I've long been a fan of this author but the last few books have been disappointing- they've felt more like slapstick than heart. This one is a return to his roots. It's a story of death, with fascinating world-building for what comes after. But the star of this are the characters. You have the grandfather who manages to be the wisdom and comic-relief, which keeps him from being silly, a well-written female character who, in the end, isn't surpassed by the guy, an empathetic hero, a loyal companion, and a main character who starts out unlikable but manages to grow into someone quite different. Yes, there's a love story here, but it's almost unimportant. There's a deeper message here about giving people the chance and opportunity to be better, and calling them out on their bullshit. And at the same time, those who choose to cut ties aren't vilified.

This was just lovely. I laughed, i cried, and i finished this book with contentment and joy

Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune was SUCH a wonderful read. It broke me. It made me laugh. It also had me pondering my own life, and what death means. A story about death, grief and what comes after when we pass. Set in a small town tea shop, run by a ferryman, someone who helps spirits on their journey to the other side. Thought-provoking, quirky, and beautiful. A book about living, even when you find you're self dead.
This is already one of my top books of 2021 and can't wait for everyone else to enjoy it! 

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for providing be with an eARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is going to be one of my very favorite books ever! Wallace isn't a nice man. When he dies, a reaper comes to take him away from his funeral. Mei takes Wallace to Hugo who is a ferryman. Wallace doesn't want to be dead. His life consisted of work only. He doesn't have any friends, an ex-wife who hates him , and partners in his law firm who didn't like him. Hugo and Mei run a tea shop with Nelson ( Hugo's grandad's ghost) and Apollo ( Hugo's dog's ghost). Living here Wallace learns about being a ghost and learning what life is really about. I loved this book and its incredible characters. The scenery is described so you are in the book and with them in the tea shop. This is a story of love, redemption, and family. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

This book was one of my most anticipated releases of the year. I had the pleasure of reading House in the Cerulean Sea late last year and it became one of my all time favorites. I tried to go into this with no expectations - I didn’t read the description. I heard a new book was coming, I saw the cover, and I knew instantly I wanted to read it without knowing much about it.

I’m so glad that I went into this “blind”. It was SUCH a heartwarming story, about love and friendship and what it means to be human. The scariness of life and the uncertainty of death. The characters were very well developed, everything Mei said had me laughing out loud and I loved the interactions between Wallace and Nelson, and Wallace and Hugo.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for a dose of happiness or thoughtfulness. I can’t wait to order this book for my bookstore!

Every bit as sweet and lovely as 'The House in the Cerulean Sea'. If you're looking for a cozy contemporary fantasy with oodles of charm, adorable characters, a snugly setting and just a hint of the dark then this is definitely the book (and author for you). Heartfelt and touching this is book about redemption, friendship and second chances and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a well written uplifting book to renew their faith in humanity.

Under the Whispering Door. A tale of death and grief and what comes next. Do we have the ability to change after our death? Maybe, with help from the right people. Wallace Price, an attorney with a poor attitude suddenly drops dead of a heart attack. With the help of Mei, his reaper, Wallace ends up at a quaint tea shop filled with unlikely characters who are supposed to help him process and move on following his death. Will he cross over or will he find something worth fighting for in the living world?
I loved the characters of this book and how they develop throughout the story. TJ Klune does a wonderful job of addressing the hard topics of death and grief in this beautiful story.

Under the Whispering Door is a book with an intriguing premise. An initially unlikeable protagonist who has not lived the life he should've, but doesn't realise this until it's too late when he meets the reaper and ferryman guiding him to the afterlife. It has a lot of fantasy and paranormal elements, but at its core is a very human story of regret, grief and love.

Recommended to fans of character-driven contemporary fiction. It is both heart warming and melancholy, full of powerful emotion.

Literally a hauntingly good story, Klune’s latest novel is unconventional in it’s characters, quirky in it’s writing style, and unequivocally heart wrenching from beginning to end. Full to the brim with the unexpected, this book reminded me of Alice in Wonderland meets Narnia in it’s slightly unhinged humor tangled with the realities of the human condition that we all grapple with. I fell in love with these heartfelt characters, the inexplicable magic system, and the reminder to be grateful for our one wild and precious life.

I don’t even have words, I feel so lucky to have gotten to read this early. The book follows Wallace who spent his life working and not doing…. much else. He’s bitter, and selfish. And then he dies, and there is more.

The amount of character growth is so incredible, and I was rooting for Wallace while still feeling sympathetic to him as he grieved aspects of life that he didn’t realize he didn’t experience. I fell in love with all the characters, and the writing was so gorgeous, I felt like I was in every scene, feeling every emotion. I ended the book hysterically crying out of grief and happiness, and I could not have predicted the ending in any way.

