**ARC Review***
Pub date: Jan 28th, 2025

I read this in one day, which for me is a rare thing to accomplish.
The description of this book was what drew me in.

Going into this, I knew that this story would hit differently than what I normally read (fantasy and romance). But hey, I’m trying to branch out, you know? Reading, “We Could Be Rats,” was like peeling back a curtain, only to be met with a punch in the gut.


Sigrid’s story is told in various letters or “attempts”. Weaving in and out throughout the book we are told of her childhood; how she coped with her parents and anxieties by warping her reality. And how it felt to be on the cusp of adolescence, becoming a teenager and fighting to stay in that innocence instead of growing up because growing up meant seeing the swamp monsters for what they were.

You’re told right off the bat what she plans to do, but the whole time you’re pulled into different directions as to the “why.” Each letter felt real and sometimes relatable. They had me laughing one moment and in tears the next. I believe there are stories in “We Could Be Rats” that are experienced by a good amount of people. Shared experiences from childhood toys coming to life, to family holiday dinners going haywire. Being queer in a small town. Mourning the loss of a friend who was still alive. etc.

I felt myself in Sigrid's shoes a lot. Maybe that’s something to unpack in therapy.
My therapist told me once that unpacking is like shining a light on a cute little rat. Acknowledging it, seeing what it's up to, and then letting it go on its way. That is what it felt like reading this book. Acknowledging all the things that felt icky in our past and bringing light to it. Trying to understand it and coming out in the end to see the pink clouds after a rainstorm.
In the end, we want to be happy. We want to be that happy rat at the county fair.

I recommend this book. It deals with heavy topics in a way that has changed my perspectives.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the eARC!

This was such a beautifully messy and emotional book. I honestly don't have many words to explain it, because it was just so close to my heart. These characters felt like me, it felt like my thoughts were transcribed onto the page. This book absolutely tore my heart into pieces multiple times, but in the best of ways. Please read this! It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it will tug at your heart strings like no other book has before.

Like all books, please read trigger warnings before reading.

emily austin creates a comforting reading experience in each of her books—I would say despite the darker themes that absorb her characters, but upon reflection, this is especially what makes it so comforting. everyone is going through something, aren’t they? the author’s focus on death in particular may seem morbid, but find me anyone who hasn’t been affected by it in some way, small or large—whether thinking about oneself or the knowledge of a friend/family/acquaintance/celebrity/musician/public figure going through it. it is a topic so easily accessible and so often avoided.

by the end of the book I was conflicted between being satisfied and wanting more. as in, more attempts from the narrator to work through life and death and all of the questions in between. this is one of those books that I almost felt like I inserted myself in, having an existential crisis alongside the main character in the rationalization of it all.

This book looks at depression and suicide in a really interesting way. It uses the suicide attempt of one sister to really explore family bonds and the various traumas of growing up. This book is so incredibly thoughtful and very frank in its discussions of mental health. The organization and narration are unique and really add to the story. I genuinely loved this book and I could not put it down.

We Could Be Rats (publication date January 28, 2025) by Emily R. Austin (Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead) is a uniquely-told literary novel about two sisters, Sigrid and Margit, who still both have significant trauma and mental health issues from growing up in a conflict-ridden home.

The title comes from a story told in the beginning of the novel, that Sigrid heard about a rat at a fair, gorging himself on the tons of leftover food he could find (sounds a lot like Templeton from Charlotte’s Web) and how he found so much joy in that, and that we humans should do the same thing–find days where we can be so joyful and “eat up the world” as well.

Unfortunately, both Sigrid and Margit are far from joyful, despite their different circumstances. Sigrid didn’t finish high school and is working at a “dollar” store, while Margit is in college studying literature. Although they were close as kids because of their shared trauma, they haven’t been close in a long time.

The uniqueness is that the first part of the book consists of suicide notes written by Sigrid, titled “Attempt 1” and so on. The second part of the book is from Margit’s perspective, as she found Sigrid unconscious and spent time with her in the hospital after her suicide attempt. There is a bit of a twist that I’ll leave for you to discover.

Austin’s writing is beautiful, and it’s one of my favorite kind of books–full of wise quotes from the characters as they are ruminating about their lives–from the nature of childhood and imagination to dealing with people who disagree with you on fundamental matters. Sigrid is a lesbian, and she has struggled with continuing to live in her conservative small town, dealing with her conservative family, and the opioid addiction of her best friend. And, though neither have to live with the conflict between their parents any more, Sigrid, at least, continues to feel like no one in their family understands her.

Austin acknowledges anti-fatness and diet culture, and notes that at least Margit is concerned about her weight. In another passage, Austin acknowledges individual’s differences in perspective, specifically about weight and dieting. I can’t say it’s fat positive, because there’s no clear description of a character’s size as fat, but it is definitely weight neutral, and I appreciate a direct acknowledgement of diet culture and different perspectives when it comes to body size.

If you’re up to a novel about suicide and mental health, growing up in a high-conflict family, and sisterhood, I highly recommend it!

[ARC review - thank you to Atria Books for the ARC via NetGalley!]

