"I'm dead," he said. "There's no going back from that. A river only moves in one direction."

TJ Klune's books have become a place where my heart can get a zap like a defibrillator pedal. Both Under a Whispering Door and Under the Cerulean Sea tread the line between sentimental and sweet, but Klune is such a skilled writer that I never drift to the wrong side of that line.

Instead, after I get done with his books, and for this review, I will be talking about the newly released Under the Whispering Door; I feel good about myself and good about the world. I hope that somewhere in the vastness of this universe, there are true stories like what you find in these books. In the infinite, anything is possible. But until I discover and am witness to real-life stories that are as sweet as these, I will have to go back and read Under the Whispering Door again and again.

Wallace whispered, "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."

The book follows Wallace Price Esq. A big-time lawyer and partner in a law firm. He is everything a someone who does not practice law expects lawyers to act. In that vein, Wallace is an immediately identifiable character, not one you can sympathize with, but absolutely one you understand. He is cold, calculating, ruthless, and utterly devoid of the ability to empathize.

These characteristics served him well. He is smartly dressed and expects the same of those around him. He is crushingly fastidious and again expects this of others. Any infraction on this is met with cold civility and a pink check. In other words, he is hated by his employees, has no friends, and his contemporaries are either terrified of him or believe him to be a cretin.

Then he dies. Alone. This starts the actual journey.

He wakes up from death at his funeral. There was no gnashing of teeth and wailing to the Heavens. Quite the contrary. "He was a real bastard." Everyone is ignoring him; no one can see him. He is dead, so it makes sense except for one woman. She keeps staring in his general direction. She introduces herself, her name is Mei, and she is a reaper. She has come to take Wallace onwards.

She takes him to a place, a shabby chic little tea house in the middle of the forest. A place that Wallace would never have visited in his life but is now staying at in his death. Mei introduces Wallace to Hugo, the ferryman. Hugo's job is to help Wallace get used to the idea that he is dead before he steps through the final door. A door where Wallace hear's whispers coming from underneath it.

The writing is lovely. Klune writes in a minimalistic style; he gets the ideas across in prose that is not overly embellished or wordy but still packs an emotional punch. "Because you're you, and that's who you're supposed to be." It is also hilarious, and there is one scene involving an ouija board that had me in tears.

Klune is so good, and his books keep having me come back for more because of the relationships he forges. There are many types of love in this life, or death as it were. There is familial love. The love of found family. The love of a dog. And the love between lovers. Klune explores them all. Because what can teach someone most about life more than love? Love spans the gamut from Blisteringly painful to joyous, and Wallace needs to learn to be a person.

Under the Whispering Door is a joyous book, a little slow at first, but things start to get rolling about midway, and I finished it all in one afternoon. It has passion, love, pain, and all the beautiful things life has to offer if you can recognize it and appreciate it. Thank you, TJ Klune, for another lovely book. I won't be forgetting Wallace's journey anytime soon.

I received this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wallace Price is not a good man. When he dies Wallace isn’t ready to abandon his life that he worked so hard for. A reaper comes and takes Wallace to a tea shop where the mysterious Manager gives him a week to cross over.

This is such a sweet contemporary fantasy! Wallace dies and in doing so finds a reason for living and what living can truly mean.

I didn’t cry, like many other readers did, but I love this book just the same. It’s definitely one that I will reread in the future.

Another great read from TJ Klune! This one balances cozy and heartbreaking in the best of ways. I loved HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA and this book did not disappoint! Delivering the character centric narrative I expected with a dash of weird, fans of Klune's previous work will love this one too!

Entirely wonderful. I fell completely in love with this book and wanted to read it again immediately

I was beyond excited when I was approved for an ARC of this audiobook. I absolutely love TJ Klune's writing this newest book did not disappoint.

Under the Whispering Door made me feel a multitude of emotions. This is a beautiful and impactful read that will leave readers in awe of Klune's ability to weave a story about life after death into an unforgettable journey of hope and love.

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for this ALC of Under the Whispering Door!
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I am late to the TJ Klune game - this is my first ready by him (won't be my last) and I went in blind so I wasn't sure what to expect. I can say, without doubt, that I enjoyed this book. It gave me crazy Scrooge vibes, but was much deeper and more thought-provoking than A Christmas Carol. While the book was slow in parts, overall, I found that it kept my attention, introduced endearing character, and provided premise for thought. Personally, the afterlife is always a bit of a hard subject - it gets me thinking about death which isn't a subject I like to think about. But the story is written eloquently and truly presents life and death as a beautiful thing, both equally important in the grand scheme of things.
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I'm excited to read some more Klune!

