Under the Whispering Door

Wallace Price was a lawyer and a very disliked human. He is solely focused on his law practice. When he suddenly dies and finds himself watching his funeral (attended by only 4 people), he meets Mei, a reaper who brings him to a “way station” between life and death, a tea shop. There he meets Hugo, the ferryman who will guide him to the afterlife when he is ready. The book follows Wallace as he processes his life in the tea shop and gets to know Wallace and the others who live there, including an adorable ghost dog. 

The side characters were great, specifically Mei and Hugo’s grandpa. Both were spunky and added a lot of humor. I also enjoyed the plethora of deep quotes and funny one liners all on one page. The book also discussed grief from a variety of angles, some funny and others soul-wrenching, which I appreciated. 

It was definitely a slower-paced book than I expected, and took me about 50-60% of the book to get fully invested. Not much plot was going on until over halfway through the book, other than the exploring of Wallace’s character and explanation of the tea shop. I also wish we could’ve seen more from the romance because seemed rushed at times. I saw what Wallace saw in Hugo but not so much the other way around. 

While this book wasn’t what I expected, I’ll still be looking forward to TJ Klune’s next book and reading more in his backlog!

(Thank you to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.)