I absolutely loved this! Once I started reading I couldn’t stop. Loved the humour and the internal dialogue Gilda possessed, so breathlessly nonstop and erratic. The family dynamics and personal relationships she tried desperately to connect with. I could imagine her anxiety and sense of disconnect strongly in every word. Wonderfully disjointed yet steadily flowing this novel was a joy to experience. Highly recommend.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc

A dark comedy and a very unique story! This was a great one for someone looking for something more unique. LGBT representation as well as a discussion on depression and anxiety make for a dark novel with some lighthearted playfulness.

This story begins with Gilda in her car, the light is green, she isn’t moving, but it takes her a moment before she can recall what just happened. Hit from behind by a minivan, her airbag not only deploys giving her a punch, but the hot coffee that was once in her thermos is now covering her.

Gilda is more than a little obsessed with death, ever since her pet rabbit died when she was ten years old, and she was the one to find her lifeless, her eyes wide open. She lives in an almost constant state of anxiety, and spends more time at the hospital than more people, always seeking a cure for something, and her anxiety continues to plague her. She is there so often, the staff seems to know her by name. She loses her job at a bookstore, and her anxiety grows even more. Finding a flyer offering free therapy, she ends up at a Catholic Church, and when the first thing she is asked is if she is there to apply for a position for a receptionist that’s recently opened up, she doesn’t hesitate to say yes. The former receptionist, she is informed, has recently passed away. She isn’t asked if she is gay or considers herself an atheist, so she doesn’t volunteer that information. Not even when a stranger insists on setting her up with a relative, and when he texts and calls her repeatedly, she eventually runs out of excuses and goes on dates with him.

There’s an essence of how Gilda processes information and views life that reminded me of Eleanor Oliphant, that blend of quirkiness alongside a sprinkling of dark humour in this story, a young woman who seems without the social graces required to blend in. Gilda is odd and a little off-center, and doesn’t seem to ‘blend in,’ not that she’s ever known others to take the time to understand her. Even her parents don’t seem to care enough to actually listen to her, still focused on the time she did this or that when she was too young to know better.

Add to this a cat that goes missing when the house on her street catches on fire, which she becomes a bit obsessed finding and rescuing, along with a brother who struggles with controlling his substance abuse, it seems the only time she feels accepted is when she’s pretending to be the former, now deceased receptionist, responding to that woman’s friend’s emails.

All of this evolves into a somewhat farcical, entertaining story with some laughable situations along with a few lovable characters, and an ending I didn’t see coming, but smiled when it arrived.


Pub Date: 06 Jul 2021

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Atria Books

Gilda is a neurotic, anxious mess of a woman who gets fired for not showing up for work too often. She then semi-accidentally takes a job as a secretary for a Catholic church, where she is constantly worried about being found out as a gay atheist. As the new secretary, she takes over the email account of the deceased previous secretary, Grace, and begins corresponding, as Grace, with Grace's friend, who does not know that Grace has died. This checks all the "anxious oddball" boxes of books I should love, but it was hard for me to get into. I didn't really feel much for or relate to Gilda until a good ways into the book, and then it was in a sad way. In the end, it was good but it took a while to get there for me. 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an e-arc of this book.

This book was such an odd experience...although Gilda’s struggles were super amplified it felt like I was reading echoes of my own thoughts and anxieties. While I am not as preoccupied with death as she is, my anxiety and depression and will to please others can be just as crippling. Sometimes my life just falls apart because I’m too busy trying to make it something that will make someone, somewhere, smile. And I forget that I deserve to smile to.

The last 25% of this book actually GAVE me anxiety...lord help me if my neuro divergent brain makes me a murder suspect just because I am too people pleasing or too depressed to fit into “normal” behavior patterns. That is some standardized testing bullshit pushed into the adult world that I did NOT need.

I truly felt seen and heard reading this book, however.

Gilda is a young atheist lesbian searching for the meaning of life in EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL SOMEDAY BE DEAD, by Emily Austin. Through a series of odd events, Gilda ends up working at the local Catholic church and discovers the woman, Grace, she replaced recently died. Between her relationship with her family, the church employees she gets to know, and the search for who Grace was, Gilda begins to discover who she is and what life, love, and companionship means to those around her.
Austin has created a character in Gilda that reminds all of us what a struggle it is to find oneself in a world that tries to define you in ways that aren't very correct and certainly not pure in intention. Austin posits all kinds of people around Gilda, from wholesome, to deceptive, to gluttonous, and especially the misguided. There is a lot of introspection by Gilda in the book, but the most endearing moments are when she sees the beauty and love and uniqueness in others. Everyone else is struggling with life just like her and the contentment that provides Gilda is palpable. Some of Gilda's introversion was distractingly long, I guess because that is how we as humans are in real life, but as part of the the story, it sometimes distractedly slowed down the book.
Some really funny and really touching moments left me happy that I had the chance to read EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL SOMEDAY BE DEAD.