Pass the tissues and someone give me a giant Mei hug please.

A solid 4.5 read. The writing hooked me from the start. I loved the quirky style and got an immediate sense of who all the characters were. There are many recognizable troupes, but I enjoyed the journey and exploration of death and beyond. Wonderful world building and so many moments that tug at your heart strings, especially if you've experienced the loss of a loved.

This was my first time reading T.J. Klune, and will certainly be checking out HOUSE BY THE CERULEAN SEA as well as anything else to come.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Kirt Graves' narration, and felt he distinguished between each character subtly, but distinctly so I always knew exactly who was speaking.

***Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me with the Audiobook for free via NetGalley for an unbiased review.

I loved the first 15% of this book, I made a note to self about how much I was enjoying it. I really, really enjoyed The House in the Cerulean Sea and wanted to like this book just as much.

The book fizzled for me quite a bit in the middle and then picked up quite a bit towards the end. (Ok ... exception at around 31% where there are some ghost jokes that I quite enjoyed.)

I'm debating between 4 and 5 stars. I know that I'm in the minority here with debating between 4 stars and not 5 stars. Definitely a good book, I guess that Cerulean Sea set such a high bar for expectations for this one. The concept is creative and I like the characters and interactions between characters. I'm going to round up to 5 stars.

Kirt Graves did a great job narrating the audiobook!

Thank you to NetGalley, T.J. Klune the author, Kirt Graves narrated the audiobook and the publisher Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to review the advance copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

A beautifully told story of life, loss and love. At times it’s heartbreaking, but it’s also so uplifting and comforting. Highly highly recommend, even if you think this genre is not for you.

Cozy and heartbreaking in equal measures, Under the Whispering Door is a beauty of a book. A recommended purchase for all fiction collections.

TJ Klune is swiftly becoming an automatic purchase for me. The soft, gentle, heartbreaking stories he's telling are exactly what I want - and need - to hear. I didn't like this one QUITE as much as The House in the Cerulean Sea, but that's only because Cerulean Sea is one of the best books I've ever read. Under the Whispering Door is still better than most ;)
A story about death, yes. But mostly a story about life.

T.J. Klune has solidified his place as a new favorite author for me with Under the Whispering Door. Character-driven fantasy is rare, but I can’t get enough of the way he writes complex characters who feel absolutely real and human despite fantastical settings, which function as a backdrop for soul searching and character development. I absolutely loved the found family trope in this book.

Under the Whispering Door is a book about death and life and finding where you belong amidst the chaos. This story explores heavy topics like death, grief, and suicide with depth and nuance. There are some very humorous moments in the story, but it never loses the sense of seriousness and reverence when discussing difficult topics.

The audiobook narrator did a fantastic job conveying appropriate tone and emotions for this story and its characters. This book was absolutely beautiful and gave me all the feels. I laughed, I cried, and I felt like I was part of the main characters’ found family, too.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ALC.

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 by TJ Klune, narrated by Kirt Graves.

,As I loved 'The House in the Cerulean Sea', I was really looking forward to his next book. He didn't disappoint! Even though it covers the tough subject of death and crossing over, he does a great job of balancing it with humour and insight into living a good life. I found this to be a very heartwarming story.
The narrator was wonderful as well.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Macmillan Audio for an audio-ARC for my honest review.

This was a fantasy book about what happens when you die. I think the book was an ok read- it had some high and low points for me personally.

I had heard recommendations for the book, and for some reason was under the impression this was a YA novel and the main character was a younger person who hadn’t had a chance to live his life. But that isn’t the case and I wouldn’t recommend it for YA readers. The main character was someone who wasted his life with poor choices. Although Wallace grew on me, I think that soured the book for me a bit. I did find the book had some funny scenes in it as Wallace tried to navigate being a ghost. I was entertained by the antics that he and another ghost got into.

I do believe it is important to include a trigger warning that this is about death including suicide.

This is the story of Wallace Price. He is a thoroughly unlikeable lawyer who finds himself dead. He is surprised when he is not immediately sent to an afterlife but instead Mei, the reaper brings him to a tea shop. Hugo, the tea shop owner works with ghosts like him to “ferry” him to the next step. Wallace quickly realizes that although he has lived his life, he wasted it on the wrong things and made mistakes. His time at Hugo’s shop teaches him basic lessons about kindness and love. When Wallace is given a week to cross to his next step, he has a choice to make- fall back into old habits or make a difference to those around him to make up for his failures prior to his death.

