4.5/5 - I was beyond ecstatic to receive an early copy of this upcoming novel! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC.

In this story, a grumpy lawyer named Wallace Price dies suddenly of a heart attack. He is picked up by his Reaper, Mei, who escorts him to a tea house which is his way-station before crossing over. At the tea house, Wallace meets Hugo (his ferryman) who is tasked with answering all of his questions before escorting him to his afterlife. In spite of Wallace's anger, he begins to learn that death can be a start of new beginning.

Initially, this book felt like Dickenson's A Christmas Carol, but it becomes so much more than a redemption story. For fans of Cerulean Sea, there is lots to love about this new book and there are some major differences. The characters are witty, genuine and very memorably written. They each pull at your heart strings and I cried (aka wept with tears rolling down on the pages) a few times.

Alternatively, the subject matter of this is very dark; there is even a note from the author at the beginning regarding triggers. It is a slower paced book focusing on character development and every page and detail was worth it.

I have trouble expressing all of what this book is and will be for some people. It's beautiful, touching, emotionally heavy and full of love and hope.

“...Life is messy and terrible and wonderful, all at the same time.” – Nelson Freeman.
This saying sums up this uplifting story about a life spent stuck in a rut and building a life that makes a difference in your feeling of happiness and sorrow. A place called “home”.

The theme of the book is about death, fear, grief and acceptance. In essence, it has touched my heart in many ways through those hard-hitting messages it send. It has brought me good tears especially in the latter part. The whole storyline is truly heartwarming and moving because the author has beautifully written the formula with a great balance of philosophy, humor, queer love story and compassion.

A few takeaways I took for myself from the book: redefine oneself to become who we are meant to be. At the same time, be smart enough to use the gifts we have to help other people.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc. I wanted to read Under the Whispering Door because I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea so much. I had high hopes going into this one.

Overall this book was not for me. I struggled with the message of this story and couldn’t get past the unbalanced tone. The book attempted to be both cute and dark, but the mix of the two was off in my opinion. I think this is a story that could have benefited from omitting the romance and focused more on the personal journey. I was disappointed with parts of the ending and didn’t fully understand the villain. However, one of the side characters, Nelson, was a favorite. He brought a sense of humor, warmth, and meaning to the story.

There are many trigger warnings for this book. Warnings for loss of a child, murder, suicide, loss of parents, and loss of a pet. I believe the author did his best to handle these topics with care.

Reasons others may enjoy this book:
-It has a quirky sense of humor
-There is a cute tea shop
-A spunky old man ghost + a dog ghost
-Explores the meaning of life and the afterlife

“I like the dead more than the living. Dead people usually don’t care about the little annoyances of life.” “He hadn’t thought about it that way. He’d give anything for those annoyances again. Hindsight was a bitch of a thing.”

TJ Klune writes the SWEETEST characters. By the end of his books you want to be part of their “framilies”.

Under the Whispering Door introduces us to Wallace Price. He’s practically the Ebenezer Scrooge of the legal world, & runs his life with an iron fist. Upon his death(heart attack) he is discovered wandering around his own funeral as an apparition by Mei, a reaper. She takes him back to Charon’s Crossing Tea & Treats to assist him in crossing over to the other side.

Wallace is not prepared for what he finds at Charon’s Crossing. He is met by Hugo, the ferryman for the dead. But Wallace refuses to accept that he is dead. He digs his heels in and refuses to pass through the door to the other side. So he begrudgingly sets up shop with Mei & Hugo as he figures out how to exist in this new world.

This book was like a hug from beginning to end. I want to visit Charon’s Crossing & drink tea with Hugo & pet Apollo & bake scones with Mei & cozy up to the fire & listen to Nelson’s stories. This was a beautiful world that I’ll want to revisit again.

4 stars! Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the advanced copy!

This is the story of Wallace Price, who is a lawyer at a top firm in his state. Nobody likes him, he has no friends, and all he does is work. He's somewhat like a more modern version of Ebenezer Scrooge at the beginning of A Christmas Carol. When suddenly he's at his own funeral, and a Reaper named Mei says she's to deliver him to the ferryman, he ends up at a tea shop run by a man named Hugo. The tea shop is a waystation where Wallace is to try and figure himself out before he goes to what is next, and Hugo is the ferryman who helps him along the way. 

