A review by btlitell
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

5.0

This is probably the heaviest book that I've read in a long time, but I was warned about that going into it. Even with this story being about such a heavy subject, Klune approached it lightly but without making light of the topic of death and grief and loss. There were so many great characters in this story and so many moments where, unexpectedly, I cried and had goosebumps. There were also moments where I chuckled because the characters were witty or played pranks. I cannot recommend this book enough but if you are sensitive to topics of death, suicide, lost love, etc. go into this expecting those topics to show up throughout. With mentions of death and grief being so frequent through the story, that helped with it showing up whereas if it was just big clumps in a couple places, this would have been harder to digest.

I wasn't expecting the ending. Nelson leaving Hugo was sad. Apollo? Completely tragic. While I appreciated at first that we didn't have to see a dog death, because Apollo is such a good boy, I did <b>NOT</b> expect or appreciate him leaving how and when he did. It was such a precious moment but gods above that hurt.

Read. This. Book.