Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Under the Whispering Door

Slow start to this book but well worth the incredible ending. Klune creates complex characters that you can’t help but fall in love with. The plot of this novel is mystical and unbelievable while also being realistic, warm, and homey. My new favorite understanding of what happens when we die — this book is reassuring and helps us think about a topic that can be scary and confusing through a new lens.

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headachesince03's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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batwinggoth's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The book has a slow start, but the delivery of main character's struggles and inner monologue are written whimsically and humorous which is a great balance to the dark and heavy themes of the novel. The characters are all written well with great detail to each. The story's narrative is well encompassing of both predictable story progression and the pleasantly unexpected that pull you even deeper into the story being told.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Car accident, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual harassment, and Self harm

The book is centered around dead people and meeting people from all walks of life as they die in various ways - understanding and helping them process their dead and pass. Most characters are complicated and real with great detail of their emotions, feelings, and inner dialogue and they process their life and what happened to them or what they're currently going through. There's a child

who died from terminal illness whose mother is actively grieving and constantly visiting the tea shop (central setting of the book).

There's a character who we meet who was

murdered in an ally who recounts his death and expresses his extreme anger drastically.

There's a character who was bullied and emotionally abused

by his parents and experiences a sudden loss of his partner in the hospital and ends up dying by suicide due to his overwhelming grief.

The main character begins as an extremely toxic, workaholic and overall extremely bitter man who had been once married to a woman, the both of whom where extremely toxic and gaslighting towards each other in the end. The sexual harassment

is only in reference to a man and a woman who visit their tea shop often and constantly hits on Hugo in inappropriate ways and in one instance the man even says he'll 'wear him down' despite Hugo already rejecting him multiple times.

The animal death

is only mentioned because a main character, Apollo, is a ghost dog who had passed.

I may have missed other important instances of tagged content, but hopefully this helps give folks a better idea about the themes who need it to determine whether reading the book is right for them. I'd say while it's not impossible to skip past some graphic subjects, death and grief are unavoidable and I would suggest you not read the book if you are actively in mourning yourself unless you find reading about other people's grief and experiences cathartic in processing your own grief.

pizzasprite's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Under the Whispering Door was lighthearted and cute, but ultimately it just didn't work for me. It felt more like a string of meandering short stories, rather than a cohesive, 3-act story. The romance between Wallace and Hugo felt forced, which was a huge letdown. I wish Wallace's past was explored more, to find out why he turned out the way he did; for example, his law firm partners are mentioned once, but we never find out how they met Wallace, what they were like, etc. The abundance of side characters was extremely distracting: characters such as the fortune teller, the health inspector, and the

murder victim

ultimately added nothing to the plot. I liked the spiritual/magical elements of the book, such as the role of reapers and ferrymen, and the speculation of what happens in the afterlife. I also thought the plot revolving around the

character who committed suicide

very sympathetic and understanding of mental illness and grief. I'm so sad that I didn't like this one, because I love House in the Cerulean Sea.

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the_crooked_neighbor's review against another edition

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challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The author gives fair warning of all the triggers but I really wanted to read it given how much I liked House on the Cerulean Sea. I should not have read this book. But I did so here is my review. It is really slow to start and then moves with the anxious pace that Wallace himself feels at the end. It was hard for me to get through because of how long it took to get into. If you can get past the hard topics and the slow beginning I do think it pays off to some degree.

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cluckieduck's review

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emotional lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Death isn't a final ending...it is an ending, sure, but only to prepare you for a new beginning.

I love me some TJ - while this is my least favourite behind the Green Creek series and The House in the Cerulean Sea, it was still an enjoyable read, and touched on the finer elements of death & grief that I found missing from The Midnight Library.

Our narrator, Wallace, has died. He is brought to a tea shop where he meets Hugo, the ferryman tasked with assisting Wallace's transition from living to dead, ultimately to assist him with crossing over to the otherside. With the help of Hugo & a supporting cast of characters in the tea shop (including the most wonderful dog), Wallace comes to realize that he may not have been the very best person while living. While death is eternal, his time at the tea shop is finite and he must decide how he can rectify who he was in life to who he is in death.

Bravery meant the possibility of death. And wasn't that funny? Because it took being dead for Wallace to finally be brave.

I think I would have given 5* had the ending gone the other direction - I was waiting for the full-blown emotional gut-punch that TJ is wont to provide. All in all, it's a lovely found-family story.

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laurataylor's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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cakrolik's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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