The audio narrator did a phenomenal job! I loved the way he changed his voice to reflect different characters and it was super easy to follow the novel as a result. I’d love to hear more from Kirt and may look for other books he narrates!!

Thanks NetGalley and MacMillian audio for a complementary copy of the book. I am happy to provide my honest review

TL;DR: Wallace is a dick in life. Then death transforms him into the unlikeliest of (btw, queer) heroes. It’s sweet and silly. It’s melancholic and pragmatic. It’s thought-provoking and philosophical (but not heavy handedly so). My rating: 4 of 5 stars.

Despite there being A LOT of hype about this book and Klune’s last novel, The House in The Cerulean Sea, I was pretty convinced by the covers and synopses that these books simply weren’t for me. I was wrong. I requested an audiobook advanced reader copy of Klune’s latest fantasy and found it delightfully charming, entertaining, and reflective.

Wallace is a huge asshole in life. But when he dies suddenly and prematurely of a heart attack, he is given a new lease on life. While trapped in a way station before moving on to the afterlife, Wallace discovers the friends, love, and purpose that utterly eluded him while he was breathing. This beautiful and heartwarming outcome becomes more and more depressing as Wallace and his newfound family and love interest are forced to reckon with the harsh reality that his liminal home is designed to be temporary, and its residents merely transitory.

The notion that people can change and grow after death had serious “The Good Place” vibes to me. Though truth be told, Wallace’s miraculous character development felt a tad far-fetched (he started as a REALLY big asshole). My only other (initial) qualm was that I didn’t quite buy Wallace and Hugo’s chemistry as early as I was probably supposed to. I felt like it was only revealed through Norman’s hints. But by the end I was ready to bawl at the thought of their separation.

As an audiobook, it was an absorbing listen. The narrator used voices different enough to keep most characters straight with one exception: the Manager sounded far too much like Mei.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for giving me advance access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

To paraphrase a classic that isn’t nearly as different as you’d think, Wallace Price was dead: to begin with. He was also an asshole.

The first condition is beyond Wallace’s own ability to change. The second, surprisingly, not so much. But unlike Scrooge’s situation, the spirits aren’t capable of doing anything to change it, and it’s going to take a whole lot more than one single night.

I know that Scrooge isn’t the one who dies in A Christmas Carol, but he was certainly headed down that road before the spirits staged their one-night intervention. The parallels are way closer than I was expecting.

Because the story about what’s behind the whispering door – not exactly under because the door is on the ceiling – is definitely a redemption story. It’s just that this redemption takes place after Wallace Price has already died. Even if he initially doesn’t want to admit it. Or accept it.

The purpose of Charon’s Crossing Tea and Treats is all about that acceptance. The redemption appears to be optional, but the acceptance, that’s required. Charon’s Crossing, pun and all, is a waystation for people who have died but who just aren’t ready to move on to their next great adventure – or the peace of the hereafter – or whatever happens next.

They need time, and that’s just what the people who make up Charon’s Crossing are there to provide. Hugo the ferryman, Mei the reaper, the irreverent Nelson who gives lessons in being dead, and Apollo the dog who won’t leave his person, not even after he’s supposed to have gone to the Rainbow Bridge, or wherever it is that good dogs go. And Apollo was, and is, a very good dog indeed.

The late and completely unlamented Wallace Price, one of the founding partners of the white shoe law firm Moore, Price, Hernandez & Worthington, is brought to Charon’s Crossing by Mei the Reaper on her first solo gig. He doesn’t want to go, he doesn’t want to be there, and he doesn’t want to accept that he’s dead. He’s unwilling to admit that the life he barely lived is already over. And he’s still angry that his funeral was so poorly, and disrespectfully, attended.

But he’ll have all the time he needs at the tea shop to get over who he used to and learn to be who he should have been. Or so he thinks. And so Hugo hopes. Until the mysterious Manager comes to tell him that the found family he’s become a part of isn’t meant for him – no matter how much they’d love for him to stay.

So Wallace plans on one last hurrah. One final pleading before a being who is judge, jury and from a certain perspective, executioner. And it’s a doozy. The question is whether it’s enough.

