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A review by phidgt
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
2.0
“I didn’t hate it” is never a great way to start off a book review, but that is exactly where I am at with “Under the Whispering Door”. The story started off promisingly enough with high powered attorney Wallace Price finding himself dead, attending his own funeral, getting collected by a Reaper and whisked off to the Ferryman who runs a tea shop in the countryside with the ghost of his grandad and dog. There’s some funny writing in there and, don’t worry, none of that is a spoiler; it’s basically the first couple of chapters.
It’s the next 200 or so pages where the book starts to fall apart. The repetition gets to be annoying. I get it, ghosts can’t touch the living. Please stop telling me. There are some endearing moments and the underlying theme is a good one, albeit a bit overdone - life is short live it to the fullest, be the best person you can be, blah, blah, blah.
I want to recommend this book, but I am a bit hesitant. The editing could have been a bit more heavy handed, there were sections that simply dragged. Like I said at the beginning, "I didn't hate it." I also didn't love it.
Wallace spends so much time coming to grips with what his new reality is - he’s dead. He goes through all of the five stages of grief for himself; denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. He has reached the pinnacle, the final stage of acceptance and you can actually feel it. Wallace is at peace and he is ready to move on through the light and continue on his journey whatever that may be. This is really the only reason why I actually stuck with it and finished the book. I wanted to see Wallace make it to the end and walk through the damn door.
Nope. Klune throws a Hail Mary and gives Wallace back his life. I don't mean to be insensitive here. Apparently the author wrote this book after the death of his partner, so I feel kinda bad writing this, but the ending was so not good. We go through all of the emotions with Wallace as he learns about life and grows into a better person (well, ghost) only to have all of that taken away from us. I actually feel cheated by it.
"The House in the Cerulean Sea" is another title by TJ Klune which receives good reviews (as did "Under the Whispering Door"). I may have to keep it in the TBR pile for a while longer.
It’s the next 200 or so pages where the book starts to fall apart. The repetition gets to be annoying. I get it, ghosts can’t touch the living. Please stop telling me. There are some endearing moments and the underlying theme is a good one, albeit a bit overdone - life is short live it to the fullest, be the best person you can be, blah, blah, blah.
I want to recommend this book, but I am a bit hesitant. The editing could have been a bit more heavy handed, there were sections that simply dragged. Like I said at the beginning, "I didn't hate it." I also didn't love it.
Spoiler
Unfortunately, the real deal breaker here was the ending.Wallace spends so much time coming to grips with what his new reality is - he’s dead. He goes through all of the five stages of grief for himself; denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. He has reached the pinnacle, the final stage of acceptance and you can actually feel it. Wallace is at peace and he is ready to move on through the light and continue on his journey whatever that may be. This is really the only reason why I actually stuck with it and finished the book. I wanted to see Wallace make it to the end and walk through the damn door.
Nope. Klune throws a Hail Mary and gives Wallace back his life. I don't mean to be insensitive here. Apparently the author wrote this book after the death of his partner, so I feel kinda bad writing this, but the ending was so not good. We go through all of the emotions with Wallace as he learns about life and grows into a better person (well, ghost) only to have all of that taken away from us. I actually feel cheated by it.
"The House in the Cerulean Sea" is another title by TJ Klune which receives good reviews (as did "Under the Whispering Door"). I may have to keep it in the TBR pile for a while longer.