea, but I’m happy to say it exceeded all my expectations. Klune’s ability to create heartfelt and endearing characters is on full display here; I dare you to read this novel and not fall in love with Wallace, Hugo, Mei, Nelson, and Apollo. At the heart of the story is Wallace’s journey as a character, and this is portrayed in a beautiful and relatable ways as we follow Wallace from life to after-life, and watch as he discovers how to truly live.

As for the setting of Charon’s Crossing, a teashop whose purveyor is a loveable ferryman for the dead? Let’s just say, as a devoted coffee drinker, this book made me reach for a soothing cup of tea; what higher praise can I offer? I longed to spend a luxurious day relaxing in Hugo’s teashop, and was saddened to leave it behind when I finished the book. But truly, it’s the characters who inhabit Charon’s Crossing that bring it to life, and this tale lives and dies on the strength of Klune’s characters.

Fans of Cerulean Sea will note many narrative and stylistic similarities. For instance, Klune, once again, shines as he revels in the ideocratic nature of bureaucratic structures, portraying absurdities in a near Douglas Adams-esque way. Similarly, humor, pathos and romance all pull at the reader’s emotions and drive the story onward. This is a wonderful journey of discovery, change, and fulfillment, and a rewarding read.

“In death, Wallace had never felt more alive.”

Gorgeous. Brilliant. Charming. I sobbed.

Wallace Price is a killer attorney. Until he dies. When he winds up in the ferryman Hugo’s hodgepodge tea shop, he has the chance to try to do some good. But can he change? With the help of feisty Reaper Mei, good boy ghost dog Apollo, and Nelson, Hugo’s ornery dead grandfather, he’ll find out. But when he can’t move forward and The Manager comes to force his hand, will it be too late?

An exploration of love, loss, death, and grief. What will you do with the time you have left? If you loved The House in the Cerulean Sea, you’ll love this. Except this book will wreck you.

4.75 Stars

Content warnings at end of review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor/Forge Books for an arc of this book.

Wallace is not a good person. All he cares about is the bottom line at his work as an attorney, and not at all about the people he steps on along the way. But when he dies suddenly and discovers there is a life after death, Wallace will learn things that he never understood during his actual life, and with the help of his new friends (a ferryman, a reaper, and a ghost) he will grow in ways that were never possible in his actual life.

Oh look, another TJ Klune book that made me laugh and cry in equal measure. What else is new?

This book was incredible! It took me a little while to get fully invested in it, but once I did I couldn't stop reading. I was bawling toward the end and can't imagine this having gone any other way than it did. I love Hugo and Mei so much! They are absolutely fantastic characters. I loved the found family elements in this book and the amazing character growth that Wallace went through! The writing was phenomenal!

Pub Date: Sept 21, 2021

Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Suicide
Moderate: Child death, Animal death, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent and Car accident

I received a complimentary copy of UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR by T.J. Klune from Tor Books for an honest review. I adored THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA so was overjoyed to get an advanced copy of this book!

Rating: 5 / 5
Publication Date: 9/21/2021

UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR follows Wallace, a man devoted to work and not much more. He’s not the most likeable guy to begin with, more about the bottom line than having a heart for the people he’s working with. Cut to Wallace’s funeral where he realizes the partners at his firm and his ex wife have shown up out of obligation… and no one else apart from a reaper there to take him to someone named Hugo.

Hugo lives in a small village where he runs a tea shop and also acts as the ferryman to usher dead souls to the afterlife, each in their own time. The tea shop is a refuge for the living and the dead. Hugo brings comfort to many, but his connection with Wallace is something more and Wallace is reluctant to move on form this life.

I have been putting off this review because I honestly don’t know what to say about this one. This has some very heavy subjects (trigger warnings for death, grief, suicide, depression) and it will break your heart more than once along the journey. Still, it does so in a beautiful and uplifting way as well. I thought Klune did a fantastic job of discussing grief and mourning.

This book is very different from THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA, but the same charming writing comes through. I love the way the author manages to mix in humor (albeit sometimes dark humor) to bring lightness into some of the hardest moments. I found the mix here to really be perfect!

This is a book to go into in the right frame of mind. Definitely be aware of the themes of death and sadness that run throughout the book, but it is very much worth the read and I highly recommend it!

UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR is out on 9/21/2021!