This book was moving, haunting, and funny. It deals with moving on from childhood, difficult family dynamics, a sense of disillusionment with the world, and more. This book didn’t follow a linear storyline. The first half consists of a series of suicide notes where we learn about Sigrid’s childhood, her views of the world, and her view of her self. The second half of the book consists of both sigrid and her sister Margit’s points of view where you learn the truth and what’s really happening.
This book was a little hard to follow in the beginning but I was so engrossed in the second half of the book. The relationship between the sisters felt so realistic and the way the characters thought was really relatable and I felt like I could really understand them. This book really embraces the mundanity of life and the struggle with dealing with the loss of your childhood. I found it really relatable and moving and would definitely recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC!

Emily Austin has a beautiful way of bridging humor into not so humorous moments in her stories. Despite the heavy contents of this book I found myself huffing in laughter several times.

Sigrid and Margit are such layered characters that play important roles in one another’s lives — even though they do not know it. I ended up relating to them both in their own ways. Sigrid - chasing that childlike whimsy. Margit - grounding oneself in reality, bearing the brunt.
It was kind of sad to see those dynamics play out during family time and how it affected them into adulthood.

We Could Be Rats was incredibly introspective but also did not take itself super seriously. Another great read by Emily Austin.

Thank you Net galley and Atria Books for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review.

This book changed me fundamentally as a person.

Once again, I am convinced that Emily Austin has been inside my brain.

Her depiction of coming of age, especially as a queer canadian is so raw and real I felt like I was watching this story through a VHS tape.

Her writing is both poetic yet accessible. She truly masterfully balances humor and gravity, capturing reality with both wit and emotional depth.

Absolutely phenomenal. I loved the structure of this book.

*Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!*

*4.5 stars!*

I absolutely adored *Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead* by Austin, so when I found out that she had a new book coming out I jumped at the chance to read it as soon as I could and I’m so glad I did. *We Could Be Rats* feels very topical, especially given recent events (cough couch election cough cough). This book touches on some very heavy subject matter (some examples being suicide, addiction, grief, and so on) without ever feeling as though it was romanticizing said subject matter but rather approaches it from a very relatable and realistic angle that I think was masterfully done. You can’t help but want to root for these characters in my opinion, even with their flaws.

I also found the format of this book very interesting and quite a new take on the idea of having an unreliable narrator, and how that all takes shape. With the first half of the book being predominantly comprised of drafted suicide notes, we get a glimpse into Sigrid’s childhood and how her life got to the point where we meet her. I think her inner dialogue and story is one that many people will be able to find something in that speaks to them. We also eventually see Margit’s POV for a time, and I loved how this added context the things we learn from Sigrid, but from a new angle. Two girls who grew up in the same family with the same background and yet have such different perspectives on them and different feelings, which is another thing that I think anyone with siblings will find very relatable.

My one complaint is that at times, compared to *EITRWSBD,* it felt like this book lacked a bit of focus. Sometimes it was hard for me to understand where exactly we were headed and what the point of some things were, though it never lasted long enough that I considered not finishing. I am also personally not someone who tends to read a lot of literary fiction, mostly because I find a lot of times the stories feel directionless compared to genre fiction, so if you’re someone who prefers litfic, you may not agree with this point (and that’s ok)!

All in all, *We Could Be Rat* is a beautiful book focused on a story of sisterhood, family struggles, suicide and addition, and growing up in a hostile world, and I cannot wait for it to release so I cant recommend it so everyone I know.

I love Emily Austin’s writing. Definitely one of my favorite authors. However, this book was lacking some of what her others had. Less character development and less of an overall story. Her writing was good as ever and it was a unique story. I just didn’t connect with it as much as her others.

with every emily austin book release, i love her writing more and more. this was such a lovely, touching novel that really makes you feel all the feels. i absolutely adore novels that center relationships between sisters, so i thoroughly enjoyed that dynamic.

austin writes such weird, wacky, yet relatable characters in a way i’ve seen few others succeed in. she has found the fine line between the absurdly unbelievable and the wildly optimistic.

(full goodreads review will be posted closer to the publication date)

Emily Austin tugging at heart strings again! Man, what a beautiful punch to the gut! Everything about this book was perfect!

thank you to netgalley and atria books for this arc and the ability to meet sigrid and margit early. emily austin has an incredible gift for writing characters that are deeply (and often painfully) relatable but also completely distinct. this book is definitely sadder than austin’s others, and it deals with more serious topics like suicide, substance abuse and domestic abuse, but it never felt too heavy or triggering in my opinion. at its core it is a story about the love two sisters share for each other, and that kind of anchors the story and keeps it from spiraling into too depressing territory. this is truly another banger from emily austin, but at this point thats what we expect! she is singlehandedly feeding an entire generation of mentally ill queer women the representation we’ve been craving and this book is no different. thank you again to the publisher for the arc!!

Thank you, NetGalley for this E ARC!!

I am not sure how it is possible, but I was already crying within the first couple pages. Austin has this way of writing extremely relatable characters. Although the subject matter is nothing to laugh about, there is also a sense of lightness to it as well. It has a perfect balance between enjoying the little things in life and finding connections yet also coming to terms with how horrendous the world can be at times.

The first half of the book follows Sigrid. To be very frank, it opens up with suicide notes (trigger warnings are on the first page). She explains how she never finished high school, she hates her job at the Dollar Pal, and has always hated the idea of growing up. The only person in the world that understands her was her best friend, Greta, who she has grown apart with.

