Under the Whispering Door, by T.J. Klune {Book Review}

Happy 2022 to you if you’re reading this! I truly hope that 2022 is going to be kinder to us and is going to be filled with blessings, good health….and hopefully the winning lotto numbers 😉 I’ve finished my first book of 2022….and today I thought I’d share my thoughts with you on Under The Whispering Door. Shocker guys, it’s NOT a thriller? Who am I even???

What is Under the Whispering Door about?

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace Price from his own funeral, Wallace suspects he really might be dead.

Instead of leading him directly to the afterlife, the reaper takes him to a small village. On the outskirts, off the path through the woods, tucked between mountains, is a particular tea shop, run by a man named Hugo. Hugo is the tea shop’s owner to locals and the ferryman to souls who need to cross over.

But Wallace isn’t ready to abandon the life he barely lived. With Hugo’s help he finally starts to learn about all the things he missed in life.

When the Manager, a curious and powerful being, arrives at the tea shop and gives Wallace one week to cross over, Wallace sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

My Thoughts

Wallace Price has died….and he finds it incredibly inconvenient. He has lawsuits to file and people to fire. At his funeral, his reaper, Mei, arrives to take him to the ‘crossover’ place. The crossover place being a quaint little tea shop, run by Hugo, the Ferryman (he who helps people crossover).

The first chapters I quite enjoyed, as cruel as it was…..we get a real feel for Wallace’s character and what a jerk he actually is….was?? I was quite excited to see where this story was headed, because I enjoyed this author’s writing style and his humour.

Under the Whispering Door is about life lived, or perhaps not lived enough….and how to come to terms with death. With this topic in mind, I thought I was in for a tear jerker….and for some reason, that wasn’t my experience.

I enjoyed the characters, especially Mei and Nelson…they had great souls and a lot of personality. There were lessons in this book, there was humour……BUT this book was just too drawn out for what it was. The middle just felt a bit repetitive for me and was about 100 pages too long. With the synopsis saying Wallace would get 7 days, I assumed this would be in the beginning and that’s what the book would be about….. However, he literally gets his 7 days in the last one third of the book. So that was what I struggled with, waiting for the 7 days to start.

Rating

Under the Whispering Door has a 4.2 star rating on Goodreads and that is a fantastic rating. I’m rating it around 3.5 stars. This was a heartwarming, quirky read and it had a good message about life and redemption. I think fans of this author, as well as anybody who enjoys a book that questions life and death would enjoy this one. Perhaps tread lightly if you are very religious and are easily offended by any questioning on the idea of God. 

Under the Whispering Door retails for around R330 and is available at all leading book retailers. I spotted it online at Makro for R264 😉

Disclaimer: Under the Whispering Door was sent to me by Pan Macmillan SA in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.