Under the Whispering Door

I know TJ Klune is imaginative and can write simultaneously hilarious and heart-rending books based on the outstanding “The House in the Cerulean Sea.”

Yet, “Under the Whispering Door” did neither of those things for me and I ended up skimming the last 150 pages.

Both books seem to be written with a similar plot structure: lonely/miserable/middle-aged bureaucratic drone, this time with more power over others, is placed in a fish-out-of-water situation with delightfully quirky oddballs and learns to enjoy and value life and others. Great! I'm a middle-aged accountant with cats, so right up my alley.