Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune 3 stars (steeplechase)

[Rachel N.]

Wallace realizes he's dead when he shows up at his own funeral. Mei, who is a reaper, appears and takes Wallace to Charon's Tea House which is run by Hugo, a ferryman. Hugo is there to ease Wallace and other dead people to what comes next. When they are ready dead people can travel through a door at the top of the tea shop. My main problem with the book is that the whole ferryman system didn't make a lot of sense. With how many people that die every day there would need to be a lot more ferrymen. The book is also very dismissive of religion. Any dead people who show up talking about God or heaven are just told that's not right with no other explanation given. I liked the four main characters, five if we count the ghost dog, but I just didn't connect with them as much as I did the characters in The House in the Cerulean Sea.