This was a lovely book, much like I was hoping, given my feelings about Cerulean Sea. It has that same vibe, and although there aren't any children in this one to instantly latch onto, I still found myself cheering for Wallace although he doesn't start out as a very good person. I loved Hugo and Mei almost immediately, and so this one was so easy to just get settled down with for hours. The last quarter or so kept me up into the wee hours as I had to find out what happened. 

My feels were jostled several times, as this one deals with some tough topics at times, as a book whose theme centers around death would. I thought that these things were presented with care, though others who have a difficult time with themes like suicide or the death of a child may have more trouble than I did. Some of the characters here have traumatic backstories. 

This is a great example of the found family trope yet again from TJ Klune, and I absolutely loved it. I would definitely recommend that anyone who enjoyed Cerulean Sea read this one. It's another great example of a book that leaves me feeling happy and hopeful for the future.

Content warnings for literally every kind of death, but especially child death, cancer, animal death, and suicide.

For fans of The Good Place and A Christmas Carol, I guess? Maybe even Dead Like Me, if there are buyers who remember that show. And also, of course, House in the Cerulean Sea, although this one is definitely more overtly dark than that one. Personally, I had a hard time feeling emotionally connected to the main characters. I honestly felt the most connected to a bit character, and to the main side characters. This one felt pretty intentionally emotionally manipulative - like talking to a grieving mom about things only she and her dead daughter shared to get her to accept her child's death - and I'm not quite sure how I personally feel about that, but I have a feeling that other people are going to really like this one because it's some Up-type plotting, and people loved that.

Through death, TJ Klune talks about life but not only. He talks about fears, love, vulnerability, anger and tea.

During his entire life, Wallace Price was an awful human being. His marriage has failed, he has no friends and is dedicated only to his work, where he is successful but nothing more as his employees hate him.

Thanks to Nelson (an old ghost), Hugo (a ferryman) and Mei (his reaper), it is in death that he will be fulfilled and realize that existing is essential and can take many forms.

Grief is approached in a gentle way, in a warm house over tea. Each client or ghost can find an ear to talk to, but also a silent presence in Hugo Freeman. He is full of empathy and dedicates his life to his job as a ferryman, in his tea shop where people are only passing through.

Mei is a strong woman, very honest and ready to fight to help other people in death, whatever they went through.

Nelson is Hugo's grandad. He decided not to walk out the door and find his inner peace to stay with his grandson to ensure his happiness. He teases everyone and is not afraid to use his cane to assert his thoughts and calm down people who step out of line.

All together, they form an unusual but supportive family. They will turn Wallace's existence upside down.

This story is profond and truly warmed my heart. I was moved to tears, I smiled and laughed. It was beautiful.

Wallace is an attorney. He’s not a very nice attorney. He’s not a very nice human in general. The book opens with Wallace firing one of his employees in a brutal manner. A few days later Wallace, who is only in his 40’s, dies unexpectedly. Wallace then meets Mei and Hugo. These people (who are alive) have the job of helping the dead transition to the next phase of existence. Wallace is having none of it. That’s funny/ironic because he is no longer in control of, well, anything. Wallace has to figure out how to accept what has happened to him and reconcile what a trash human he was while alive.
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The book is very serious. It deals with death, suicide, and grief in many forms. It deals with the heartache of regrets and missed opportunities. That being said, it is very hopeful about the ability to change course and do better. It’s never too late to turn over a new leaf.
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I liked the book very much. However, some of the mechanics of this afterlife evaded me but it didn’t stop me from understanding the gist and being able to enjoy it. I also appreciate that the queer characters are not treated as caricatures or side kicks. They are whole, complete beings.

I thought this book was okay. For the first part of the book the narrator rubbed me the wrong way with his negative attitude. However, I was glad to see the plot work out throughout the book!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

Wallace Price is just a not liked human. His focus is on his law firm.

The story is about life, death, and the in between. For me the book was slow going but good.

He meets Hugo which is there to help him to the other side. His journey is faced with grief, loss, and plain old being too late. I think a lot of us can relate to the being too late or the what if’s of our past.

I adored the setting of the tea shop. How unique was that? This book did make me feel many emotions and left me with a smile on my face.

