Under the Whispering Door: A cosy fantasy about how to embrace life - and the afterlife - with found family.

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In Under the Whispering Door, one of two books coming from TJ Klune in the next few months, we learn that it’s never too late to make your life the way you wanted it to be. Even after you’re dead. We live and we breathe. We die, and we still feel like breathing. It’s not always the big deaths either. There are little deaths, because that’s what grief is. I”

She nodded, but he didn’t think she was hearing him. “This job is so important to me, now more than ever. The people here are like family. We all support one another, and I don’t know how I’d have made it this far without them. And to have you sense something was wrong and ask me to come in here so that I could vent means more to me than you will ever know. I don’t care what anyone else says, Mr. Price. You’re a good man.”Her lip trembled. “We’re here to talk about me and how difficult things have become lately. That’s why you called me in after finding me crying in the supply closet.” The strength is the characters, not so much because they are original but rather because Klune loves them and loves how they love each other. We start with Wallace Price, a lawyer who is all about the work. In the opening chapter, he fires an otherwise good paralegal for one mistake. To his small credit, he doesn’t enjoy it – he’s not mustache-twirling evil – but he can’t be bothered with other people’s feelings. They are a waste of time. The shades on the windows to his office were pulled shut against the afternoon sun, the air-conditioning blasting harshly, keeping him alert. Three years ago, someone had asked if they could move the dial up to seventy degrees. He’d laughed. Warmth led to laziness. When one was cold, one kept moving.

The recently deceased Wallace doesn’t just meet Hugo and Mei, who are two very much alive human beings who happen to have some magical abilities. He also meets Hugo’s deceased grandfather, Nelson, and Hugo’s dead dog, Apollo. Wallace, being the cold-hearted lawyer he was when he died, has trouble coming to terms with his death. Through the guidance of Hugo and the rest of the residents of the tea shop, however, Wallace realizes the way he lived was not how he wants to be in the afterlife. His heart opens up, and through his transformation, the story explores not only grief but the grace that can come by reflecting on one’s life and changing for the better. Hearing a rumor about the Jarl's children at The Bannered Mare - and only at The Bannered Mare - begins a miscellaneous quest to "Ask about Balgruuf's strange children". This requires speaking with Balgruuf the Greater. Initially, he is in Dragonsreach, but if the Dragonborn sided with the Stormcloaks in the Civil War, he is in the Blue Palace basement. When asked about his children, he reveals he is having problems with his youngest son, Nelkir, who has taken a sudden dark turn in his personality. This completes the miscellaneous objective and begins the true quest "The Whispering Door." He squinted at her. He would have to speak to the partners. He wasn’t aware they offered scholarships. They donated to charities, yes, but the tax breaks more than made up for it. He didn’t know what sort of return they’d see on giving money away for something as ridiculous as business school, even if it too could be written off. The daughter would probably want to do something as asinine as open a restaurant or start a nonprofit. “I think you and I have a different definition of wonderful.”The overall message of the book is very discordant and there are moments when it contradicts itself. It tries to preach about letting go and moving on after the death of someone close to you but when you really, really, really love the person that passed just go ahead and cling to them with all your might. The characters are supposed to be empathetic to the bone but they will treat the people they don't like in a very unempathetic way. There is no god but there is a god-like figure that will deny being any kind of deity. Just you know, an eternal creature that for some unfathomable reasons is interested in people and how to swiftly move them to the nether world.

From a plot perspective, the story is a slow-moving one. The tension comes from knowing Wallace will inevitably have to face the door on the top floor of the tea shop that takes souls to whatever is next. There is also everyone’s fear of the Manager, a cosmic entity who enforces the rules of the afterlife. And there are also other souls who come to the tea shop — the deceased who Hugo must guide in death, and the living who are still grieving those they’ve lost. It was a relief, really. This old body had worn down, and try as I might, I couldn't make it work like I wanted it to anymore. Sometimes, death is a blessing, even if we don't realize it right away.”A conversation between Proventus and Jarl Balgruuf can be overheard about Nelkir's behavior. This can happen before the quest, although it does not start it, and the characters will not talk to the player about it. Discuss the novel’s title. What is the theme of the messages that are whispered? What did you learn about love and life by eavesdropping there?