Charmingly fanciful, melancholic, heroic, and hopeful. If empathy were a superpower, I would expect to find the cape and mask for it hanging in TJ Klune's bat cave.

I'm not usually a fan of stories about death, but liminal/transitional tales? Those high-stakes pause-to-reflect moments? It's a Wonderful Life? A Christmas Carol? The Midnight Library? When those are done well they seem to worm their way into my heart. Add to the list: Under the Whispering Door, where a terrible excuse for a human gets the chance to reflect and become more while ghosting around at a teashop in the woods that's actually a way station for whatever comes after this life.

Is it a book about death? Yes. (Definitely see the content notes for sensitive topics.) But of course it's really a book about life and loss and empathy and second chances and letting go and holding on and family. It's lovely and painful and goofy. And if I weren't in such a pandemic-induced funk, I might've given it 5 stars.

Topics, tropes and themes: life, love, pets, death, grief, loss, regret, mourning, wholeness, found family, after life, empathy, courage, family, no soul left behind, LGBTQ, second chances, self-sacrifice
Content notes: death, loss of a child, heart attack, funeral scene, depression, suicide, murder, family estrangement

My thanks to #NetGalley and Tor Books for a digital ARC!