Absolutely adored the side characters as well.

Kudos to the author for a great story

This book tore my heart out and handed it back to me on a plate, and I loved every second of it.

I went into this book with high hopes after The House in the Cerulean Sea and they were mightily exceeded! TJ Klune managed to write a beautifully insightful and deep book focused on death without being too heavy on the reader. Under the Whispering Door made me laugh and smile too many times to count, and even made me sob! It's rare for a book to evoke such emotions from me but I found myself so in love with the characters that I dreaded reaching the end of this book (which was a conflicting feeling considering I could barely put it down!)

Overall, Klune delivered a heartwarming story that deserves all 5 stars!

TJ Klune has managed to write yet another wonderful, loving story.

Under the Whispering Door is a story about Wallace. In life, Wallace was an asshole lawyer with no friends. After death, he's brought to a way station to prepare to cross over, and there he learns the value of friendship, companionship and how to live more fully (despite being dead).

The thing I like the most with Klune's stories is the obvious warmth and how the characters interact and support each other. This is another marvellous story and I highly recommend it.

Note: Thanks to Netgalley and Tor books for providing a free advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book!

Wallace Price was a lawyer and a very disliked human. He is solely focused on his law practice. When he suddenly dies and finds himself watching his funeral (attended by only 4 people), he meets Mei, a reaper who brings him to a “way station” between life and death, a tea shop. There he meets Hugo, the ferryman who will guide him to the afterlife when he is ready. The book follows Wallace as he processes his life in the tea shop and gets to know Wallace and the others who live there, including an adorable ghost dog.

The side characters were great, specifically Mei and Hugo’s grandpa. Both were spunky and added a lot of humor. I also enjoyed the plethora of deep quotes and funny one liners all on one page. The book also discussed grief from a variety of angles, some funny and others soul-wrenching, which I appreciated.

It was definitely a slower-paced book than I expected, and took me about 50-60% of the book to get fully invested. Not much plot was going on until over halfway through the book, other than the exploring of Wallace’s character and explanation of the tea shop. I also wish we could’ve seen more from the romance because seemed rushed at times. I saw what Wallace saw in Hugo but not so much the other way around.

While this book wasn’t what I expected, I’ll still be looking forward to TJ Klune’s next book and reading more in his backlog!

if you want to be an emotional wreck, read this book. i couldn’t put it down. it was magical and the way grief was explored was just so interesting. i loved all the characters (especially Mei and Nelson) and how they found family within each other. it was so good.

With themes of death and romance, this sounded like exactly the type of book I tend to avoid. I have a low pain threshold when it comes to being emotionally destroyed by books and I’ve spent weeks mourning novels in the past, and this sounded exactly like it was designed to tear your heart in two. But it’s T J Klune. So, I read it.

Wallace Price cares for work and very little else in life, until he kicks the bucket unexpectedly. Only after meeting Hugo, a ferryman whose job it is to see him across to the other side, does Wallace discover what it means to be alive.

This book attacked my emotions on so many levels. It deals with grief, loss, and the tragedy of being too late. The painful ‘what ifs’ that we can’t help but inflict on ourselves in retrospect. Luckily it also deals with joy, humour and the beauty of life in equal measure.

I cried because it was sad. I cried because it was happy. I cried because it so perfectly captures what it is to feel. On multiple occasions I found a tear trickle down my cheek but not in the heart-wrenching, ugly-cry that would usually result in a needing to have a time-out and come back to the book when I could face it again. This was more that you become so absorbed that you barely even notice and then your face is wet because you’re crying again.

The setting is a cute, quirky tea shop and there is the whole found family thing that is just as heart warming in this as in The House of the Cerulean Sea. They are similar in feel, but very different stories. But if you enjoyed that, you won’t be disappointed by Under The Whispering Door.

It has all of the feels, my only gripe was it was a bit repetitive at times and there was, in my opinion, too much dialogue. Not everything needs to be said, some things can be shown or left to the imagination, but everything was a ‘why?’ and ‘how?’

The characters grow on you, Wallace is designed to be unlikable at first but goes through some extensive self-discovery, and as he gets to know the other characters the warm fuzzy feelings start to come out.

