Book:  Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

Nov. 29, 2023

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.

“It’s never enough, is it? Time. We always think we have so much of it, but when it really counts, we don’t have enough at all.” 

Unexpected and lovely...For years I have leaned toward a good historical mystery (especially in a series!) and have unconciously limited my reading-for-fun to that genre.  I needed to have my horizons expanded and this book absolutely did it!  I was first attracted to the whimsical cover of the friendly, leaning house.  The title caught my imagination...who is whispering?  What were they whispering about?   Since I am a high school librarian, I thought I would just read it to preview purchasing this book for our collection on the recommendation of Ms. Meiklejohn, my reading cohort, and English teacher extraordinaire.  So in the interest of student enrichment I opened the cover.  Dead people crossing over?  Must be interesting for kids, not my style.  Or so I thought.  WRONG.  I was wonderfully wrong.  

From the start, I was intrigued by the character of the ruthlessly unhappy Wallace Price.  He deserves a bad ending, doesn't he?  I loved the entrance and presence of his reaper, Mei.  It took me a minute to get Hugo, the ferryman, but when I did, he inspired me to imitate his attitue of calm acceptance and gentle guidance with the people (students included) in my life.  The imagery of the Manager was also intriguing and made me think about our conceptions of time and reality.  

In fact this whole book challenged me to redefine my reading interests, realizing that I had been comfortably stuck in a rut and needed a breath of fresh reading.  This book deals with the big questions - Life, the Universe and Everything.  It inspired me to think of everlasting time...what would I do, who would I choose to be?  Who would I choose to be with?

“Bravery meant the possibility of death. And wasn’t that funny? Because it took being dead for Wallace to finally be brave.” 

It's been a while since I felt warm all over after reading a book.  This one did it for me.  

I fell in love with the story and the writing style of T.J. Klune.  

I think I'll read this one again...maybe right now...