Although it was a bit slow in the beginning, the focus was on character growth and a gorgeous gorgeous slowburn and developing of relationships. When the true conflict resolution part arrived, the relationships were still heavily touched upon.

I think this is going to be one of my favorite books forever, it truly changed the way I think about life and about being selfless. I highly highly recommend this book and wish it was out already so I could have a physical copy to mark up.

When I think of a comfort book I always think of The House in the Cerulean Sea. Now I can add this book to that list as well! TJ Klune has done it again! When Wallace dies and a reaper comes to fetch him he is forced to come to terms with the fact that he is indeed no longer alive! Along with the help of Hugo the ferryman and Mei his reaper Wallace sets out to live a lifetime in just a matter of 7 days! This story is heartwarming and full of compassion! You instantly fall in love with each of the characters! If I could rate it higher than five stars I would!

When I first started reading Under the Whispering Door, I couldn't stand Wallace. By the end, I was crying with his bravery and selflessness.

This book is an incredible exploration of grief and healing and family. Wallace's growth throughout the book was incredible. The jump from selfish asshole to just kind of a dick happened maybe a little quickly at the start, but doesn't come across too bad considering the shock of his death. The growth from that point on though, including his friendships with the people at the tea shop and his selfless acts for Nancy and Cameron, was truly wonderful.

I was impressed with the careful balance of heartache and humour, something that Klune usually tends to do well but was on another level in this book. The growing relationship between Wallace and Hugo was beautiful to see, and was probably one of the most delicate that I've seen from Klune.

I'll definitely be purchasing this book when it comes out, and will be a regular reread.

QUICK TAKE: this cover is real deceiving. Cerulean Sea 2 this is NOT. Instead, expect a gorgeously written meditation on life and death. This is a slower story, much more character-driven (with most of it taking place in a tea shop), but TJ Klune does such a beautiful job writing incredible, soulful characters, and while it took me to pivot from my expectations for this one, I ultimately found myself emotionally devastated by the end.

What a beautiful story of death, second chances, and grief. Despite the heavy themes, there is quite a lot of humor and whimsy I've come to love and expect from Klune. My only complaint about this otherwise wonderful book was the seemingly overnight love story.

4.5 (but I'm rounding up)

First off, I genuinely can't believe I got an advance copy for this. This was one of my most anticipated releases of this year 😭

Okay, so moving on to the actual review: If you've read T.J. Klune's work before, then you already know that this is going to be good. Only he can make a book about death and grief <em>feel</em> hopeful.

I've read some reviews that talked about how this story seemed to drag and was slow, but honestly, I personally loved that about this book. This IS slow. But since the themes and topics in this book are so heavy, this slow pacing allows for everything to marinate better. I savoured this pacing and the slow character development. It all felt natural. I loved all these characters and I actually panicked when I realized I was close to the 80% mark, because I didn't want this to end.

My only criticism is that we don't get much worldbuilding. We don't get to learn about how these supernatural and fantastical elements work outside of this context; the small tea shop in the middle of nowhere. I found myself thinking about Mei's past <spoiler>how she saw ghosts as a kid. Does that mean that they were newly dead people who gravitated towards to her, or was it because there were other Reapers and Ferrymen close by? I have a lot of questions!</spoiler>, other Ferrymen and Reapers. The overall "scale" of this world seemed to be lacking here, but honestly, it was something that I could live without.

And lastly, I loved seeing some of that <em>Green Creek</em> writing style shine through in a few sections :')

<em>I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.</em>

Wallace Price is a lawyer that likes structure. He wears fancy suits, lives in a huge glass apartment, and has no time for anyone. He doesn't love, doesn't get involved, and is terribly lonely. Then, he dies.

A quirky reaper named Mei picks him up and brings him to Charon's Crossing. A Tea Shop in the middle of the forest maned by Hugo Freeman, also known as the ferryman. Wallace is tethered to this way house and is supposed to come to terms with who he was before crossing to what comes after.

The triumph of Under Whispering Door is in its characters. T.J. Klune does a wonderful job of filling a book that could sound morbid with wondrous light. The found family element is superb. Hugo is such a pure soul, you want to sit down and have tea with him. Mei is fierce and loyal. Nelson (Hugo's ghost grandad) and Apollo (Hugo's ghost dog) bring comic relief.

However, I wished there was more to the ultimate message of the book. Don't get me wrong. This book is funny and emotional, by the end of it I was so glad I was able to read this story. But, it's also a bit cliche. It's almost a collage of greek mythology, Neil Gaiman, The Good Place, and many many other references. There's a lot going on, but it's also skin deep.