Like all Emily Austin’s books, We Could Be Rats will make you laugh and cry and think about life from new perspectives. She understands that we are all a bit odd and deal with life’s challenges in ways that are sometimes strange and impossible to explain to other people. If you connect with the feeling of needing to escape your childhood small town this may be the book for you.

I will happily read every book Emily Austin publishes! We Could Be Rats has many of the elements I loved about Interesting Facts About Space and Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead – quirky, hilarious conversational writing and endearing characters who end up in bizarre situations while dealing with serious life and mental health challenges.

Note you may want to read the trigger warnings before reading.

Going into this book I had no expectations - I saw Emily Austen and thought what the heck sure let's request that. Even so, if I had remembered the blurb, this book still would hav subverted my expectations. The use of unreliable narration was also so cleverly done. I love unreliable narrators but this paritcular implementation might take the cake as my favorite. This book takes Austen's strengths - namely a unique sense of dark, morbid humor - and balances it with beautifully moving themes and messages about family, connection, childhood joy and imagination, and what it means to live. I've enjoyed the other book I've read by this author, but this one moved me in a way I won't forget for some time.

There were a number of elements of this book that I adored, but the two that meant the most to me was the depiction of suicidal ideation and imaginative play in childhood. For some context, I myself have experienced severe suicidal ideation, enough that I was hospitalized briefly, and have received suicide intervention training and implemented that training when I worked at a crisis line. In short, I have a fairly vast understanding of the nuances that come with being suicidal in its many forms. The biggest commonality I've seen in my personal experience as well as at the crisis line is that suicidality is often more mundane than it's commonly portrayed. The thing that can tip one over the edge isn't always a huge catastrophic, life altering event. It can be the small things, like a tiff with your friend, or the store being out of your favorite beverage. In turn, turning points and deciding to not act on suicidality can be just as mundane, like your favorite show airing an episode later that week, or finishing the leftovers in your fridge. This is all to say, the depiction of Sigrid's suicidality captured this nuance so beautifully. For Sigrid, it wasn't a big terrible event, but rather the slow deterioration of her mental health, and a realization brought on by her dolls. The discussion about the mudane struggles of living and what it means to live in between were so poignant and thought provoking.

I also loved the portrayal and discussion of imaginative play in childhood, and the struggle that can come with peers looking down on that type of behavior in middle school. I really related to Sigrid's experience being a very imaginative child myself, who similarly to her stopped this kind of play because of my peers looking down on it. There can be such a grief that comes with losing that activity from the perspective of an adult, and I thought this novel portrayed that well.

If it wasn't already clear, this book really moved me. There is so much more I could say about the themes of living in a small conservative town, neurodiversity, grief, and the ups and downs of life, but instead I will suggest you read it and experience it for yourself. I will be thinking about Sigrid, Margit, Greta, all of Sigrid's toys, and their family dynamics for some time. If you enjoy books with lesbians who are kind of a chaotic mess, stories about childhood, plot that revolves around the mundanity of life, discussion about family dynamics and sibling relationships, or realistic depictions of mental health struggles, you should give this one a try

Never once did I know in the first part of this book what was going to happen in the second or if I even liked it (by the end I knew loved it). The book is about these two young (college aged) sisters and their relationship with one another. They are sifting through their childhood memories, how they became who they are now, and where they will go from here. The first half is from one sisters point of view, and it's suicide letter attempts. You learn a lot about their childhood from those letters. The second half is from the other sister's point of view and the aftermath. It's fantastic & quirky, as I have come to expect from Emily Austin. Loved it so much and can't wait to hold my copy in my hands and hug it.

**ARC Review
Pub date: Jan 28th, 2025

Emily Austin's We Could Be Rats is a profoundly moving and deeply realistic novel that captures the raw complexities of living with depression and navigating toxic family dynamics. The story resonates on a personal level for anyone who has experienced these challenges, offering moments of painful honesty alongside glimmers of hope.

Austin's characters are intricately crafted, their struggles and emotions so vivid that they feel like reflections of real-life experiences. If you've ever felt weighed down by personal struggles or familial tension, this book will feel like a quiet understanding friend.

Highly recommended for its authenticity, emotional depth, and ability to connect with readers on such a personal level.

Thank you @atriabooks and @netgalley for letting me read another fantastic book from @emilyraustinauthor 🥰 Interesting Facts about Space was my first read from Emily and it had such a unique voice. We Could Be Rats had this same energy - it was witty, poignant, and engaging. Highly recommend! It’s out this Tuesday the 28th 💗

(ARC review)

it feels rare to read something that so accurately captures the challenges of navigating family relationships as an adult. the cognitive dissonance that comes with everyone in your life perceiving you in a very positive way while your family sees you as exhausting and dramatic. the feeling of going home with your adult values and ideas and being completely unable to articulate them because within the parent/child dynamic you’re still a kid whose voice isn’t heard. and above all, the haunting nature of looking back on these events and wishing you had been able to handle things differently, wishing you had been understood differently.

