Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an arc of this book! All opinions are my own.

I have been waiting for the next Emily Austin book after I absolutely devoured Everyone in this Room will Someday be Dead and this book did not disappoint. All I wanted to do was read this book and I found myself taking a little-too-long lunch breaks at work just to keep reading.

In this book we meet Enid, a woman obsessed with space and true crime whose paranoia slowly takes over her whole life as the book progresses. Enid drives this book and I found myself right there with her as she worries about her neighbor, her coworkers, and her family. As someone who can related to Enid ( a LOT), the ending of the book gives me hope for all of us weird women out there.

Emily Austin is an auto-read author for me and I can't wait to see what's next!!

I went into this book thinking it would be funny and light - but it was kind of the opposite. It was sad, dark and weird. There was behavior related to trauma that we didn't learn about until the end, and it made me wonder WTF was happening during the majority of the book. I found the main character to be hard to like, there was too much focus on her being "weird" to the point of annoying. We all have our quirks and when they are constantly brought to the attention of others they become everything that you are and not just a part of your personality. There were many parts of the book that just lost me and made it hard for me to really truly love it. It was a very quick read though, so if you are looking for something different and fun, this may be a better fit for you.
Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

"Interesting Fact about Space" is a contemporary story about a woman, Enid, who is utterly obsessed with space, which I found to be incredibly relatable because like Enid, I, too, am really fascinated by space. Enid has a phobia of bald men, (lol), she is a lesbian (great LGBT rep!), she has an obsession with true crime (who doesn't?), and she’s trying to forge a new relationship with her half-sisters after the death of her absent father.

Enid is such a unique and interesting character to me.. She spends most of the book pondering if she is a bad person and feeling paranoid that someone is following her and breaking into her home. I can relate to her more than I care to admit, haha. There is something so witty and charming about this story despite at times the subject matter getting heavy/sad.

I really enjoyed Emily Austin's writing in this book and I feel like this is one of those books that reminds its readers that it’s OK to be who we are, and more importantly, that it’s OK to NOT be OK. I really enjoyed this one and it has me interested in reading more books from this Austin,

This was an EASY 5 star rating and I will be recommending it to my space-obsessed friends and family members and will be purchasing a hard copy ASAP!

16/02/2024
*netgalley arc* I didn't realize this book was from the same author as everyone in this room will someday be dead when i requested it on netgalley. I have had eitrwsbd on my tbr for the longest time now and after reading this im even more excited to read this. I am so lucky and thankful that I got approved for this because I truly think i just found my favourite book! Despite coverage of alot of heavy subject matter, this book felt like a big warm hug to me. I felt seen in alot of ways and somehow that mixed in with the smooth pose of the writing brought me alot of comfort. It is a poignant tale of feeling unfitting which I think many of us have felt at some point and for others maybe a whole lives told with alot of love in it. If you haven't, check it out!

I absolutely loveeeee this author and I will be reading everything she does for the rest of her career. She writes the most fun and quirky lesbian characters and it’s so enjoyable!

Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead was one of my favorite books of 2022, so I was very excited to dig into this. I liked this book slightly less — I’m more of a Gilda than an Enid so I was less personally affected by every word — but it’s still fantastic. Emily Austin knows how to write lesbians with feelings!

Have you ever worried that something was inherently wrong with you? This is the question at the heart of Interesting Facts About Space. At first, I found this book slow and kind of aimless, but it wrapped up fantastically. Emily Austin writes with incredible insight into the human experience. Even without experiencing the same things as Enid, I was able to deeply engage in her experience and find myself represented in her character as well. There is such empathy in this writing, and the novel guides the reader to a place of both hope and humanity.

I loved this book so much. I was trying to come up with a more specific genre than contemporary to describe this to my wife and I came up with “mentally ill lesbian” as the most apt genre, and after this book, I want to read more in that genre. Everyone go read this, especially if you ever wonder if you are secretly a terrible person.

Emily Austin’s writing is incredible. In her second novel Interesting Facts About Space, Austin gives us an intimate look inside main character Enid’s head as she navigates relationships with her adult half-sisters, a new partner, and her mom, and faces a serious phobia of bald men. Enid’s physical and mental health is handled with such care, and I internally cheered every time she expressed a feeling to a loved one and they could relate. Emily Austin is officially an auto-read author for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Enid loves space and true crime, has a phobia of bald men, and thinks she might be a terrible person. After years of only hooking up, she thinks she might be falling for someone. She's afraid someone is breaking into her apartment and she worries constantly about her mother. This is the story of a short time in Enid's life when things start to turn around.

Like Everyone in this Room Will Someday be Dead, Austin brings to life a character grappling with mental illness. I sped through this book, with its ample chapter breaks and relatable characters. It is character-driven with excellent writing. I'll continue to pick up Austin's work in future.

Wow! Emily Austin does it again. She somehow knows how to perfectly capture the human experience in a realistic and funny way. I see so much of myself in her characters.

I was such a huge fan of "Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead" so I had super high expectations for "Interesting Facts About Space" and I was not disappointed in the slightest.

We need more characters like Enid who are real and flawed and just trying to get through life in the best way they can.

If you want to think a lot about your life and why you are the way you are and have some good laughs along the way pick up this book.

5/5 stars!

