This was delightful. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought the blurb sounded interesting enough. I decided to start the new year with this one, not realizing what a great choice it'd be. It had Christmas Carol vibes with the main character realizing how poorly he had been living his life. I liked that this was different in the way that Wallace *is* dead and there's no way to change that fact.

Instead, this is a story of a man that after his life is over, he begins to realize how much he wasted what he had. He doesn't become bitter or depressed, but finally starts making his afterlife worthwhile by forging close friendships with the people who can see him at the cafe. This was just so sweet. I rooted for this little found family and I thought the romance that bloomed started nice and slow, just how I like it.

I've read Extraordinaries, House in the Cerulean Sea, and now this one.... and this one has been my favorite T.J. Klune work thus far.

My review will never do this book justice, but here we go. This is my first book by Klune although I’ve heard so many amazing things about The House in the Cerulean Sea. That is why I requested this book and it definitely did not disappoint.
From the publisher: “ 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.”
I love curmudgeon books. I loved learning the lessons along with Wallace that happened after his death. I loved the author’s take on what happens after death. This book was heartwarming and sad all at the same time and I just don’t know what else to say about it except go read this book!

Thank you #netgalley and #Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an advanced copy of #underthewhisperingdoor in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book so much. I cried. I laughed, I adored every word of this book. I wish there was a sequel to this because I need to know what happens with Wallace and Hector and May.

I listened to this on audio as well and the audio just truly enhanced each individual character's personalities. I loved the ending of this story too. This was such an endearing story of growth, love, human decency, and overcoming the unknown. Because that is what makes us uncomfortable and what we truly fear.

his is a charming book with extremely detailed imagery and a satisfying ending. It's one of those rare books that you want to clutch to your heart and keep there forever. The opening is hilarious, but then when Wallace first arrived at the tea shop, I got bogged down in all the description. It felt like the author was very aware of the colorful whimsy of the tale, and he was leaning into it, hard. It was a bit heavy-handed. I soon got over it, though, and I felt like I was right there with the characters in the little off-kilter tea shop in the woods.

The book was an emotional rollercoaster, in a good way. At one point, I laughed so hard I almost spit out my tea (how can you not drink tea while reading this?). At other points, I bawled my eyes out. I loved this book. I'll definitely be reading more TJ Klune in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of "Under the Whispering Door" in exchange for an unbiased review. I will be upfront and admit that I discovered TJ Klune this year with his amazing book "House in the Cerulean Sea" After loving that book I went and bought his two YA Extraordinaries novels and loved them as well. So reading "Whispering Door" was a must. However it took awhile for me to read this book. I have experienced some loss and grief this year and that made me avoid this book after I first received it. I wanted to be in a better headspace. This became my last read of the 2021 year. I'm so glad I did end on this book because the subject matter is pretty heavy but the love and comfort present in "Cerulean Sea" is also in this book.

The plot revolves around a cold lawyer named Wallace who passes away near the beginning of the book due to a heart attack. When he finds himself at his own funeral, he is confronted with the type of life he lived At first I felt this book had hints of "A Christmas Carol"....maybe hints but that is all, really. Wallace meets Mei, a reaper figure who takes him along on the next stage of his journey. This ends up being a type of 'halfway' place which actually resides in a weird building that acts as a tea shop. There he meets the empathetic owner of the shop, Hugo. Hugo teaches him about the door he will need to go through to complete his journey but assures him that he doesn't need to go through that door until he is ready. Along with a ghost grandfather and a ghost dog, Mei and Hugo help change the person Wallace is.

The story is magical and beautiful and I don't want to spoil anything else about the book. But I will tell you that I laughed out loud and I cried out loud as well. I want to say that I still enjoyed "Cerulean Sea" a bit more but I'm not sure if that is really true. Maybe I am partial to that one because it was actually my first book. Either way I can't recommend this book more.

This read was just magicial, so great to be back in the pages and familiar writing from TJ Klune. The characters, relationships and all within a magical world had me racing through this book looking for the happy ending.

Heavy topics told with warmth, whimsy, and lightness. At times this book was laugh at loud funny. It also made me cry. When I finished the books I was left speechless and quiet to ponder everything in the book. While predictable this book packed a punch. Part of it was loss, grief, and relief felt so real. Add in found family elements and this book was perfect. Well not perfect I didn't like how the book tired to tare down concepts of Christianity but other than that I loved the book.

Brilliant author T.J. Klune is back with another emotional read. He's the author that brought us The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Extraordinaries. Now, we get to read Under the Whispering Door.

Wallace Price was admittedly not the best of people in life. You'd think that would make the afterlife less shocking for him – but you'd be wrong. He was pretty surprised the day he dropped dead; that much is certain.

Wallace's journey on this earth isn't quite over, as he needs to come to terms with his death. This involves spending time at a tea shop run by a man named Hugo. It's Huge's job to help those that have passed make peace with their new status and cross through the whispering door.


“The first time you share tea, you are a stranger. The second time you share tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share tea, you become family.”

Having read the rest of T.J. Klune's backlog, it is safe to say that I had reasonably high expectations for Under the Whispering Door (along with probably every other reader on the planet). And wow! My already high expectations were blown away!

To be clear, before sitting down to read Under the Whispering Door, I would strongly recommend you get yourself a cozy blanket, your cuddliest pet (if you have one), and a box of tissues because this book is going to give you all of the feels. Seriously. You've been warned.

