Under the Whispering Door By TJ Klune is a romantic fiction book that explores the theme of death.
The book starts off with our main character Wallace Price, he’s a successful lawyer that worked his whole life to get where he is. The only thing he thought about was working, harder, faster, and better, even if it was at the expense of others. It wasn’t any different when it came to his company and his employees. He didn’t care if he was cold, sarcastic and mean, as long as it got the work done, he did it. But as he arrived at his own funeral he was surprised to find only a few people attending. There, he met a reaper that swept him off to Charon's Crossing where he continued his journey to death and met Hugo, a ferryman. Appalled that he's died and trying to explain the work he still has to do, Hugo explains that he's dead and he’s there to take him to the last destination. Stubborn and in disbelief Wallace stays, slowly realizing he’s dead. In his stay, Wallace starts looking back at his life for what it was, and that life has more to it than work. To all the people he pushed away, to every opportunity to redeem himself, is it all too late?
I first picked this book up not knowing anything about it other than it was Barnes and Nobles book of the month, and boy does it live up to the title! Under the Whispering Door was honestly such a nice find and personally for me a very much needed find. Despite it being a book about death, it’s filled with so much light. The author emphasizes the point that death isn’t always the end and seeing that through and Wallace’s death really hit that point home. Moving on isn’t the only thing Tj Klune talks about. There was a plethora of situations and moments where I was hit with the vulnerability and pure beauty of the topics that were handled. Reading these conversations were so refreshing, they didn’t feel rushed or scripted. He gave time and space to them, enough to show the transformation of Wallace as a person, important parts to a character's design or relationships to one another.
As you grow to love Wallace you will fall deeper and deeper in love with the people around him. I find each and every one of the characters I meet unique and they all contribute equally to the story, which I love to see. More importantly, their back stories that made them into the person they are. I feel like the back stories add depth to the characters. They give readers something to appreciate and love. Especially when you see how they’ve grown from it. It’s really an experience.
While the characters are lovely, I have to applaud TJ Klune for including the LGBTQ community. At first picking up this book I had no idea that it would include romance and I am pleasantly surprised at how it was handled. Usually, when introduced to a gay character it’s almost always said right off the bat, like a bold statement, but in this case you get to meet the character as a person first rather than their sexuality first and it was really refreshing to
. You don’t get to see romance near the second half of the book and it’s so seamless because you’ve just read 200 pages of the characters getting to know each other. You see them share insights about each other's life and their pasts, or confessions they were too scared to say, what got them there and everything. So to say the least, the representation is passing with flying colors.
The only reason that I give it a four is for the romance being predictable. It has the natural happy ending that we all want. It has its own victories here and there, but I wished that he could’ve at least written some fails here and there. Like in the book They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera, it’s tragic and you get to see the brief time they get together. Time running out, I think, is what makes a romance good. That’s what I would’ve been content with but it was really obvious it was going to go the other way. I was almost anticipating it, could’ve been better, honestly.
This book, however did change my outlook on life a bit. Going through the journey with Wallace opened my eyes on how I should be appreciating the people around me. How sometimes it’s ok to stop and sit down for a while. It was a very much needed read to be honest, I didn’t look at moving forward as a way of looking back and it was truly a culture reset for me.
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