“Of course I’m a fraud. The fact that I’m able to carry myself through life without being crushed beneath the psychological weight of being alive proves that I’m a con artist. Aren’t we all con artists?” {Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead}

You should meet Gilda. She accidentally interviews for a receptionist job at a Catholic church when there seeking a free therapy support group. Her predecessor was possibly murdered and she finds herself entangled in the mystery. Thus begins her string of odd predicaments . She’s a 20-something atheist animal loving lesbian who obsesses over death. Gilda contemplates existential dread so much it becomes debilitating. Her cursing and deadpan humor provide the comic lift which some of the more depressing bits need. I found myself caring about her as I did similarly for Eleanor Oliphant and Nora Seed (Midnight Library). Austin’s writing style for Gilda’s macabre inner monologue imitates the tension of her panic attacks, which results in a quick pace and elicits boatloads of empathy from the reader.

Ultimately this story is a reminder of the fragility and magic of living.

Other adjectives I hope will encourage you to pick it up…Sweet. Sensitive. Hilarious. Poignant. Sad. Luminous. Relatable. Tender. Hopeful.

Thank you for my free review copy!

Of course I read one of my favorite 2021 books in 2022, and after I announce my faves of the year! EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL SOMEDAY BE DEAD is certainly going to go down as a modern classic. I’ve never read a book that so accurately and painfully describes the feeling of existential crises, and how they can pop up at any time and leave you frozen. I think I was hesitant to read it because I don’t necessarily want to read a book about an anxiety while, simultaneously dealing with anxiety, but I bit the bullet last weekend and I’m so glad I did. I didn’t realize that I already love this author, having read her novella OH HONEY a few years ago. I loved that one, and I loved this one, and the book made me laugh out loud so what better recommendation is there than that?

Our heroine is Gilda, a hypochondriac and anxious lesbian who loses her job at a bookstore and begins to spiral. She finds herself working at a Catholic church after a somewhat hilarious misunderstanding, and without telling the priest who hired her that she’s actually an atheist. It is so rare for a book to be heartbreaking one sentence, and make you guffaw in the next. Austin’s writing is singular and beautiful; her wit is dry and her sentences are superbly constructed. The character that she has created in Gilda is unlike one I’ve come across and I already miss spending time with her, and genuinely hope nothing but the best for her future (even though yes, I know she’s fictional). There is no greater recommendation for literary fiction, I think. Another 5 star read to kick off the year!

This was a sad but lovely read. It is a quirky book full of relatable characters, but OMG the ending had me hopeful for Gilda's future.

It would be awkward to say this book was enjoyable, because all of the characters were depressed. The book overwhelmingly focuses on death, so this is not a book for everyone. I found Gilda to be very interesting, and I did want to finish the story, but not in a "I can't put this down way", more in a "Does she find what she's looking for?" way.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

Fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, here's another one for you. Another compelling, deep dive into anxiety and what life is like for those suffering with mental health issues. Sometimes we need a book that's a bit more savory to balance the sweetness of popular fiction and this is a great offering. Well crafted characters that feel honest and engaging; the plot is secondary and almost distracting.

This is a really quick read but I'm not sure I was the right audience for it. The depiction of Gilda's anxiety gave me some anxiety (which may have been the point) but I didn't feel like she was three-dimensional or that I connected to her in any way. That being said, this book is quirky and unique and I think it would be a huge hit with a reader whose humor aligns with Gilda's, and Austin is definitely an author I'll be watching.

Thanks to Atria Boos and NetGalley for the copy to review.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the early copy of this one.

I started this one and the story was so ridiculous that I couldn't. I just stopped. Really felt like the author was trying so hard to write something "quirky" and different.

This book was so different and unique to anything I’ve read. It was so good and beautifully written and I had such a great time with this one.

So this one is hard for me to rate. For the most part, I did not enjoy this book due to the main character being so repetitive and annoying. But, that being said, I would assume that was what the author was going for so does that mean this was a very effective book? The story follows Gilda, a struggling young woman who defiantly has some mental issues. Aside from being a hypochondriac, she is a pathological liar and has issues dealing in the real world. The story unfolds when all her lies come crashing down around her. I originally wanted to give this a 2 star, but the fact that I sort of feel like that was the intention behind the story I will give it 3. Thank you, NetGalley for the eARC.

This was ROUGH. Sometimes funny but often very difficult. The descriptions of panic attacks were very visceral and Gilda really did feel like a woman on the verge, I appreciate the recent surge of messy lesbian novels but I'm not sure I really like it.