This is my favorite Emily Austin book so far. I loved how it was written through a series of notes and how it switched perspectives between the two sisters. I related so much to both sisters and it made me want to call my own sister and tell her I love her. I have more to say but I’m emotional.

It just…didn’t do it for me and I usually love miss Austin :( I didn’t really like any of the characters and I found it super juvenile. I know that was the point but everyone was just so annoying.

I’ve never read another book quite like We Could Be Rats. It’s like—what if you had a classic sort of YA novel, the kind of edge-of-adulthood book that combines silly adolescent fantasies with real trauma, that earnestly includes both playing with barbies and attempted suicide. But then, you crossed that with an obscure Central European Noble Prize winner about the unstable nature of reality and the fundamental impossibility of using narrative to capture human experience. So that, on the one hand, a lot of the novel’s imagery felt not quite as original as it seemed to think it was. But on the other hand, that sense of an unstable narrative reality shifting beneath your feet was so well executed that it was genuinely unnerving.

And then, what if this novel pulled a real bait-and-switch on you. And you wondered if you thought you were reading about one thing, but really, you were reading about something else. After all, you thought you were reading about one person, and really, you were reading about someone else. And then you might think—it might cross your mind—that Emily Austen had taken a kind of accessible, YA-adjacent, very Millennial queer storytelling, and done something pretty special with it.

i really wanted to like this more than i did. i read my first emily austin book last year and it was my favorite read of the year, so maybe my hopes were too high i don’t know. but i didn’t connect with sigrid or margits perspective of this story. emily is a wonderful writer and the imagery in this book was great but not enough for me.
thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review <3

Please allow me to share a timeless quote from a review of Emily Austin’s Interesting Facts About Space: “Emily Austin is a precious gem and all of her books are perfect.” Wow, what an amazing quote. What absolute genius wrote that? It was me. I wrote it.

This book is so. good. I needed to read it. Both in a “I’m a fan of Emily Austin, I need to read this” way and a “I need to read this for my soul” way, though I didn’t realize the latter until I was finished. It feels like reading someone’s diary (and I guess part of it is kind of reading someone’s diary) so it’s very raw and authentic. The strained relationship between Sigrid and her sister Margit is so interesting and even a little frustrating as the reader because you just know they could be great friends since they’re so alike. But they don’t realize it and it’s like… ahhhhh!

I don’t know how she does it, but Emily Austin creates characters that I always relate to in some way. There’s always something about them that calls out to me and says “I’m you and you’re me,” and then I laugh and cry the whole time because it’s true. This time, the thing that grabbed me most was Sigrid’s relationship with Greta. Everything about it screamed “this is your relationship with your own friend,” and it was lovely and heartbreaking and at times it was painful to read.

I’ve found that a part of me is healed every time I read one of Emily Austin’s books. I’m convinced that eventually, she’ll write enough of them that I’ll be completely cured. Can’t wait!

It’s hard to say that I enjoyed a book so much that starts out the way it does, but this book was just so well done. This book is going to make you feel all the emotions. It does contain sensitive subject matters, so check into that. I, however, loved it. Emily Austin made being a rat at the fair something everyone will want to add to their bucket list.

We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin takes on an interesting structure to show two sisters coming back to each other.

Austin does an impeccable job at creating characters who are well rounded, to the point I feel I'm reading an autobiography of someone who exceptionally embodies what it means to be a human. The thoughts of the characters feel so grounded, and their actions are so wild, yet mundane, they must have happened in real life.

One quality I love that the author brings into all of her work is how absolutely everything is linked with something else. There are no extraneous remarks that are never resolved. Through We Could Be Rats, we wonder many things, that sure feel like they're mentioned solely to move the plot forward, but actually have a full circle moment. It helps the stories feel grounded in reality.

There are many times I found myself lost in the pages, convinced I was close with Sigrid and knew her as well as I knew myself. I cried with the characters, felt their frustrations, and felt their sense of continuing on.

What a fantastic read.

This was expertly written but contains a lot of trigger warnings. Austin addresses these at the beginning of the novel which I appreciated. She gets into the head of the modern girl like no one else can. Sigrid is a complex character and her woes become your woes. You understand more and more of her through each attempt. This contained some of the same humor that her last novels did, but tackled deeper issues as well (like the opioid epidemic).

This was a heavy read, and one that impacted me deeply. On the surface, Sigrid and her sister Margit couldn’t be more different; Sigrid is a high school dropout who stayed in her hometown working a dead-end job, while Margit, the “golden child,” left town for college and seemingly never looked back. What follows is a deep exploration of the bonds of sisterhood and what led them to their current place.

I’m having a hard time putting my thoughts of this book into words. What I can say is that I was incredibly moved by both the writing style and the emotions it provoked within me. I saw myself in both Sigrid and Margit in entirely unique ways. I appreciated the LGBTQ+ and mental health representation, which were approached head-on but also very delicately. This was my first book by Emily Austin, and I am looking forward to her reading her backlist.

Please take the content warnings into serious consideration before starting this novel, as the topics are heavy and not danced around.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the gifted eARC!