Escape Rating A: Under the Whispering Door is a lovely book about the power of change and the two steps forward one step back of the process of making the attempt to change. In the end, I loved all the characters and especially the story about how they made their little found family pretty much in spite of themselves.

This is also one of the best “sad fluff” books you could possibly ever find, even though it does surprisingly manage to have a happy ending. It’s just that one person’s happy can also be another person’s letting go.

But I almost didn’t finish this. Actually the first time I read it I mostly skimmed it because the first third is hard going. Wallace Price really, truly is an asshole. Which means that the way the story is centered around him is a bit of a slog, because he’s more than a bit of a slog. And a bastard, and definitely a bastard.

To the point where the best parts of that first third are when Mei and/or Nelson get the best of him. Because Wallace SO deserves it.

So that first time I skimmed the book I missed a lot of what made it so good because I found Wallace so hard to care about. Or be in the company of. But when the audio popped up on NetGalley I decided to give it another try. And this time I fell kind of in love with the residents of Charon’s Crossing and Wallace’s redemptive story. Wallace may not just be “mostly dead” but actually all the way dead, but he still manages to get better. And isn’t that a trick and a half!

And in audio that slow but steady upwards climb captivated me and I loved every minute. Especially the times when Wallace really screws up – or gets screwed up and over – and I was laughing so hard I had to pull the car over to wipe my eyes.

One final set of thoughts. This is being marketed as fantasy because of the author’s previous work in the genre, like the lovely House in the Cerulean Sea, and because of the “I help dead people” angle. But if this is fantasy, it’s mostly of the magical realism variety, like the now-old movie Heaven Can Wait or the even older Ghost and Mrs. Muir. It’s fantastic but not fantasy as the term is generally used.

Instead, it’s more about Wallace’s developing relationships with his found family, the town that Charon’s Crossing is located in, and his growing romantic attachment to Hugo – and very much vice-versa.

At the same time, it feels like the story hints at deeper roots to the whole setup of the ferrymen and ferrywomen (ferrypersons?) and the somewhat supernatural organization that recruits them. The mysterious Manager reads like an avatar for the Horned God of ancient myth, someone like Cernunnos or Herne the Hunter or the Green Man or even Pan. But that’s all just a hint and if you squint you might miss it.

Besides those two movies, there are other stories that touch of bits of what this does. Peter S. Beagle’s classic A Fine and Private Place is another story about redemption after death and living the life you’ve got to the fullest.

And I believe that Hugo, the ferryman and expert tea advocate, would have a great deal to share with Sibling Dex, the tea monk of Becky Chambers’ marvelous A Psalm for the Wild-Built, as both their stories, in spite of the separation of millennia, are about the joy of found families and the surprising power of a good, well-chosen blend of tea.

This is a gorgeous book about weathering loss and trying to find the meaNing in life and death. Beautifully written.

Thank you to @netgalley for the eARC! TJ Klune’s newest novel “Under the Whispering Door” came out on 9/21.

Wallace Price is a big-shot lawyer living a drone-like existence, only focused on work w no compassion or joy…until he dies. His ghost is transported to a tea shop by Mae, where he meets the ferryman Hugo. Here, for the first time in his life, he learns what it means to care for others … until the mysterious Manager shows up and tells him he has 7 days before he has to cross to the other side.

On the whole, this was a pleasant book. It spoke about living every moment to its fullest, loving and supporting others, yadda yadda. One of favorite parts was actually the first chapter - I like Klune’s voice around corporate monotony and characters stuck in it. I just felt, like I did with “House in the Cerulean Sea,” that this was sooo heavy-handed. Characters were telling me that they were close & a family, and telling me what it means to live a good life without showing me. Don’t get me wrong, Klune kept me interested in the world he created, but TBH I’m not floored with this one.

While not screaming that this is the best book I’ve ever read, I will keep picking up Klune’s books because they are feel-good and support the LGBTQ-positive magical realism vibe.

When this book started I thought it was going to be predictable. The middle deviated from my expectations and I was intrigued about what would happen next. Wallace is a strict lawyer and is no-nonsense when it comes to running an office. He didn't seem to enjoy much in life and suddenly died of a heart attack. He is taken by a reaper to the waystation to meet the ferryman. Turns out it is a teashop run by the ferryman. Wallace is strong but ultimately scared of what comes next and somehow becomes a better person during his time at the waystation. The ending was a little too perfect but it was nice to see everyone get a happy ending. I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator did a pretty good job. There were times that it seemed like his inflection wasn't quite right but it wasn't a big deal.