Klune seems to be using the novel as a way to process his own grief which gets in the way of progressing the story along. The first half the book frequently gets bogged down by characters essentially monologuing at each other. What unfolds is a story about processing grief, finding acceptance about the things you can’t change, and working on the things you can. Not many books open by killing off their main character and then having him show up at his own funeral (even if no one else can see him). Hugo’s there to help him move on, but it’s a long road to acceptance and even in death one never knows what will happen along the way. When the Reaper takes him to meet his assigned ferryman Hugo, everything Wallace thought about his life and the world is about to get turned on it’s head. He may have been busy in life, but none of that matters now that he’s dead.
But when Wallace ends up meeting a Reaper at his own funeral, suddenly he’s faced with a situation he can’t argue himself out of. After all, he’s a founding named partner at his law firm and that comes with long hours and a heavy work load.
Wallace Price isn’t the nicest guy and he doesn’t care. Instead, what could have been a profound meditation on grief and mortality was burdened with heavy handed and often cliché choices which ultimately undermined the better aspects of the novel. With TJ Klune’s creative worldbuilding, strong character writing, and trademark humor, Under the Whispering Door should have been a knockout of a book.
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