Pride Reads: Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

There are numerous lists (yay!) of amazing books to read during Pride Month, and all year long! Here is one of my favorites!

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I finished this book last night and I’m still devastated. Be sure to keep the tissues handy during this one! If you loved The House on the Cerulean Sea, you are going to love Under the Whispering Door. Not only does Klune have a way with long, whimsical titles, but he has crafted another heartfelt and emotional story about being a human and finding love.

Wallace Price has lived his life consumed by his career. Demanding perfection from his employees and spending each day working until the point of exhaustion has been his M.O. until, one day, he finds himself dead. Standing over his body, bewildered about his situation, and then suddenly, at his own funeral. What should be a well-attended, proper, and expensive affair, turns out to only be attended by his ex-wife and his partners from the law firm. There were no kind words, no tears, and to Wallace’s astonishment, a remarkable amount of sports talk. But there is one person at his funeral that Wallace has never met. And even more startling, she can see Wallace. Mei, Wallace’s reaper, has come to guide him to his next place and Wallace isn’t having it.

Finally relenting, Wallace and Mei make their way to a tea shop run by Mei and Hugo. But of course, this is no ordinary tea shop. It’s a way station for those newly departed before they make their way to other side. Residing in the tea shop with Mei and Hugo are Hugo’s faithful pup Apollo and Hugo’s grandfather, the deceased Nelson. Slowly, day by day, Wallace learns from this remarkable team the ins and outs of ghost life, and begins to realize how little he actually lived.

This is an emotional, tender, funny, and remarkable story of life and love and I was immediately caught up in Wallace’s story and his journey to the afterlife. Wallace experiences all the stages of grief over his own death and does so in a way that felt incredibly real and relatable. His journey to discovering how to be a friend and to become part of a family never felt forced, it was a gentle progression that we saw every step of the way. Klune has given us beautiful characters with full lives and distinct personalities. Every character is crucial to the story and grows within the book. Klune has created an interesting take on the Reaper mythos and I really loved how The Manager, no spoilers!, was imagined. The characters were so well thought out and imagined that it made the story really compelling and I was unable to put it down.
No lie, I finished this while eating dinner with my guys and sobbed over my mac ‘n cheese. The Kid was quite worried.

I cannot express how much I love this book. It’s compelling, beautiful, heartfelt, and just really, really lovely. If you would like to add this story to your collection, you can find ordering information here:

Thank you to Netgalley and TOR Books for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

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