I love the narrator of "Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead", Gilda, and I love the deeply honest portrayal of anxiety and depression Emily Austin has written in this novel. It's rare to see such a raw, honest, realistic portrayal of a brain with such exceedingly specific anxieties, spirals, and intrusive thoughts in fiction - especially a lesbian one.

I suspect this book will be polarizing depending on the reader's personal relationship to and/or experiences of mental illness, and while it could certainly be triggering for some, just as many others will likely find it validating and rewarding to see parts of themselves reflected on the page. It goes to very dark, very messy places - which frankly, I appreciated - but I also appreciated that it ended on a somewhat forward-looking note. I'll be thinking about Gilda for a while!

I struggled with this book. The dry humor is typically something I love in an author & their storytelling, but this book was so negative. And it lasted the entire book! I had high hopes given the title & the beginning, as I found myself laughing along to her many predicaments and overthinking, which is just so relatable! But I wish the author would have brightened it up a little towards the end.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Storygraph!

This book started off pretty humorous to me, until I really got to know the main character. Then, it was sad but also still a little funny. The main character, Gilda, has severe mental health issues. She is obviously depressed, anxious, and a bit of a hypochondriac. She is a regular at the local emergency room with how often she goes there thinking she’s dying. And Gilda is preoccupied, if not obsessed with death.

Gilda is a bit odd, strange, quirky. She was raised in a family that would doesn’t talk about such things, they are incredibly repressed... but there is a clear history of mental health issues in the family, including her alcoholic brother, her father, and her uncle who committed suicide.

Gilda has been struggling for a while, and when she gets a flyer offering therapy at a nearby Catholic Church, she decides to check it out. When she gets there, the priest thinks she is there for a job, and she gets hired as a secretary after their previous secretary passed away. She doesn’t tell them she is gay or that she isn’t catholic, and well, they don’t ask and she needs a job.

Personally, I think this book missed the mark for me in a few ways. I really wanted it to love it, as it has been one I’ve been looking forward to. I just think the issues in this book weren’t treated with the seriousness that they deserved. Gilda had severe mental health issues, and serious thoughts of suicide. The way the book wrapped up all the issues with a nice little bow at the end just seemed to negate the difficulty of Gildas situation.

There were some parts of it I really enjoyed, and some really poignant commentary on the human condition. At times I really related to Gilda. But parts that I think were intended to be funny just ended up being sad. It was dark humor maybe, which I often enjoy. This one just didn’t work for me.

This book has the essence of all the things I like: first person present narrative, female ennui, accurate descriptions of panic / anxiety, reminders that there are good people in the world, and the makings of a murder mystery. It did, however, take me awhile to get invested with the story and characters. Read this book with your book club or friends - and it'll most definitely spur some hot debate.

In Emily Austin's EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL SOMEDAY BE DEAD, we are introduced to Gilda. She has just been fired from her job at a bookstore (which she was horrible at), and she finds herself on a weekly basis going to the emergency room thinking that she is having an heart attack, when it is clearly a panic attack. When she finds a brochure about a mental health group, she finds herself in front of a church and she is mistaken for a job applicant for the administrative assistant position which was recently vacated after their last one died. Gilda is a lesbian, and an atheist, but she does not feel like she can say no, and so begins her new career.

EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL SOMEDAY BE DEAD is a darkly comedic and sad window into someone who is depressed and anxious. Much of the book is Gilda's stream of conscious thoughts that won't be for everyone, yet enjoy enjoyed. It is a pretty insightful look at severe depression, where she is exhibiting textbook symptoms (inability to concentrate, lack of energy, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, etc.). And it is heartbreaking to read about Gilda's relationship with her family who are unwilling/unable to accept her (or her brother's) issues. She represses a lot, only to blurt out her thoughts at inopportune moments. This is not helpful when police begin investigating Grace's (the former church assistant) death. This is a quick read- I blew through it in a day. And while it will not be everyone's cup of tea, I very much appreciated Gilda's dark humor and the the hole that someone can find themselves in and the struggle to emerge.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

This is one of those books that definitely is for a specific audience; I have not said this in awhile but: I think I'm too old for this book. I say that because other reviews relate to Gilda
(and indicate that they're in that 20s age range) and understand her. I simply do not which didn't add to any enjoyment I'd have reading this. I struggled to get through this one, which bummed me out bc the writing is great. But I simply couldn't connect with the story.

I didn't NOT enjoy this book, however, I have to wonder... who was the intended audience? I can't imagine someone who is feeling like Gilda will want to read this and be sucked even further down. I also can't imagine someone who has felt this way before but is doing better now wanting to read this and remember how awful it is to feel this way. This book was just very... draining. It's incredibly negative and focused on death. It's not a bad book, it's just for a very specific reader I suppose.