This book is genuinely funny HAHA like some of my highlights genuinely made me laugh out loud. Enid is a mid-twenties woman who feels socially awkward 24/7 and has a terrifyingly debilitating fear of bald men. We learn about her and the trauma from her past throughout the novel in a way that does make you feel for her, especially when she touched upon her experience as a hard of hearing individual. I liked the character dynamics, the side characters added a lot, and I was really rooting for Enid throughout the whole book.

Even though I liked our main character, I found the book overall quite repetitive - and I think the pacing of the book is a bit jolted? Like, I did enjoy how the story wrapped up but the very end feels SO abrupt compared to the rest of the book that it took me by surprise. I enjoyed Austin’s writing and will definitely be checking out her debut and future books!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion!

I liked Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead but enjoyed this one a lot more and flew through it in days. I don't want to give too much away, as the story unfurls and ends up being much more than it appeared at the outset. The book I finished just before this one was full of flat, unbelievable characters, so Austin's world of fully fleshed-out, complex people was a pleasure to inhabit. She's funny and smart and insightful and weaves a mystery, space facts, true crime podcasts, trauma recovery, and family into the best novel I've read so far this year.

Thank you Atria Books and Netgalley for the free eARC of this book.

I enjoyed Austin’s first novel, Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead. It came at the right time when I was in the right mood for such a story.

However, her sophomore novel did not hit the same for me. It’s touted as hilarious and fast-paced, and I thought it was the exact opposite. It’s heartbreaking seeing Enid struggle with her mental health, relationships, and phobias. It’s tough to read about her self-sabotaging and I didn’t find the dark humor humorous.

We spend a lot of time in Enid’s head and I found this stressful rather than enlightening. Nothing about the plot was interesting until the last 5%, otherwise this is very character-driven and I didn’t love the characters.

With enjoying Austin’s other work and loving space, I had high hopes for this one.

TW: Homophobia, paranoia, suicidal ideation, partial deafness and ableism,

This book has great themes, like mental illness, dysfunctional family relationships, queer dating, and coming into one's own. This book has heart and a loveable main character. It is laugh out loud funny with a tender and beautifully written prose

I loved the neurodivergent representation but just wish the author would have decided to include that diagnosis at the beginning instead of the character finding out at the end. I felt like it was very easy to see that there was an underlying trait but maybe that’s just because I am a mom to a neurodivergent child and live in that world.

All the self talk and paranoia from the main character got a bit repetitive but I understood why it was done.

Enid is a lesbian who loves space and true crime. She goes on dates with many many people, and this sometimes gets her in trouble. She has a strained familial relationship between her mom, her half sisters, and their mom, and she has one best friend. She's convinced that someone has been breaking into her apartment, and she's terrified of bald men. This book went in so many directions I wasn't expecting but I loved them all. It wasn't a romance, it wasn't a drama, it wasn't a thriller, but had elements of them all. Enid felt like such a real, flawed character and I loved getting to know her and seeing her figure out a bit more about herself through the process.

I loved Emily Austin’s debut Everyone in this Room Will Someday be Dead and it’s one of the books that helped me fall back in love with reading in 2021. It’s not at all surprising that I loved this book just as much.

Enid was such an awkward and relatable main character. I saw a lot of myself in her and more than once I had to stop and think, “Wow, Emily. Get out of my brain.” Whatever weird little thoughts you’ve had that you think there is no way anyone else would think it? Yeah, you get it. In addition to being terrified of bald men and obsessed with murder podcasts, Enid also shares random interesting space facts with her mother as a wellness check and spends her free time watching and reporting the old YouTube videos she made in her teen years.

Please read this if you like:
-Books that are more character than plot
-LGBTQ+ rep
-Mental health rep/neurodivergent MC
-Complicated family dynamics
-Interesting facts about space 😉

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for a review copy.

I haven’t yet read Emily Austin’s debut, but after reading this one, I definitely am beginning to understand the hype!

This was a wonderful sometimes-funny, sometimes-awkward, always-earnest look into the life of protagonist Enid, who likes true crime podcasts and casual dating, as she deals with difficult family relationships, a phobia of bald men, and her own brain. The voice and writing was wonderful and really vividly brought Enid to life, which I loved; she was a really wonderful character. My major critique is that the ending felt a little rushed and perhaps a little too neatly tied-up, which made the overall pacing feel a little weird.

Overall, a very good read, and I very much look forward to picking up the author’s first book. Thank you so much to Atria Books and Netgalley for the advance copy!

First of all, I think this would make a really great book club book! There’s so much to ponder and discuss.

I think this book was a masterpiece of writing but I didn’t really like it at the same time. 😂 It was such an odd story and the chapters were so long! (I’m a short chapter girl) I think for me it was a 3 star read but I’m giving it 4 because the writing really was so good.

This was a book I had to enjoy a little at a time. It was deep, profound, heavy, and kind of depressing. It was like a fine wine. You can’t chug it or you’ll miss the beauty in it. It was a fascinating look into a different way of thinking. Polly was by far my favorite character. I loved the ending and how Enid was able to grow and heal.

The gradual insight into her past made me itch to pick it up and the slow unraveling of her reasoning behind things was so intriguing. The characters were bold and believable. I think it would make a FANTASTIC movie!

I’m not sure what to compare it to as I’ve never read anything quite like it before. I think if you enjoy the human psyche and are a counselor or therapist I think you may find this book riveting!