Monday, March 13, 2023

Under the Whispering Door

Under the Whispering Door

By: TJ Klune
Narrated by: Kit Graves
Listening length: 14 hours, 54 minutes
publication date: September 21, 2021
My review: 5 out of 5 stars 

"Narrator Kirt Groves provides an excellently distinct cast of voices."- Locus

A Man Called Ove meets The Good Place in Under the Whispering Door, a delightful queer love story from TJ Klune, author of the New York Times and USA Today bestseller The House in the Cerulean Sea.

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.

"Graves matches his narrative pace to the measured unwinding of the story's layers, focused but unhurried, in the same way that Hugo brews his therapeutic cups of tea." —AudioFile

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

What can I even say about this book? First of all, the narrator of this audiobook is top notch. I loved listening to every word. He has a way of making each character's voice sound different without using weird voices. His voice is so soothing to listen to, the book just flowed right off his tongue. I listened at 1.5 speed and it wasn't so fast that he was a chipmunk talking, but it was just right for my ears.

This book! I'm not sure how Klune does it, but he had me laughing in one chapter, then crying in the next. His writing seems to capture the human emotions so well. This is the second book of his that I've listened to and both are now on my Audible "must buy" list because I know i will be listening again. Wallace's story in Whispers is all about his after life. His life was not much to read about, but when he shows up at his own funeral, a not very well attended one, he is greeted by a reaper, but instead of taking him to the afterlife, he is taken to a "small village."

In the odd teahouse, he finds more than tea. This book was simply beautiful. Every character had their charm, even the ghost dog (how could you go wrong with a ghost dog!?) Seriously until the last minute I loved this book. I could listen to fifteen more adventures about Wallace, Hugo and the antics in the teashop.

No comments:

Post a Comment