Audiobook
English language
Published Oct. 28, 2021 by Tor.
Witty, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is a gift for troubled times. TJ Klune brings us a warm hug of a story about a man who spent his life at the office - and his afterlife building a home.
From the author of joyous New York Times bestseller The House in the Cerulean Sea.
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 sparsely-attended funeral, Wallace is outraged. But he begins to suspect she’s right, and he is in fact dead. Then when Hugo, owner of a most peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace reluctantly accepts the truth.
Yet even in death, he refuses to abandon his life – even though Wallace spent all of it working, correcting …
Witty, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is a gift for troubled times. TJ Klune brings us a warm hug of a story about a man who spent his life at the office - and his afterlife building a home.
From the author of joyous New York Times bestseller The House in the Cerulean Sea.
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 sparsely-attended funeral, Wallace is outraged. But he begins to suspect she’s right, and he is in fact dead. Then when Hugo, owner of a most peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace reluctantly accepts the truth.
Yet even in death, he refuses to abandon his life – even though Wallace spent all of it working, correcting colleagues and hectoring employees. He’d had no time for frivolities like fun and friends. But as Wallace drinks tea with Hugo and talks to his customers, he wonders if he was missing something.
The feeling grows as he shares jokes with the resident ghost, manifests embarrassing footwear and notices the stars. So when he’s given one week to pass through the door to the other side, Wallace sets about living a lifetime in just seven days.
Good characters, interesting plot/world. Nothing too stressful happens, but lots of intraospective conversations and a great sense of what it means to be a friend.
I loved House on the Cerulean Sea, but this one was just okay. Nothing bad about it per se, but it just wasn't as captivating for me as the other.
I loved House on the Cerulean Sea, but this one was just okay. Nothing bad about it per se, but it just wasn't as captivating for me as the other.
This is the first book I read for the book club my friends and I have now. We're following the illumicrate calendar. Reading the description, I expected this to be a fun romp but it's really more of a slow romance. Unfortunately, I found almost all characters annoying. Mei (the reaper) verges on manic pixie dream girl and Nelson comes off as pretty mean. Even though Wallace is very unsympathetic I couldn't help but feel exasperated on his behalf as Mei and Nelson weren't very helpful or were even having him on, given that finding out you're dead is a difficult situation to be in. They grow more sympathetic over time, though. After the initial excitement the book is rather slow moving and I lost interest. Not sure I would have finished it if it wasn't a book club book. The pace picks up again in the second half and …
This is the first book I read for the book club my friends and I have now. We're following the illumicrate calendar. Reading the description, I expected this to be a fun romp but it's really more of a slow romance. Unfortunately, I found almost all characters annoying. Mei (the reaper) verges on manic pixie dream girl and Nelson comes off as pretty mean. Even though Wallace is very unsympathetic I couldn't help but feel exasperated on his behalf as Mei and Nelson weren't very helpful or were even having him on, given that finding out you're dead is a difficult situation to be in. They grow more sympathetic over time, though. After the initial excitement the book is rather slow moving and I lost interest. Not sure I would have finished it if it wasn't a book club book. The pace picks up again in the second half and it gets very moving towards the end. I liked that many characters were queer and that that was treated as something normal and accepted.
Still unsure how I feel about the version of afterlife depicted in this book.
Did I cry? Yes. Was it worth it? Also yes.
4.35 I laughed (a lot). I cried (sad, angry, happy). I would do it all again. Read my review here.
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