Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

72 reviews

ohsnapsabrina93_'s review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad tense 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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moond4ncer's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

4.5

A heartwarming, reflective read. Make the most of your time! 

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thebibutterfly's review

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challenging emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Although it moves at a snail’s pace, this is an incredibly poignant and moving story. I do think it gets a bit repetitive and drags in the middle, but overall, it’s a beautiful book about death, life, and grief. This author is quickly becoming one of my favourites.

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kathleenjpost's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

This is a story that will stick with me for a long time. I found myself thinking about these characters during my work day. I laughed and I cried and cheered for them throughout this story. It is a bit of a slow start but so worth it in my opinion. It’s a heavy book about death and grief and believing in the humanity of the people around you. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking and hopeful. I really love TJ Klune. 

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beepmbop's review

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emotional hopeful 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

3.5

it can be cheesy and redundant at times - but it made me smile a lot 

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basil_touche's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

2.75

I have to admit, I probably had my expectations for this book set too high after reading The House in the Cerulean Sea. The premise of a tea shop being a waiting room between life & death was intriguing, and I was interested to see how Wallace would develop into a better person before vanishing from the mortal coil.

However, I think my main problem with this book is that Wallace's development doesn't feel earned. He changes his ways quite rapidly once he's in the tea shop and it's not really shown in enough depth for my liking. This in turn made his romance with ferryman Hugo just feel forced, I felt as though other characters or the narrative kept pointing out they had feelings for each other and I just didn't really care if they got together or not.

There was also some pacing issues as while the first few chapters were great at setting up the narrative, after they arrived at the tea shop not much happened and it became a slog up until 150 pages in, to which it picked up again for a few chapters before dipping again. I also don't like how some of the side characters were written (Desdemona and Harvey spring to mind) they felt rather one note and flat. Throughout the book I just kept wishing there was more things explored with the characters, sure they talk about grief in a personal way but it felt like they just kept repeating themselves after a point. It just felt too twee for my liking.

The ending really annoyed me too. I get it's nice to have second chances, but to bring back Wallace from the dead? I felt that it would have been more emotionally significant to have him pass but his time at the shop still changed everyone for the better. The idea of Wallace being a "special case", especially when his development felt rushed and undeserved didn't sit right with me and kinda  underminds what I thought this story was trying to tell. I also really didn't like The Manager, instead of coming off as a god that's mysterious, he felt as though the narrative hadn't decided what his character was. I just found him annoying.


They were some aspects I did quite like, Nelson is my favourite character, love the idea of an old ghost who really doesn't care what other people think of him now but still cares deeply for his grandson and his friends. Cameron's story I thought was tragic and told in such an interesting way that it his exit from the narrative felt really satisfying. Also how when ghosts go through the door we're not shown what they see, only their reactions. Also Apollo the ghost dog, gotta love a ghost dog.

Again, maybe it's on me for setting my expectations to high for this. If you like Klune's other novels, you'll probably like this one. I'll still check out his other work, I just better tamper my expectations first.

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sapphic_alpaca's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

4.5

Loved this. Loved the characters (Wallace and Nelson are a comedic duo). The plot was interesting and heartbreaking (teared up twice) and the ending felt like it wrapped it up nicely. The -0.5 is cause i thought the writing could of used more work, there were weird tone shifts in the first two-thirds and I found that the author didn’t really introduce the plot and the characters in the best way, felt very confused and disconnected until i started getting to know the characters and then i fell in love with them.

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themdash's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad 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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thebankofbooks's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

4.5


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gphemsley's review

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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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