This is a quirky little novel, narrated by the very anxious main character, Gilda. Thankfully, I do not struggle with anxiety so I cannot say if her roaming and wild thoughts were accurate, but I do have many friends and family members with a similar struggle and Gilda felt familiar to me. Austin’s writing was insightful and funny, and I found myself highlighting many passages that were particularly poignant. It was a quick and not particularly deep read, but it kept my interest. I would love to see what Ms. Austin creates next!

My thanks to NetGalley for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in any way.

2.5 stars rounded to 3 stars

Well, this one kind of missed the mark for me. It is good, but not great. Gilda is a 28-year-old atheist lesbian who is fixated on death. Really fixated. She thinks about it almost nonstop. Her situation is complicated by her chronic anxiety, depression, and hypochondriasis, which land her in the local ER so often that she is essentially a celebrity there, even to the janitor. Her family is of no help. Furthermore, somehow she has never received any significant psychological help for her issues.

Gilda falls into a job as a receptionist for a Catholic Church. See her nonqualifications above. There is a little mystery here in that the 86-year-old woman she is replacing had a “suspicious” death. Who killed poor Grace?
Other positives include the fact that the story is easy to read and moves quickly. There are also sweet side tales involving animals, and interspersed throughout the story are some really warm moments. I also love the title and the cover of this one.

IMHO, however, Gilda, though having the most “airtime” in this novel, is underdeveloped. We hear her strange thoughts and see her strange actions, but never really get to know her all that well. The supporting characters are a mixed bag. I liked Jeff the priest and Eleanor, Gilda’s girlfriend, but the rest are pretty forgettable. Actually, I won’t remember any of the characters except maybe for Gilda. Maybe.

There’s a bit of humor here—not LOL humor, but smile humor. I liked that. But considering the subject matter most of the story is treated on too light a level for me and is just plain sad. There is a lot of stream of consciousness going on, especially towards the end where it was actually kind of anxiety-provoking (as opposed to suspenseful) for me. I ended up skimming a bit, which I never do, especially in the last 10% of a book. The ending had some positivity to it, but gosh, poor Gilda.

I recently read another book about mental illness and suicide called Together We Will Go. That one is more thought -provoking and has much better characterization. It left a considerable impact on me and is one of the three best books I’ve read this year.

Overall, the story wasn’t what I thought it would be, meaning it really wasn’t what I signed up for, so I was disappointed. Don’t mind me though as its total ratings so far average higher than 4 stars. So read those positive reviews before rejecting this one based on my review. I’m the outlier here.

Many thanks to Net Galley, Isabel DaSilva of Atria Books, and Ms. Emily Austin for offering me an ARC. Opinions stated as mine alone and are not biased in any way.

Thanks NetGalley for the advance copy.

I wanted to like this book but it just left me feeling disturbed. After feeling more than a bit anxious this past year at first it was nice to see that it could be worse. However as the book went on the main characters struggles just became painful to watch unfold. Her family was a disaster and I wanted them to all get help but they seemed like a textbook description of extreme mental health issues. Her fathers behavior particularly bothered me. For someone who had had some issues in the past he was overly harsh and judge mental of others and completely lacking in any ability to see the mess around him let alone in himself. I finished this to see if I would come around in the end but it just left me really unsettled.

I was expecting this novel to be a bit more dark humor, but for me it mostly felt just dark & a bit repetitive. Admittedly, I am not the target audience for this novel, having left my 20's long ago, but I do relate to the main character as someone who is highly sensitive & has bouts of depression. I could definitely feel for Gilda & her overthinking of things & her compassion for the pain of others. I did enjoy the beginnings of the book & her trying to fit in as a Catholic parishioner & especially her contemplation of Leviticus. I was frustrated by her family's attempts to maintain the image of a "normal" family & could see how that affected her attempts to pretend to always be "fine".

The book was a quick read but ended up a little too neatly for me. Again I wanted a little more humor,along the lines of The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett, another character who is contemplating suicide. Admittedly Eudora is in a different stage of life than Gilda, & is not beset by mental health issues, but hers is more the type of dark humor I was expecting. This book has a lot of 5 star reviews, however, so those in their 20's should give it a try.

Thanks to Net Galley for gifting me an ARC of this novel.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wild book. It was kind of a stressful read. Reminded me a bit of the TV show Search Party where I had to read to know what would happen but was uncomfortable for parts.

We follow Gilda as she is drowning in anxiety and frustration and her own discomfort. It's a hard read watching her sink and not being able to do anything. Gilda tries to get her life together but crosses boundaries and struggles through her experiences. She keeps us guessing, but it's both fascinating and horrifying.

There is mystery in this emotionally-driven book but not the kind I was expecting. Overall a very unique read.

I wanted so much to like this book, but mostly just spent the whole read feeling devastated for Gilda, with her anxiety attacks, dysfunctional family, and her earnest attempts to pull her life together. Many thanks, nonetheless, to NetGalley and Atria for the opportunity to read Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead.