didnt like this one as much as her first but i love austin's biting narration techniques and the vulnerability that peaks through the humour

Mini review - Interesting Facts about Space by Emily R. Austin

I read this one slowly setting it down and forgetting about then picked it up again at the perfect moment and blasted through it. At first it’s a slow character study of a woman struggling. Her anxiety and unhealthy habits are getting the better of her and she’s not doing well. Then there’s a sprinkle of mystery that hooked me followed by a slow and bumping journey to healing and stepping a bit further away from the brink.
I really enjoyed this one! Austin expertly let this story and character unravel then expertly wrapped all the stray pieces up again making for a very introspective, lovely and satisfying reading experience.

Emily Austin captured my attention with her first book, so requesting Interesting Facts About Space was an easy decision. Austin has the ability to write characters in all their messiness, and make them completely loveable.

To say that Enid is a mess would be an understatement. She's irrationally terrified by bald men. She's trying to figure out the relationship with her half-sisters, amidst her complicated feelings centered around her recently deceased father. And she's got to keep an eye on her mom, who swings between her "no lipstick, stack of dirty dishes" days to days filled with baking and energy. Pile all of this onto her neurodivergent, queer, anxious being, and Enid is the picture of coping with life's stressors in unique and wonderful ways. Ask her about space, and she can tell you ALL of the bizarre facts. And if you want to know about true crime, Enid is your girl.

This book was humorous and charming, and filled with all of the quirks of people living their complete and confusing lives. I think that Austin's strengths are definitely her characters, who are relatable and messy and completely perfect in their own ways.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for sharing this eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I was very excited to receive this arc, I have heard great things about Emily Austin’s other book (which I haven’t had the chance to read yet), and thought I might enjoy this one. Which I definitely did! I loved the uneasiness of it, and the balance of lighthearted comedy to it. The way Austin writes just really draws you in to the turmoil of the story and the complexity of the characters but also balances it out to also make it so enjoyable! I’m so glad I got a chance to read this!

Title: Interesting Facts about Space
Author: Emily R. Austin
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4.50
Pub Date: January 30, 2024

I received a complimentary eARC from Simon & Shuster Canada via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted #Ad

T H R E E • W O R D S

Charming • Relatable • Hopeful

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Enid is obsessed with space. She can tell you all about black holes and their ability to spaghettify you without batting an eye in fear. Her one major phobia? Bald men. But she tries to keep that one under wraps. When she’s not listening to her favorite true crime podcasts on a loop, she’s serially dating a rotation of women from dating apps. At the same time, she’s trying to forge a new relationship with her estranged half-sisters after the death of her absent father. When she unwittingly plunges into her first serious romantic entanglement, Enid starts to believe that someone is following her.

As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid must contend with her mounting suspicion that something is seriously wrong with her. Because at the end of the day there’s only one person she can’t outrun—herself.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I picked up Interesting Facts about Space on whim, not knowing what to expect. I had been intrigued by Emily R. Austin's novel Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, but I hadn't gotten a chance to read it yet. With that said, I am so glad to have taken a chance on this one - it was one of those books that just spoke to me on so many different levels.

Told from the first person perspective, the meandering writing style follows Enid's stream of consciousness, allowing for an in-depth glimpse into her inner thoughts, insecurities, and motivations. As a result of this, the pacing is quite slow through the first half, with the plot taking a backseat, and a lot packed into the final third. For most of the narrative, I really had no idea where it was going - and that is exactly why I ended up loving it.

Enid is unique, yet so relatable. I loved being inside her brain and trying to figure out why she is the way she is. Although it tackles some serious topics, there is an underlying comical tone that really set the stage. There were so many 'me too' moments sprinkled throughout. I saw myself in how she notices her mother's struggles when the little things start disappearing. Additionally, when Enid describes needing 5-minutes to rehearse what she will say to the waitress, I just felt so seen.

Interesting Facts about Space is one of those books that is incredibly hard to describe, yet so deeply human. It was a little weird, a lot messy, and in all honesty, not a whole lot happens, but somehow it worked. I was left with a quiet satisfaction and I would definitely read another book like it. I didn't realize Emily R. Austin is a Canadian author and I look forward to reading Everyone in This Room will Someday Be Dead sooner rather than later.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fans of the character study
• anyone who has felt weird and misunderstood
• readers who like neurodivergent MCs

⚠️ CW: mental illness, panic attacks/disorders, anxiety, depression, paranoia, PTSD, self-harm, eating disorder, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt, stalking, abandonment, murder, death, death of parent, grief, fire/fire injury, ableism, homophobia, lesbophobia, outing, bullying, infidelity, vomit, pregnancy, sexual content, gaslighting, toxic relationship

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"I wish I could have one nice interaction with everyone and then disappear."

"I wonder why some people are like her, and some people are like me… I can’t tell people things like, ‘It’s always so nice to see you’, let alone say something like, ‘I love you’, without feeling my insides curdle. I have to tell them about sunsets on Mars or bake them offensive cakes. I bet she tells Gina she loves her. I bet she doesn’t know anything about stars."

"I will never understand how my dad could stand in the glow of my mom, as if an inch from a star, and be unmoved by her formidable light. It has been devastating to watch her fade in response to him."

Enid they could never make me hate you.

I'm coming to realize that I love reading these character studies type books.

Granted I did like Austin's first novel better and don't think this one was able to live up to it as I was hoping it would, this is still a great read and I loved how everything came together in the end.

3.75 stars

I read Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin about a month ago and still don’t fully know how to process what I felt about it, other than the fact it sucked me in and was a single-session read for me. And hey, bonus - it’s Canadian!

The main character Enid is a queer, anxious, neurodivergent mess with a whole lot of repressed trauma. Most notably, her mental health struggles manifest as paranoia about bald men, which increasingly takes over her life as she navigates her job, her friendships, her first prolonged romantic relationship, and a complex blended-family relationship steeped in old wounds. She’s obsessed with true crime and space and on the verge of mental collapse.

There’s no other way for me to say it: This is just a weird (affectionate) little book. Parts of it I related to deeply as someone who is also queer, neurodivergent, anxious, and a millennial. Even the parts I didn’t felt very real. I think it’s a true talent to make a novel feel both bizarre but completely believable and even mundane. In that way, this book is so incredibly human. Enid’s biggest enemy is herself, and her journey through her instability is both compelling and uplifting.

If you want a book that will comfort you with the reminder that we’re all a mess in one way or the other, or if you like realistic yet hilarious fiction that primarily deals with a personal journey about mental health and interpersonal relationships, this one might be for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

emily austin's debut 'everyone in this room will someday be dead' very quickly became one of my favourite books of 2021, and her sophomore novel 'interesting facts about space' was just as fun & quirky as her first. the book follows enid, a lesbian obsessed with space & true crime, and afraid of bald men, who fills her time going on dates & forging relationships with her estranged half-sisters after their father dies. but very quickly, enid begins to spiral into paranoia that someone is following her, and that something may be wrong with herself, too. i loved following enid's thought spirals, as they were the perfect combination of dark & hilarious. austin's humour really shines in this one, and while i loved her first more, this one is definitely not one to miss.

I liked Austin’s debut novel Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead. This, her second novel, is the story of Enid, a woman who works in data services for NASA and lives an ever-so-careful life, self-protective to a fault. She’s probably on the autistic spectrum, she has a phobia of bald men, and her main coping strategy when she needs soothing is to either call her often depressed mother and tell her facts about outer space, or listen to gory murder podcasts. Enid tells us: “My hobbies include listening to murder stories, having casual lesbian sex, and telling my mom interesting facts about space.”

After a slowish start, this novel about one woman’s internal world gripped by fears and phobias grew on me to such an extent that by the end I was entirely taken with her transformation.