This is a story about death and dying. But it's also a strory of life, and love, and purpose and belonging. It's a slower, character driven novel. It's a surprise love story that I didn't see coming. They ending was so much better than I thought it was going to be. It made me contemplate both the here and the hereafter.

What a charming story...and treatise on life and death and grief. Enjoyed the characters even more than in The House in the Cerulean Sea. Highly recommend!

TJ Klune has a writing style you don't find every day. This book takes some of the heaviest topics and turns it into such a lovable and fun experience.

Wallace was not the main character I expected. When you first encounter him, he's a Grade A Asshole with a capital A. He is your typical working man who has lost his entire personality to the job. He was once loving, caring, a real person. Then he dies.

Well, thats one way to grip my attention. After finishing chapter one, I needed to read chapter two. Thats a huge sign of great writing.

The book had its ups and downs. At times, the tears were pouring down my face. Other times, I had to slap a hand over my mouth in laughter. Discovering who Wallace was, and who he wanted to be, was a treat. I thought I knew exactly how the plot would go, and I was very wrong. The story had great twists which had me feeling all the emotions. Hugo was a treat from start to finish. The way he felt everything so deeply carried its way into my heart. I wish we saw more of Nelson and Mei. They were deep characters who were not explored nearly as much.

This book was not what I was expecting and more than I could have hoped for. I would recommend this book to all who are looking for a book thats like a breeze of fresh air. I have a hard time dealing with death but this book was a way to make death seem like it was not as big as we make it seem. It looked at death with such a relaxed face that I wish Klune actually had truth behind this world. I appreciate the care in which he approached these subjects. I will be looking out for more of his books in the future.

This is a specific kind of book. A crying book.

Are you in need of a good, long cry? Have I got the book for you! Under the Whispering Door is a mixed bag, but may give you exactly what you're looking for.

The characters are the same as many Hallmark Channel Christmas movies: a man learns the important things in life aren't money and status, but small-town living and family. Yeah, yeah, we know. I love these movies and watch them every December (and all other months of the year), so it's not a bad thing. There are no surprises.

The pacing of the story isn't consistent. Conflict doesn't start until halfway through the book which makes the first half feel monotonous. It could have been trimmed down. The second half is all new characters, drama, and emotional speeches about how they're all there for each other to help them through this difficult time. The barrage of emotional scenes at the end is exhausting. It's like, dude, you're throwing every sad thing into the stew and now it's just too much to swallow.

The writing is the weakest part of this book. There is humor and it's done well in the first half, but the second half is bogged down by too many emotional scenes. All the characters' dialog is similar when waxing poetically about life and death, and they all make too many speeches. I started skimming large chunks of dialogue at the end because I had just read something similar in the previous chapter. Everyone says the "correct" thing. It's all a little too sanitary for a subject that's so messy. But maybe, as a reader, this is what you want to read (hear?) and it's just the right amount of forgiveness needed.

Ultimately, this book is cathartic to read. Just like horror or romance delivers exactly what the reader wants, this book gives the reader a path to letting go and crying.

Wallace is a jerk. He dies. He's taken to a "stop" in his afer-life journey, a tea shop. There he meets Hugo (his afterlife therapist or "ferryman") and Hugo's friends (living and dead) who take him in and help him process his grief. Unexpectedly, Wallace finds the place where he truly belongs and can be the best version of himself. At last he finds a life worth living after his death. When Wallace is finally given a date he must move on, he resolves to help as many people as he can with the time he has left.

This book was a lot. Emotionally. I had to take frequent breaks to process the depth of Klune's writing and cry. A lot of crying. It's a deeply touching read, just like "House in the Cerulean Sea." It is chalk-full of life and death philosophy, wisdom, thought provoking dialogue, and oh so much heart. Just like death does for Wallace, Klune's books actually leave you a better person than you were before you read them. Klune would make a great ferryman himself.

A sweet, star-crossed, gay romance ties all the pieces together. If you like the theme that's it's the family you create in life, rather than the one you are born into, that brings true meaning to your life, this book will strike all the right notes with you too.

Trigger warnings: It's been a hard couple of years so I feel it fair to warn that if death of any kind, but especially by suicide, of a child or of a dog are tough to process right now, just save this one in your TBR for later,