I've never really experienced depression, but this book made me feel that I understand it, and those suffering from it, a bit better. This also has much to say about family dynamics and how "fairly normal" families often approach problems by pretending they don't exist---perhaps because they don't know how to fix it, perhaps because they hate confrontation. This is a novel about a 20-something woman that is struggling her way through life, virtually alone, because others do not know (she's a good liar), or if they suspect, they don't know how to help. This had the potential to be a sad, dark book. It's not. But it is eye-opening.

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin is the story of a young woman who suffers from depression and (sadly) is not able to get help. We watch her repeated cries for help go unanswered as she spirals into her illness. Even though the subject matter is rather bleak, the book is never maudlin. There is always hope that Gilda, the protagonist, will be heard or will be able to find the strength to manage her depression. There is humor and there is love. Recommended for fans of Sad Janet, Starling Days and Exciting Times.

This book had such an interesting premise - with an atheist lesbian finding a job at a church. There were times that I would straight up laugh out loud and I have so many passages highlighted. Also, I think the depiction of anxiety was really good (although at some points, so good that it made me personally anxious). Overall it was enjoyable, but the story it self kind of lulled for me - with more editing I think this could have been a 5-star read. Excited to see what the author writes next!

I wouldn't particularly describe this novel as "fun" as it does in the description, but it is a pretty wacky take on a nervous main character. Gilda pretends to be straight and Catholic when she accidentally gets a job working at a church. She needs the money, so why not? Chaos ensues. You can feel the narrator's anxiety which may be too much for some, but I felt like it was relatable. A decent pick!

This book took on and examined mental health in a way not many fiction books do. It was refreshing to read but at times was very hard to read. I wish Gilda had gotten help for her mental illness or got her family to support her more. Her development to the end of the book was good to see and the various plots were entertaining but I keep coming back to how much help she needed and wasn't given.

I struggled to get into Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead. I think I expected it to be less melancholy, and I do not think I was in the right state of mind to handle the darkness of it.

“It’s easy for me to accept that my life is trivial, and that I am a speck of dust. It is hard for me to accept that for the people around me, however. It’s hard for me to accept that my brother’s life doesn’t matter, or that old women who die don’t matter, or even that rabbits or cats don’t matter. I feel simultaneously intensely insignificant and hyperaware of how important everyone is.”

Meet Gilda, a morbidly anxious, depressed lesbian who is terrified of disappointing people. A car rear ends her, breaking her arm, and she doesn’t say anything, lest she demand too much. She drives herself to the ER, where the staff are all too familiar with who she is. Gilda comes in on what seems like a weekly basis because she feels like her heart is trying to gnaw its way out her chest, like she is being held hostage by her nervous system.

Finally deciding to seek help, Gilda follows the instructions of a flyer and ends up at a Catholic Church. Her chronic inability to inconvenience people leads her to accept a secretary position at this church, where they assume Gilda is a good Catholic girl.

The person she is replacing was an old woman named Grace, who died under suspicious circumstances. Everything around Gilda reminds her of our futile existence on this earth. There is so much suffering in the world, and Gilda has her finger perpetually on the pulse of the world’s pain, she can never stop feeling its dreadful thud.

We get to learn about moments from Gilda’s past and explore her difficult relationship with her emotionally repressed family. We watch as Gilda lets her apartment devolve into squalor as she moves through life as detached as she possibly can. It’s all too much, what her brain does when it has even a second to think about life and death.

I really liked this maudlin, intense look into Gilda’s psyche. It was incredibly emotional and darkly funny. Grappling with our short existence on this earth is no easy task, but Austin does it bravely and does it well.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #AtriaBooks for this eARC! EITRWSBD is out now! 💕

I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would, especially since towards the end I got frustrated with the main character, Gilda, because she made the wrong choice every. single. time. I sometimes get caught up in the obsessive death loop and get emotional about it so could relate to Gilda. I loved the ending! 3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4!

DNF at about 40 percent. I couldn't connect with the main character (despite dealing with my own anxiety issues) and didn't find the situations to be funny, but more cringe-y.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC.

I was weirdly excited to get my hands on this book because the title was intriguing - morbid, but I had a feeling this book was more than the title itself. Come to find out, I was wrong and right. This book was not totally what I expected and I can't lie that I was extremely disappointed with the overarching theme and ESPECIALLY the end of the novel, which is a big make or break for me when it comes to any book. I wanted to like this book, I really did, but I found it boring and super sad. I felt that this book could have been more than what it was, but not every book is for everyone!