This is a very interior novel, told in first person from Enid’s point of view, and Enid’s view of herself is not kind. She cannot understand herself, and is self-denigrating. “I worry that I am a shell for something bad. Deep down, in the spot where most people keep their souls, I keep a weird little bug.” She uses the metaphor of having a parasite inside of her that could harm herself or those she cares about. As poignant as this is, I found the first third of the novel to be a tad repetitive. Enid was interesting but static.

But a curious thing happened after the first third. It’s like Austin took a space laser to a giant asteroid hurtling through the cosmos on its unwavering course, and started to nudge it ever so slightly, so that it gradually took on a new course, gaining positive momentum. Enid was moving! She was changing and growing, despite how very hard it was for her to begin the process. The relationship with truly caring people–her stepsisters, her mother, and the possibility of a girlfriend–allowed her to explore her history of trauma and begin the process of healing.

I love a book that gets better as I read. This is a great example of sticking with it to get to the good parts, and I’m so glad I did! I felt like cheering for Enid by the end, and that’s a lovely feeling.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for a gifted copy!

Interesting Facts about Space was, well, interesting. There's a lot going on in this quirky novel, and I think Enid is a character that is very relatable to many people, if a little exaggerated. Mental health was well represented but also a little bit over the top, with just about every character experiencing some type of mental health affliction. I enjoyed the queer rep, which I found very authentic and Enid's experience in the modern dating world is probably similar to the average user of dating apps (of which I am not one, so I can't be 100% sure). I could go on about Enid's irrational fear of bald men, the break-in at her apartment, the missing grape and her rat tattoos but I would be giving too much away. If you're intrigued, go pick this one up, it's available now

Enid is a fascinating character - she's quirky, vulnerable, and loving, with uncommon phobias. She lives alone and thinks someone is following her and has had someone break into her home, which would freak anyone out, including myself. That being said, I'm not sure I was following a plot in the first half of the book. I kept reading because of how incredible the reviews are, but it wasn't until about 65% of the way that my interest was really captured. Ultimately, I think the ending fell a bit short and could have been built out a bit more, but I did laugh out loud on several occasions and I think Enid will stay with me for some time. I don't think I can look at a bald man the same ever again. Also, love that it's an lgbtq story by a Canadian author!

As someone with an irrational fear (that I will not disclose in this public forum) and whom finds space quite interesting, I was enamoured with Interesting Facts About Space. Not to mention the deeper conversations revealed in the body of the book that forces the reader to reflect. There’s a little bit of Enid in all of us, but the book makes it very clear that it’s not a bad thing!! It also makes it clear that we’re our own worst enemies and the relationships that stick with you regardless of your parasite are there to stay! The humour, the feels, the hopefulness - everything just hits. I loved everything about it.

Not only was I impatiently waiting for this release after being teased about it in a book club conversation with Emily herself for her previous novel a year ago, but I think Emily is getting even better at her craft (and her debut was a very strong start!). I can’t wait to read more by her, she already became and auto-buy author for me :)

Interesting Facts About Space is an oddball of a book that you just want to hug. I wanted to tell Enid she’s going to be okay throughout this, and that we’re all fucked up in the ways she worries about.

Enid is a half-deaf, queer information architect at the Space Agency who loves true crime and is close to her mom. She dates around, and has a phobia of bald men. These are all things that she knows about herself, and is mostly fine with, though she suspects she isn’t a very good person at all. And also she thinks she keeps seeing a bald man in her window. Enid starts to become increasingly paranoid, and slowly begins to realize this is a problem bigger than she can handle by herself.

Funny, touching, also a little frustrating, but genuinely caring in handling Enid’s problems. I ended up racing through this just because I wanted to know that Enid was going to be okay.

