Under the Whispering Door (TJ Klune)

Under the Whispering Door
TJ Klune
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: By the measures of his profession, lawyer William Price is an unqualified success. Sure, he sacrificed his marriage, his friends, and any frivolities like joy or leisure, but he built his own law firm from the ground up, and nobody in his office fails to fear his gaze. It takes dying for him to realize that, while he may have succeeded at law, he failed at truly living. Collected from his funeral by the eccentric Reaper woman Mei, William is brought to a small mountain village and a tea shop called Charon's Crossing to meet his ferryman, the mortal charged with helping him make the transition to the other side: the handsome Hugo Freeman. Here, away from his job and the city and the cold existence he built for himself, the former lawyer finally learns what it means to live... and to love. But he cannot linger forever; there is a door on the fourth floor of the tea shop that whispers to him of what is to come - a passage he cannot avoid forever, even when he finally discovers a reason to stay on Earth.

REVIEW: First off, the official description for this book is way off. It mentions plot points that don't come up until the final fourth or so of the tale, and set up false expectations for the story as a whole. Secondly, this is the second book by Klune I've read... and I can't help but think I would've enjoyed it more had it been first. Like The House in the Cerulean Sea, it starts with a man firmly entrenched in an inherently heartless bureaucracy, one who doesn't think to question the emptiness of his life or the machinery he perpetuates, until he travels to a remote location where a kindly, handsome eccentric and other colorful locals teach him the true meaning of life and love. William, however, is initially a far less likable main character, a man who hasn't been so much numbed to his heart as one who willfully sliced it out as a potential impediment to his career and doesn't think to question his choice until it's literally too late. He overreacts to his situation terribly, far past the point of caricature, and stays in surly denial far too long, making his transition a little hard to swallow. Side characters could be irritating on occasion, too, as could the repetitious Lessons about the meaning of life and the afterlife and what makes living worthwhile, which make the story itself feel overlong and slow as it wends slowly between plot points on its way to the stuff teased by the official description and cover blurb. It does ultimately come together, with some sweet and sobering moments along the way, and barely pulled out of its drifting freefall enough to avoid losing another half-star, but I must say I expected a little more after the high bar set by The House in the Cerulean Sea.

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