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Under the Whispering Door

T.J. Klune

Start date: September 1, 2021

Finish date: September 30, 2021

Discussion: Book of the Month

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Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

Jul 25, 2022 Ellen-Arwen Tristram rated it really liked it

Shelves: buddy-read, audio-book

"It’s never enough, is it? Time. We always think we have so much of it, but when it really counts, we don’t have enough at all."

This was a really touching and beautiful read. I love TJ Klune's style and I'd like to read more! It's a bit of a deceptive read in some ways because the plot is so gentle (I even thought at one point that this was perhaps a character portrait rather than a bog-standard novel) but actually deals with some really big topics. Big and difficult topics - life, death, love, ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Aug 25, 2021 Melanie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: gay-rep, bi-rep, owned

4.75 Stars

Content warnings at end of review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor/Forge Books for an arc of this book.

Wallace is not a good person. All he cares about is the bottom line at his work as an attorney, and not at all about the people he steps on along the way. But when he dies suddenly and discovers there is a life after death, Wallace will learn things that he never understood during his actual life, and with the help of his new friends (a ferryman, a reaper, and a ghost) he will grow in w ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 22, 2023 Toshita rated it it was amazing

Oh my god this book was so good. Putting all of the religious/philosophical death discussions aside because that's a whole discussion that I can't even get into in a written format. I loved this book. I was promised a really good redemption arc and this book delivered. I was promised found family and this book delivered. The premise of this book was interesting but the book focused more on relationships and how they are built rather than death in my opinion. Seeing the relationships grow between ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Feb 21, 2025 Priya rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2025

This is such a brilliant heartfelt exploration of death, loss, grief, love, second chances and hope. It has the kind of characters you wish were in your own life helping you come to terms with all the complex truths of living,dying and what comes after that!

Wallace Price was not much liked and he didn't much care, obsessed as he was with his law firm and successful career. When he finds himself hovering in a church at his own funeral, he is stunned to realise he is dead and then to see that jus This is such a brilliant heartfelt exploration of death, loss, grief, love, second chances and hope. It has the kind of characters you wish were in your own life helping you come to terms with all the complex truths of living,dying and what comes after that!

Wallace Price was not much liked and he didn't much care, obsessed as he was with his law firm and successful career. When he finds himself hovering in a church at his own funeral, he is stunned to realise he is dead and then to see that just five people are attending, including one woman he has never met. When she informs him she is the reaper and leads him to a peculiar looking tea house in a strange village he has never been to, and he meets the owner Hugo, who is tasked with ferrying him to the afterlife, Wallace goes through all the stages of grief beginning with staunch denial. Gradually he comes to accept his new reality and reflects on the mistakes he made when alive and thinks about what changes he needs to make to be a better person at least in death and to wherever he is going next.

Given the heavy themes dealt with in this book, it was such a pleasant surprise to find so much humour in it. There are laugh out loud moments as well as heartbreaking ones as those Hugo helps learn to move on and their loved ones struggle to let go.

Wallace is much affected by the tender way in which Hugo handles such a difficult responsibility and the ways in which he eases the path for everyone who needs him. His transformation into a person who cares about those he hurt and wants to make amends, and regrets the kind of person he was in life, was very well done. His interactions with Mei, the reaper, as well as others in the house, both living and ghosts, were great fun. The undeniable tug he feels towards Hugo was really sweet. Their conversations and the way their relationship developed despite the impossibility of their situation were some of the best parts of the book.

The understanding and empathy this chosen family have for each other is beautiful in a way that's unique to this author. All of his books portray a world the reader would love to be a part of because of the wonderful people in it and this one is much the same. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review