2.75 - ‘Interesting Facts About Space’ is a novel following Enid who is highly anxious, super into space and true crime, and has a slightly debilitating fear of bald men (don’t we all?). As she’s learning to navigate new relationships in her life (i.e., with her estranged half-sisters and the wife of the woman she’s been seeing) she just can’t seem to shake off the feeling that she’s being watched. Through dry humour that can only be described as a blend of ‘the end of the fucking world‘ and ‘fleabag,’ this novel is an exploration of anxieties, trauma and navigating life.

I find myself reluctantly coming face to face with some of the worst and most vulnerable aspects of myself through Emily Austen’s books, it can be hard to digest sometimes, seeing yourself so plainly through someone else’s eyes. I think understanding the human condition and reflecting it in these characters is a skill Emily Austen really hones in.

That being said, I found myself still struggling with this book. I enjoy character-driven ‘no plot just vibes’ kind of books, but I felt this one to be a bit directionless for the majority of the time. And while it does wrap itself with a point near the end, I was slogging through it for the most part wondering where it was going and why.

I do however think it will find its audience and if you loved her debut novel ‘everyone in this room will someday be dead’ you’ll enjoy this one as well.

This was probably my most anticipated book coming out in 2024 and it didn't disappoint. Emily Austin is really good at writing very fleshed-out, unique, and complex characters that have lots of flaws and make lots of decisions that aren't the best while still having the characters be really likable and deeply relatable. Just like with Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, the neurodivergent and queer representation was really well done in a variety of characters with a lot of depth.

Also, I really enjoyed the fast pace and the way the scene breaks were done. That kept me reading and wanting to know what would happen next. There was a really clear picture of Enid's life and the people in it while not getting bogged down in exhaustingly long scenes. I love when a book manages to be detailed but fast-moving and quick to read at the same time.

Emily Austin does it again! I was laughing, crying, and felt extremely seen through the thoughts of Enid.

Enid is a 26-year-old hard-of-hearing lesbian who constantly worries she is innately a bad person with a rotten heart. She’s avoidant in her relationships and thinks she manipulates people into loving her. She worries that there is a bad parasite inside her that is clawing to overtake her. Austin is so talented at articulating the deepest inner workings of someone who struggles to cope with anxiety and depression; feeling like an alien in human skin—that said Enid’s thoughts and experiences further push that I have never had an original experience in my life!!!

There is a passage in the first chapter that compares the desperation of wanting to be accepted to a coyote in a dog’s skin begging to be let into a litter. Falling to my knees in the middle of a Walmart!!!!! It's so Boygenius lyrics coded.

Parts of this read as a thriller. Enid has a phobia of bald men that fuels her paranoia that someone (bald) is stalking her. Austin perfectly captured the dread and anxiety go preparing a script before social interactions, learning the ‘correct’ things to say to appear ‘normal’. She captures the consuming anxious feeling of being hunted by a wild animal while completing mundane tasks such as conversing with a bald co-worker or attending a family gathering.

This book is so special to me!!!!!!!

I want Gilda from Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead to meet Enid!!!

Thank you, NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Delighted to include this title in the January edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

Emily Austin's second novel has beyond surpassed expectations. The unique prose readers came to love in "Everyone in this Room will Someday be Dead" is still as fresh and engaging, and Austin's peculiar and wonderful characters shine throughout the novel. Austin's ability to address the complexities of queer relationships and mental illness through Enid's relationships, both platonic and more, captures something which is quite rare in contemporary fiction. A phenomenal short and engaging read, 9.5/10.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Emily Austin's poignant storytelling returns in her sophomore novel. The writing in this book gripped me all the way through, and I enjoyed it just as much as "everyone in this room will someday be dead".

I LOVED THIS I LOVED THIS I LOVED THIS SO MUCH!!! I'd say this was even better than Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead - the same hilarious observations and weirdly lovable characters and horribly awkward situations, but the storyline for this one was more developed. At first it all feels a bit random but it comes together wonderfully, with an ending that made me emotional. I love Enid. This was the perfect Christmas read!