Under the Whispering Door

April 26, 2021
A dead man reconsiders his life in this charming fantasy from Klune (The House in the Cerulean Sea). At 40, white bisexual Wallace Price is a ruthless lawyer with no empathy for those around him. When he dies suddenly, prickly reaper Mei arrives to escort his ghost to Charon’s Crossing, a tea shop run by Hugo Freeman. Hugo, a Black gay 30-year-old, serves as a ferryman, guiding souls to whatever comes next. Hugo tells the angry, disbelieving Wallace that he can stay at Charon’s Crossing until he’s ready. But Wallace will never be ready, and after trying to run away and discovering that he’ll become an inhuman Husk if he does, Wallace settles into life in the bustling cafe, learning to manipulate objects from Hugo’s ghostly grandfather, Nelson, and slowly becoming a better person as attraction blooms between him and Hugo. But when Mei reaps Alan Flynn, the victim of a murder, his rageful spirit upends the cozy, found family dynamic at Charon’s Crossing. The frightening Manager arrives to deal with Alan—and gives Wallace just one more week on Earth, setting off a scramble to find a loophole. Tenderness, wit, and skillful worldbuilding elevate this delightful tale. Fans of queer fantasy won’t want to miss this.