Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

45 reviews

abbiechron's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I thought I had the ending worked out about halfway through the book. I was incredibly wrong, and completely shocked. I read this after The House in the Cerulean Sea, which I HAD guessed the ending correctly, but not with this one.

Klune makes you think. I didn't know what to expect of this book. There were tears, conversations that followed with loved ones, and a tangible hook stinging my heart.

I was somewhat disappointed with the character development. It seemed to happen all at once in the first half of the book, and then the rest was moreso based upon building up to the ending with more of an emphasis on the character interactions and relationships.

By relationships, I mostly meant between Hugo and Wallace. I adored the change in Wallace's heart, but it was almost too predictable in terms of the narrative of horrible-person-turned-lovable and felt very Christmas Carol-esque.

I loved what Nelson and Apollo and Mei added. They were the rainbow to the already warm and welcoming sun shining through the decay and rot of death.

I WAS for sure expecting Nelson to cross by the end (knowing Hugo was in good hands with Wallace; and I honestly thought Nelson was going to take Wallace's place in regards to the "forced" cross that The Manager was planning on enforcing a week after his initial visit), but did not expect Apollo to go with him, that broke my heart...

Was in a way, grateful for the ambiguity of The Manager.

Highly recommend for those ready to involve themselves in this darker read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

Minor: Animal death and Blood

e_claire's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, and Suicide

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

A beautiful read examining grief, love, death, and moving forward all in Klune's usual humorous style. I enjoyed all of the character growth throughout, and liked seeing so many versions of moving forward. Unfortunately, I never quite bought into Wallace as a cruel, horrid character despite the first few chapters because he doesn't seem to stick to that identity for long, which made it hard to buy into his character overall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Chronic illness, Suicide, Animal death, Death of parent, and Child death

jamiebrito's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful relaxing sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Grief, Car accident, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Cancer, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Infidelity

franklola's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Cancer, Chronic illness, Grief, Self harm, Child death, Murder, and Suicide

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Terminal illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Animal death, and Child death

andyparr's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Murder, Child death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

headachesince03's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Body horror, Cancer, Car accident, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Death, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Violence, Abandonment, Child death, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Murder, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual content and Homophobia

piquareste's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective

• 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? It's complicated

3.0

Ah! I loved the tenderness of the whole book. It takes the time to steep in grief and life and love and death. It's even more special having read the acknowledgements and learning how the author was going through their own processes of grief and mourning while writing the book. The emotions and themes are lovely, and the found family and romance is a really nice cherry on top.

The writing took me out of the story from time to time. I found the characterisation of Wallace, the main character, to be so cartoonishly and outlandishly cold and oblivious in the beginning, and that setup made it hard to feel genuine empathy for the character he becomes later on. I  know there's meant to be character development and transformation, and it is noted by the end that he's no longer the same man from the beginning of the book, but it's just such a drastic and sudden change that I feel like it's just a completely different character. I think I would have really liked if the tone was more consistent—maybe something more substantive about his character in the beginning that lets us see his growth .

I even think his marriage with Naomi could be really interesting to explore with more depth! Especially earlier and more consistently. With the way that that memory of pulling out her chair affected him so much, and the way that he wanted Hugo to call her to tell her that about Wallace's good memories of her, I think the marriage could be a compelling way to show his lack of humanity (like his firing of Patricia Ryan) but potential for connection (which was harder to see in the firing).

Overall a lovely time!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Death, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Car accident, Chronic illness, and Sexual harassment

batwinggoth's review against another edition

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.

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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.