I loved seeing Wallace grow, but we get little insight into his life before coming to the tea shop, aside from the uptight lawyer caricature. There's another secondary character that is revealed to have had such a profound life filled with details, and I wondered why the same wasn't done for Wallace. I know that the important thing really was about what happened after his death, but sometimes more context can bring even more emotion to a plot, and I think it would have been the case here.

Under the Whispering Door is a magically wonderful book, that will make you laugh, ponder, cry, and appreciate the tiny moments of joy in life. It's not perfect, it's not original, but it's a good time nonetheless.

At his own funeral, Wallace realizes that he's dead. He gets escorted to a tea shop by a reaper, Mei. There he meets Hugo, the tea shop owner who gives him room and time to be ready to move on to the afterlife. But as Wallace never really lived, it's going to take him some time.

Most people are going to start reading this and comparing it to the Cerulean Sea. This is a mistake. The author might be the same, but this book deals with accepting death. As Cerulean Sea deals with children and, therefore, a hopeful future, this deals with accepting that your hopeful future is over. If it sounds painful, that's because it is, but it's a good pain.

Klune is excellent when writing characters and settings. The people are lovely. They have an infinite amount of patience when dealing with people with grief. The location is cozy and warm.

Review based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

This book is slightly different from what I’m used to reading. But it was a really well written book. I loved the overall point and theme of the story. It’s very interesting to see the main character go from a snobby jerk to someone who has to accept death or even what it means to be alive, This novel brought a new perspective to me. To appreciate what I have now when I’m alive. The love story without the novel seemed a little weird to me. I couldn’t really understand what had happened but nonetheless it was a decent book. I do believe it was drawn out a lot and could of been cut down a few pages. A lot of it seemed repetitive in a way but that was only at certain parts overall it kept me in tuned and interested in the book and that’s all that matters.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for honest review

Under the Whispering Door manages to deliver a thought-provoking story about the complexity of grief and death in a way that made me laugh as much as I cried. Once again TJ Klune created a story that had me hooked from the very first page. The characters felt so real and I loved reading both their banter and their deep conversations. I would love to be able to sit down and have a cup of tea with Hugo. Wallace’s character growth throughout the story was incredible to watch and I was rooting for him every step of the way. Everything from the setting to the characters radiated warmth and made me reflect on life.

This story was such a joy to read and I never wanted to put it down. The vibe is similar to The House in the Cerulean Sea yet it leans more towards thought-provoking than heartwarming. Though, of course, both books include elements that are thought-provoking and heartwarming. I was incredibly impressed by some of the discussions that the characters had and their ability to make me think about the topics of death, grief, and what comes next.

I don't know how much I can say about this book other than the fact that I loved it. If you are at all interested in this book I would suggest you jump in knowing as little about the story as possible. Allow every moment of this book to come as a pleasant surprise. I would say, as a note to the publisher, I felt like the plot description gave away a bit too much of the story. As someone who has stopped reading most book descriptions for fear of being spoiled, I was frustrated that this description mentioned events that happen quite late in the story.

I loved this book and I would recommend it to everyone. You will not be disappointed!

Thank you Netgalley and the publishing house for a chance to read an ARC of this book!
This is a wondrously queer, exquisitely written book! The gorgeously illustrated cover says it all! T. J. Klune is a master of words and wit even when addressing heavier topics. The prose matched with the characterization and the setting which draws the reader in from the very first page. This was an emotional and fantastical read that I couldn’t put down!

This was breathtaking.

I’ve seen Klune’s work all over the internet, with nothing but rave reviews for his previous novel. I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, but after seeing advanced copies available for his latest one, I had to go for it. Thank you so much to NetGalley for the EARC in exchange for an honest review!

The story follows Wallace, a man who dies. He is taken by his Reaper, Mei, to a tea shop in which he is given time to come to terms with his death and find his way onto the next phase - through the whispering door. (I got major ‘The Good Place’ vibes when reading this, which from my view is high praise indeed.) There are a mixture of interesting, complex and memorable characters featured, such as Nelson, Apollo and Hugo - but also the minor characters such as Nancy, Desdemona and the Manager made a significant impact despite only fleeting appearances.

I loved that this book somehow managed to be funny, cute, quaint, and comforting, but also heartbreaking. I got warm fuzzy feelings whilst reading, but also got my heart shattered. It’s the first time in a long time I’ve had to put a book down and have a cry. And I’m not talking about a single tear down my cheek; it was a full-on ugly cry. This is also the first book I’ve ever read with a trigger warning disclaimer at the start, which was really touching and very much appreciated.

Honestly, I can see why TJ Klune has received so much acclaim now, and I am now well and truly on that hype train. This is easily one of the best novels I’ve read all year. I can’t wait to buy a physical copy.