Under the Whispering Door
A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND INDIE BESTSELLER
One of Buzzfeed's "Best Books of 2022"!
An Indie Next Pick!
A Locus Awards Top Ten Finalist for Fantasy Novel
A Man Called Ove meets The Good Place in Under the Whispering Door, a delightful queer love story from TJ Klune, author of the New York Times and USA Today bestseller The House in the Cerulean Sea.
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.
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Community Reviews
Trigger warnings at the end in case they are potential spoilers.
After reading TJ Klune's House in the Cerulean Sea, I was dying to read another whimsical and magical story. Naturally I was very excited to get approved for an ARC of Under the Whispering Door. It was very good but is definitely not at all like House. This story is about death and therefor it is incredibly sad. Klune writes about death in a very respectful manner and I love his take on the afterlife. Honestly, if I knew this is what the afterlife was like maybe I'd be less scared to die! However, as respectful and delicate as he is, it does not detract from how sad death can be.
This book is for you if you want a story with magic and whimsy, a found-family trope and can handle discussions about death and are not offended by agnostic/atheist ways of thinking. This book is not for you if you are devoutly Christian and/or if you have severe anxiety about death and dying.
My rating overall is 4.5 out of 5. It was a good read with wonderful and loveable characters and a Christmas Carol vibe.
TW:
-Many forms of death. Death by murder, death by suicide, death of a child, death of a parent, death of a pet, death by cancer, lots of death
-Depression
-Christian blasphemy
After reading TJ Klune's House in the Cerulean Sea, I was dying to read another whimsical and magical story. Naturally I was very excited to get approved for an ARC of Under the Whispering Door. It was very good but is definitely not at all like House. This story is about death and therefor it is incredibly sad. Klune writes about death in a very respectful manner and I love his take on the afterlife. Honestly, if I knew this is what the afterlife was like maybe I'd be less scared to die! However, as respectful and delicate as he is, it does not detract from how sad death can be.
This book is for you if you want a story with magic and whimsy, a found-family trope and can handle discussions about death and are not offended by agnostic/atheist ways of thinking. This book is not for you if you are devoutly Christian and/or if you have severe anxiety about death and dying.
My rating overall is 4.5 out of 5. It was a good read with wonderful and loveable characters and a Christmas Carol vibe.
TW:
-Many forms of death. Death by murder, death by suicide, death of a child, death of a parent, death of a pet, death by cancer, lots of death
-Depression
-Christian blasphemy
TJ Klune has a knack for writing beautiful stories filled with sympathetic characters with whom one can’t help but fall in love. A lovely tale, which I highly recommend.
Honestly, I cried. I had to stop reading it on my break at work bc I knew I was going to sob. This book is tragic and heartfelt and sincere and sweet. I absolutely LOVED IT.
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