Bingo 13: Pride
Under the Whispering Door is most definitely not a book to read for plot, as it’s largely thematically and character driven, and it’s also not one you want to really speed through as it’s got a lot of lyrical segments. Both of these are strengths, but also reasons why you need to be in the right mood to really enjoy this, and I have to admit, I wasn’t always. The two main threads, adjusting to being dead and coming to terms with that; and a romance, are clearly inter-related from the start, but the second one doesn’t really fit as well for me. The Pride part comes in the form of a queer relationship that starts developing in about the final third of the story, and I really don’t see what attracted one of that potential couple to the other. It’s pretty obvious why Walter’s into it, especially after Hugo calls Walter’s ex-wife who calls him (Walter) out (believing that Walter’s dead, which he is) for catching him checking out guys and not being nearly as subtle as he apparently thought he was while married to her. This was not the source of their divorce, just to be clear.
According to the back cover, a main piece of the story is Walter finding out he’s got a week before he’ll be forced to cross-over into whatever’s next. This makes it sound like that’s a major plot-point, which it sort of is, as there is not a lot of action, but this ultimatum doesn’t actually happen until over half-way into the novel, and by this point Walter’s well on his way to being a recovering a**hole (a word used against him which he admits is mostly true).
The whole found family bit is pretty wholesome as are the ghostly and living connections among the household, but I swear I’ve seen the whole “Reaper comes to get you to make sure you know you’re dead and to help you cross over into whatever is next” along with the “redeem the lawyer who was a horrible person in life” angle before, but I can’t quite place where. Add in “the tragic folks who can’t accept the death and what happens to them” also feels like I’ve seen something similar to that before. The story gets away with it on account of the lack of attention to a lot of action-y spooky stuff, but it kind of bothers me that I can’t quite place it.
