When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own sparsely-attended funeral, Wallace is outraged. But he begins to suspect she's right, and he is in fact dead. Then when Hugo, owner of a most peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace reluctantly accepts the truth. Yet even in death, he refuses to abandon his life - even though Wallace spent all of it working, correcting colleagues and hectoring employees. He'd had no time for frivolities like fun and friends. But as Wallace drinks tea with Hugo and talks to his customers, he wonders if he was missing something. The feeling grows as he shares jokes with the resident ghost, manifests embarrassing footwear and notices the stars. So when he's given one week to pass through the door to the other side, Wallace sets about living a lifetime in just seven days.
A whimsical exploration of life after death
Under the Whispering Door is a charming and whimsical read, following the journey of Wallace Price as he discovers the meaning of life ... after death.
Ruthless, unsympathetic and a workaholic, lawyer Wallace is disgruntled to find himself suddenly dead of a heart attack one Sunday afternoon while working alone in his office. This feeling is intensified by the attitudes of the attendees (one could hardly call them "mourners"), including his former colleagues and ex-wife, at his funeral several days later.
Then he meets Meiying ("You can call me Mei, like the month, only spelt a little different".), the only attendee at the funeral who can apparently see Wallace. She introduces herself as a reaper, and explains that she has come to take Wallace "home". The incredulous and angry Wallace then finds himself at a mysterious ramshackle four-storey tea house, known as Charon's Crossing, where he's greeted by the beguiling proprietor, Hugo Freeman. Hugo explains that he's a "ferryman", who'll help guide Wallace to what lies beyond. He also meets fellow residents of the tea house - both ghosts like himself - Hugo's grandfather Nelson and Apollo the dog. Along the way, he'll also meet a supporting cast of other characters - lost soul Cameron, murder victim Allen, the grieving mother of one of Hugo's past "clients", a bureaucratic and lascivious health inspector, deplorable clairvoyant Desdemona Triplethorne and last, but not least, the mysterious shape-shifting "Manager", who overseas the workings of Charon's Crossing.
As Wallace, at first resistant, is assimilated into the rhythms of life (and death) at Charon's Crossing, he reflects back on the life he has lived and makes valuable realisations about what really matters, experiencing regret and fashioning a sort of redemption for himself. Meanwhile, a romantic attraction grows between Wallace and ferryman Hugo, an experience Wallace rues he never had the opportunity to pursue while he was alive.
While it's not exactly new subject matter, and the lessons Wallace will learn are reasonably predictable, I did enjoy author T.J. Klune's imaginative rendering of what happens in that zone between life and death. There are the obvious references to the ancient Greek mythology of the underworld, but beyond that Klune's conception of the life beyond is broadly secular.
The cast of characters are reassuringly human and fallible, the inhabitants of Charon's Crossing providing frequent comic relief to the more philosophical considerations which preoccupy Wallace and Hugo much of the time. The growing feelings between the two protagonists are touchingly and realistically handled, creating a sense of pathos at their seemingly inevitable looming separation. I loved Mei's feistiness and fierce defence of Hugo, especially when faced with challenges in the form of clairvoyant Desdemona and the Health Inspector. Similarly, grandfather Nelson and ghost-dog Apollo add humour and poignancy to the story.
Under the Whispering Door was an engrossing and enjoyable read, carrying familiar messages about the way we live our lives, what we might change if we were forced to look at ourselves critically and how we might choose to regard our inevitable deaths.
I'd highly recommend Under the Whispering Door to an audience from teenage up, especially those who are looking for inclusive romance plots and a little light magical realism.
Sarah, 26/10/2021
