Under The Whispering Door

Under The Whispering Door.. a book I just finished this morning.. and could probably gush about for a few hours in the right company. TJ Klune has done it again! This book and the characters held within it have captured my heart. Last year, The House in the Cerulean Sea was all the rage; this year? I think he has outdone himself. While I enjoyed Cerulean Sea (and would still recommend it!), this book touched me in so many ways. I laughed. I cried. I looked deep into myself. I wondered about life after death. This book is almost profound in it's simple setting and premise - it was so very much more than I expected.

Wallace Price is an asshole. 100 percent. The book opens with him firing a long term employee for making a mistake. ONE mistake in her ten years of service. As you can imagine, I wasn't too choked up when he died suddenly. (I mean, I knew he was going to - it's in the write up. So, no spoiler!!) What I did see in Wallace (even in those early pages) is that he would grow into someone likeable by the close of the novel. (Which, of course.. he did. No spoiler there either. It would be a pretty crappy story if I still despised him at the end!)

He is collected by a Reaper three days later at his own funeral, and taken to see Hugo - a ferryman meant to help him to whatever is on the other side. (Clearly, Hugo himself can't know.) He's there to help Wallace by answering any questions he has, or even just to talk. Wallace becomes a completely different person in death, with the help of Hugo, Mei, Nelson, and Apollo while residing (if you can call it that when you're a ghost?) in Hugo's tea shop.

Charon's Crossing is more than the tea shop it appears to be. It's a way station for the dead - complete with a magical door to transport them to their afterlife. Full of kooky characters you're bound to love, and overflowing with heart and love - this book is a must read in my humble opinion, and if Charon's Crossing was a real shop? I'd love to see which tea Hugo would pick for me.