Wallace should win an award for the most character development I've ever seen within a single book. He went from a character I really didn't like all that much (putting it kindly) to a character I wanted to hug and protect with all of my being.


“Death isn’t a final ending, Wallace. It is an ending, sure, but only to prepare you for a new beginning.”

He isn't the only character I fell in love with through the course of Under the Whispering Door. Klune is a genius when it comes to creating lovable characters, and I, for one, cannot wait to see what character he's going to create next that will utterly destroy my heart.

Words cannot express how much I loved this novel or how deeply it hit me. I would recommend this novel to anyone willing to listen, especially those looking for a fantasy novel that will touch the heart.

Wallace has died. He's met by a Reaper and everything. But then he's taken to a ... tea shop? it's not quite how he pictured the afterlife. Turns out he has not quite moved on all the way, so he's "stuck" in this tea shop for 7 days, to give him time to process and let go of everything he'll be leaving behind.

I love Klune's world-building, his quirky characters, how he addresses love and loss, and grief in this book. I did not love it quite as much as I loved House in the Cerulean Sea, though. It just did not grab and hold me in the same way.

I was highly anticipating this book because I really enjoyed TJ Klune's A House in the Cerulean Sea (though it had its own issues). I think TJ Klune does a really great job in the way he is able to construct characters that I get deeply and emotionally attached to. I love their character arcs specifically and how I feel as a reader that I get to grow alongside them. I think I'm officially a fan of the grump/sunshine trope solely because of his books haha,

I went into this book basically blind, and I found the premise and topic of the book was very important and it made me think of my own questions about mortality and death. I know that can sound gruesome, but as someone who wishes to go into healthcare one day, I find that it's not a topic that's really talked about or taught outwardly in medical school even despite being surrounded by people who may be close to the end of their time in life. I found the ending to be hopeful and it changed my own views on how I viewed death.

I think the only downsides I found in this novel were that certain phrases though I understood why needed to empathize were just repeated a bit too much. I would see the same line for line phrases not just 1-2 times, but 5-6 times. That wasn't too big of a deal, just a writing style that I didn't mesh with. The other thing that kind of ended up bothering me a little was the concept of how you're stronger the more you are able to go through hardships and come out the other side (in context to suicide and mental health specifically). It can be triggering to people with mental illnesses to be told that their mental state is seen as a cowards' way out and how that it's easier to be susceptible to it rather than trying to overcome it. This concept I don't think had ill intentions but came off sounding a little arrogant or above others which I didn't appreciate.

Overall, I did end up liking this book and will probably be picking up more Klune books in the future.

Read this a while ago and loved it! Read it while I was at a really sad point in my life and it made me happy! It forever has a place on my shelf! ❤️

Made me laugh, made me cry, made me believe in love. What an incredible, beautiful, heart-stopping work. I can't stop recommending this to people.

Just loved this book so much!!!! Welcome to Charon's Crossing.
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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I loved the cover art, kudos there. It adds to the whimsical vibe of the book. If you’ve read The House in the Cerulean Sea, Door feels very similar.

But this book wasn’t for me. It felt long and drawn out in places. And after Wallace’s death, I kept thinking of Scrooge and A Christmas Carol, especially after what happens at the end (trying not to give away spoilers).

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this advanced reader’s eCopy.

Touching second novel from an interesting author. Important examination about life and death and grief.

This was a great story and I have grown to truly love TJ Klune's work. This story taught lesson and was thought provoking. I did feel it was rather slow paced in the middle and I struggled to get through it quickly, it was a good pace to reflect on my own life while reading it.

Absolutely fantastic. A wonderful follow up to The House in the Cerulean Sea. Delightful characters, fantastically imaginative and compulsively readable. TJ Klune fast is becoming one of my favorite authors.

Under the Whispering Door is an exploration of where we go When we die. When Wallace- a selfish corporate lawyer dies suddenly of a heart attack, he is met with an enter purgatory. He never imagined an impossible tea house is the answer to the age old question "where do we go when we die?"

Is it possible to review this and not compare it to house in the cerulean sea? because it FEELS impossible. I liked the easy whimsy of House in the Cerulean Sea and the way the darker story elements complimented that whimsy. Where that ease of whimsy carried me through THITCS, it let me down in Under the Whispering Door. It felt a little bit more forced and almost cheesy. It took me forever to finish this novel. The pace was slow and by the time I reached the conclusion I felt like I had fell out of love with the characters a little bit. Everything was lost in the amount of superfluous comings and goings of this story. The conclusion I came to after reflecting on this story a little bit is I would have loved this as a short story, but it was pretty low-key in plot to account for almost 400 pages!

I enjoyed the creativity of this story, and although it was a lot quieter than THITCS, I did find some profoundness in the stillness of this book! I think I just came into this story expecting more plot than I was faced with, and whether that is on me for coming in with undue expectations or the author, is up for debate. I am still lookin forward to more TJ Klune novels, this was not able to hit the spot the way House in The Cerulean Sea did!

Poetic and wise, the reader almost doesn't realize they have stumbled into profound universal truths for the delightful characters and engaging dialogue. I could not put it down and I never wanted it to end.

Simple perfection from TJ Klune. It was a little slow to start but once I got into it, I loved it. As far as I am concerned any book by TJ Klune is a winner and a must read.