Hey all, Sam here.
Hello, hello, and happy Thursday. So…David’s been settling into his new job, and after figuring out our household budget, it’s time for me to get serious about job hunting myself. I’ve started really looking at work-from-home jobs, because 1) the cats seem happier when there’s someone home with them, 2) it’s good to have someone around to watch the 3D printers, and 3) we only have one vehicle right now, so with David driving to work, I either need something I can do at home or something I can walk to. I’ve found a few options, a couple that are long shots (but that I’m supremely excited about), so we’ll see what happens.
So I’m going to try and get as much of a buffer ready here on the blog, just in case I land a job sooner rather than later, and have to readjust my life/work schedule and balance again. I honestly think with the mix of content we have going on with the blog, we should be able to at least have a few posts up each week, although obviously I’m going to try to keep this blog streak going for as long as we can manage.
All right, let’s get into this review.
Welcome to Charon’s Crossing.
The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.
And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.
But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.
Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.
My Thoughts
Rating: 4 stars
After how much I absolutely loved The House in the Cerulean Sea, I was sold on reading anything released by T.J. Klune, so I was very excited when I heard about Under the Whispering Door, and thought the concept sounded really interesting too.
It was still a good story, and much like Cerulean Sea, it had a coziness to it, and it was uplifting and heartwarming, and I am finding that I absolutely enjoy cozy fantasy stories, and I want more of these simpler tales. Sure, I love a good epic fantasy where a band of misfits have to band together to save the world. It’s classic. But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a more low-stakes tale.
Following Wallace and Hugo and everyone else at Charon’s Crossing made for a lovely reading experience. And the whole story solidified my belief that I want to keep reading these books by T.J. Klune. I mean, come on, how interesting is it to have a story where the protagonist truly learns to live after dying. It’s also fascinating to have a cozy story with such a focus on death, and how death can make you see what’s important with life.
But I wasn’t as wholly lost and captivated by this one compared to the previous one. It wasn’t as magically heartwarming, and it took me a bit longer to get through everything. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. It’s nice to have some tales that take you a little longer to get through.
Honestly, I probably should do a Cerulean Sea and Whispering Door re-read. I feel like reading some more cozy fantasy books sounds pretty darn good right now. So…if you have any cozy fantasy recommendations, let me know!
I do believe that is all from me for today. I have to do some more job searching now. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
Free State of Geek 
I completely agree that although it’s a good read, there still wasn’t that “thing” like Cerulean Sea and I’d put that one over this as well.
Great review!
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Thank you! Yeah, I feel like I saw Cerulean Sea hyped all around the book community, but I didn’t hear nearly as much with Whispering Door. I’m excited about reading the upcoming In the Lives of Puppets, hopefully sooner rather than later, to see where it lands along the spectrum of Klune’s writings for me.
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