Perfect for fans of:
- The Good Place
- Anyone who’s ever wondered what the line “death doesn’t discriminate between the sinner and the saints” would look like if a whole book was written about it
- Redemption arcs
“It comes from the earth,” Hugo said quietly. “Energy. Life. Death. All of it. We rise and we fall and then we rise once more. We’re all on different paths, but death doesn’t discriminate. It comes for everyone. It’s what you do with it that sets you apart.”
Under the Whispering Door is Klune at his best—with an extraordinary premise, kooky characters and a subject matter that hits you right in the feels, you’ve got the recipe for an exceptional novel, and Klune delivers.
The short premise for Under the Whispering Door is a ghost who refuses to cross over and the ferryman he falls in love with. We follow Wallace Price, a certified jerk who bites the dust and finds himself led—by a reaper named Mei who deserves her own action movie—to a small teashop to meet the ferryman, Hugo, who will help him in departing to what comes next. Initially angry and disenchanted when faced with Hugo, Hugo’s dead grandfather’s and dog’s ghost and Mei, Wallace eventually comes to like the place and the people in it. But the teashop is a stop along the journey, not the destination, and Wallace will have to come to terms with what it means to let go, especially now that he’s found something worth holding on to.
Only Klune could make a book about death, grief, and loss a fun reading experience. Honestly, it’s a dark matter to follow a man who is dead, but somehow, it’s also really, really funny to watch Wallace try to be proficient in the arts of ghosting (e.g. changing the clothes he has died in, lifting a chair) and getting totally pranked by Hugo’s grandfather, who has been around for years and knows how to make everything work.
What I loved most about this is that we follow a character who is incredibly unlikable and he’s very aware of that. Wallace Price has been a prick all his life, rude and abrasive to his ex-wife, his employees and everyone else who’s ever crossed his path. As a lawyer, he rarely did anything besides work, eat and sleep. To now find himself in this small teashop with these eccentric people—Hugo, who is effortlessly kind, Mei who likes to make fun of him and Nelson, who has the time of his life getting under Wallace’s skin, is the exact opposite of how Wallace imagined his life after death. But like the tagline of the book reads, death is only their beginning and as the story progresses, Wallace learns to appreciate and even love the people who are trying their hardest to make him see the errors of his ways but also that he is a good man who just got lost somewhere along the journey of life.
This book breaks your heart in many ways through the messages it sends. One of them is the fact that life isn’t perfect, that there will be mistakes you make and sometimes, they’re irreversible. We all have regrets but in Under the Whispering Door, Wallace makes amends in the ways he can. It’s an uplifting notion, to think that even if you die with regrets, you still get the chance to make them right, or at the very least, the chance to realise what you could have done better. And most of that comes down to Wallace spending time with genuinely good people who guide him, emphasising the importance of a good support system, which also made me tear up quite a bit. You have so much love in this story, from the love all of the inhabitants of the teashop have for each other as well as the love Wallace learns to embrace. You get to see just how much someone blossoms under the right care, but you also see how the absence of it can turn people against each other. In the end, this book is a story about death—but it’s also about a beginning, about savouring the time you have on earth and about what it means to be human. It’s profound but in a manageable way, sad but uplifting, funny but honest. Pretty much exactly what you need on your shelves.
I won’t spoil anything, but the ending was so on brand for Klune—somehow making your heart shatter and soar at the same time, a trait I’ve come to appreciate over the years (and books) from this author. I love how Klune never just gives you the happy ending you want but somehow makes you work for it—to see that tiny glimpse of light at the end of a dark night and grab for it. Under the Whispering Door was no different and thus made the ending even more profound for me.
All in all, Under the Whispering Door is a must-read emotional rollercoaster, offering amazing characters, a compulsively readable story and an ending that will make you ponder your own existence for weeks to come.
Under the Whispering Door is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of September 21st 2021.
Will you be picking up Under the Whispering Door? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
When a reaper comes to collect Wallace Price from his own funeral, Wallace suspects he really might be dead.
Instead of leading him directly to the afterlife, the reaper takes him to a small village. On the outskirts, off the path through the woods, tucked between mountains, is a particular tea shop, run by a man named Hugo. Hugo is the tea shop’s owner to locals and the ferryman to souls who need to cross over.
But Wallace isn’t ready to abandon the life he barely lived. With Hugo’s help he finally starts to learn about all the things he missed in life.
When the Manager, a curious and powerful being, arrives at the tea shop and gives Wallace one week to cross over, Wallace sets about living a lifetime in seven days.
By turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, this absorbing tale of grief and hope is told with TJ Klune’s signature warmth, humor, and extraordinary empathy.
