Flauschbuch reviewed Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
Not my cup of tea
3 stars
This is the first book I read for the book club my friends and I have now. We're following the illumicrate calendar. Reading the description, I expected this to be a fun romp but it's really more of a slow romance. Unfortunately, I found almost all characters annoying. Mei (the reaper) verges on manic pixie dream girl and Nelson comes off as pretty mean. Even though Wallace is very unsympathetic I couldn't help but feel exasperated on his behalf as Mei and Nelson weren't very helpful or were even having him on, given that finding out you're dead is a difficult situation to be in. They grow more sympathetic over time, though. After the initial excitement the book is rather slow moving and I lost interest. Not sure I would have finished it if it wasn't a book club book. The pace picks up again in the second half and …
This is the first book I read for the book club my friends and I have now. We're following the illumicrate calendar. Reading the description, I expected this to be a fun romp but it's really more of a slow romance. Unfortunately, I found almost all characters annoying. Mei (the reaper) verges on manic pixie dream girl and Nelson comes off as pretty mean. Even though Wallace is very unsympathetic I couldn't help but feel exasperated on his behalf as Mei and Nelson weren't very helpful or were even having him on, given that finding out you're dead is a difficult situation to be in. They grow more sympathetic over time, though. After the initial excitement the book is rather slow moving and I lost interest. Not sure I would have finished it if it wasn't a book club book. The pace picks up again in the second half and it gets very moving towards the end. I liked that many characters were queer and that that was treated as something normal and accepted.
Still unsure how I feel about the version of afterlife depicted in this book.
