Reviews with content warning for Death - Under the Whispering Door

LOVED this book.
Really loveable characters as with all of TJ Klune’s books so far for me!

A lovely way to look at death and life.
I laughed, I cried, I’ve recommended it to everyone I know 😂

Content Warnings

obxhokie's review

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.75

This is my second TJ Klune book (highly recommend House in the cerulean sea as well) and he’s quickly becoming a favorite author. This book is dark yet hopeful and I didn’t want to put it down. The end was surprising and still fulfilling.

Content Warnings

camille_farrar's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

john_ian's review

Go to review page

emotional 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? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

geckosaurus's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Going into this book I told myself I wouldn’t compare it to House in the Cerulean Sea, so I’m not.

If character-driven books aren’t your jam then you likely won’t like this book. The book is largely a meandering slice of life story of the lives/afterlives of the characters and how they change each other during the course of their time together. It’s a quiet book without any explosive plot points but plenty of emotional connection.

It’s a cozy read but one that’s not without darkness since the book is about grief, death, and grappling with one’s own mortality and the choices they’ve made while alive. There aren’t any new huge revelations about death that I came away from the book with, but I also wasn’t expecting to. It’s a comforting book in many ways as someone who has experienced the loss of someone close. I think that the reader’s experience with the book may be colored by their own relationship with grief and death (or lack there of).

I think the story could have been tightened up a bit to make the book a bit shorter and it still would have carried an emotional punch, but I enjoyed it all the same. I originally rated it 4.75 stars but found once I finished the book it continued to drift into my mind resulting in further reflection. Thus I bumped my rating up to 5 stars because the book has left quite an impression on me.

There's a quote from an interview with TJ Klune on hotpress [dot] com where he said, "If you live long enough to learn what love is, you eventually know what grief is. That just seems ancient as well. Combining these two things seemed like a natural fit, so that's why I set the book in a tea shop." He later goes on to say, "Under the Whispering Door is a shoulder to lean on, if you need it. It's somebody to tell you that sometimes it's okay to not be okay, so long as you don't let it become all that you know. You can feel down, you can feel angry, you can feel sad. That is perfectly within your right, but don't let that define the rest of your life."

Content Warnings

mara_rose's review

Go to review page

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted 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

4.25

I laughed and I cried. This was such an excellent book overall. The writing and characters were some of my favourite of all time. I almost gave this a 5* review until I got to the last 25%....the end wasn't my favourite, kind of dragged on and was bulldozed by a change of direction in the storyline.

It became slap you in the face LGBTQ+ romance story. It was subtle, yet obvious in the beginning, something that made you think about it and also appreciate it. I feel like the culture these days forces you to rub your nose in it to "see it in a positive way", rather than in a more natural accepting way, the first 3/4 did a very good job at that. Kind of like how the manager forces the people in the story through the door, rather than helping them go to it on their own.
To be honest that "romantic" aspect really came out of nowhere, didn't add much value and kind of distracted me from the story. It really disappointed me as I think it could have been done differently for this book. I'm not opposed to a queer romance and feel that even if it were a heterosexual romance, it was too in your face and out of place. The whole naked tour of the bedroom part really had me saying WTF. I would have preferred the subtle thoughtful interpretation of the relationship between Wallace and Hugo portrayed at the beginning.

Overall, a very inspirational and lighthearted, funny story with deep and profound messages. Beautiful story of friendship and family and life.

Content Warnings

mstadhei's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

More...