These notes also recount her traumatic childhood past. Her parents were constantly fighting and rather than try and put up with it (like her sister Margit), Sigrid would either a) pretend she was in another world completely or b) lash out.

We start to see the differences between Sigrid and Margit because we also eventually get Margit’s, POV. I liked the aspect of living in both of their heads. You can tell that they are opposite but also the same. I don’t know how to describe it. They both grew up similarly, so they had that aspect in common, but it was interesting to see how different they became. You could argue that this style of multiple POVs might jump around too much but in the end it all made sense to me
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This book explores a lot of dark yet important themes. There was a political aspect that surprised me, but I thought was very poignant for the times we are living in.

This book may not be for everyone however, it completely and utterly worked for me.

Emily Austin remains to be one of my favourite authors. I hope she never stops writing. I don’t think I am allowed to share quotes yet since it is an ARC but I have never highlighted more passages before. NEED the physical copy now.

i don't know what it is about emily austin, but every book that she writes ends up one-upping the last for me.

WE COULD BE RATS is for those of us queerdos living in teeny tiny conservative towns, feeling trapped within the confines of our own circumstances. we work shitty jobs, we can't trust our family to love us because we're gay or we're women, before we realize we need to recover from the various abuses that our parents subjected us to we realize we're trapped by the diminishing possibilities of life that come along with aging.

this book is for people that very clearly see all the ways the world has failed us, the way this world continues to empower and reward violent politicians as long as they're white men and the way it forgets people that use any means of escape necessary, even when those escapes mean living a fake life with our heads in the clouds as we disassociate, a half life fraught with addiction and sadness, or simply opting out of life altogether.

like, i don't know. emily austin, you don't know me - how the hell did you write this book about me?

every book rating system is a failure, this book is 64 million stars out of 5.

Thank you to both NetGalley for the ARC of We Could Be Rats, and Goodreads for winning the giveaway for a physical ARC!

I feel grateful to exist at the same time at Emily Austin so I can consume what she creates, as I always seem to relate to her characters. Sigrid the character I relate to the least, but we relate on her most basic level: I also don’t think I would pick myself up to play with if I were a doll.

I love stories about sisters and this was no different. I share a lot of parallels with Margit and Sigrid’s relationship/childhood with my own sister, and We Could Be Rats made me grateful we both made it out alive.

Another one that meets the mark by Emily Austin!!!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me early access to this book in exchange for review.

I really wanted to sit and process this book before leaving a review.
The best advice I can give is to go into this book blindly. If you plan on reading it, try not to look up too much or watch too many videos about it. However, if you are sensitive to content surrounding mental illness, you may possibly want to look up TWs before diving in, though I think going headfirst is the best way to approach this story (if you are able).

I am a big Emily Austin fan. I absolutely love her other novels. This one is very different, but I think this was very needed and shows her range as a writer. I was expecting the classic Emily Austin linear story about a quirky, probably neurodivergent, socially unequipped young woman making questionable decisions. And to be fair, we do get a quirky, funny female main character, but We Could Be Rats is much more lyrical, much more unexpectedly experimental. And there was a twist in there that I truly was not expecting that changed the entire trajectory of the book.

It is also much more heartbreaking than her other novels. It’s a story of sisterhood (which I always love), how our upbringing affects us as adults, and how we are all still just children at the end of the day. Emily so honestly and masterfully taps into the magic of being a child- even a child growing up in a difficult household. Some parts are very playful and whimsical, while other parts are very real and will punch you right in the gut. This book will hit very (maybe even uncomfortably) close to home for a lot of people. However, it did still me with a sense of hope in the end.

This is a great addition to the Emily Austin collection, and I think we needed this from her. I can’t wait to see what she does next, as reading We Could Be Rats was definitely a unique experience. Just make sure you are in the right headspace before picking it up.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

this was my first emily r. austin and i can see why she is so loved. the beginning of the novel immediately sucks you in and the way the narrative structure unfolds from there is masterful and already has me thinking of details that could be picked up on with a re-read. the examination of the sister dynamic is what made this a real stand-out for me. the empathy that austin evokes for both sigrid and margrit, and the discussion on how we internalize different familial traumas differently and the loss of childhood was especially powerful. at times i wished there was more direct interactions between the sisters, but i do think it was intentional and i still felt really satisfied with the ending (but also heartbroken and melancholy but also kind of weirdly hopeful?)

Devastating and beautiful, aka another banger of an Emily Austin novel. Admittedly I was initially perplexed by the style and structural choices being made… until a certain reveal literally knocked the wind out of me and it all clicked into place. Wowowow. For anyone with a complicated sibling relationship, or who sometimes struggles to get out of bed and go outside, or has lost someone they love to the throes of addiction, or just yearns to be a rat gorging at the carnival - this one’s for you.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Atria for the advanced copy. Add this one to your February tbr folks! Winter is the perfect time for a cathartic book cry!

3.5 rounded up

I love Emily Austin's writing. I love reading her character's thoughts, their quirks and also enjoy the simplicity she uses to talk about the every day, making it almost philosophical.
I liked learning about Sigrid's life first from what I thought was her perspective, then Margit's and then actually hers. The majority of the story is essentially a set of notes/writing and I felt drawn myself constantly moving to the next pages to finally answer the question of what happened.

Overall, it made me think a lot about the simplicity of children's imaginations, reminisce my pretend games and miss my sister.

4.5 ⭐️. unlike anything I've ever read. I really loved the three sections of this book -- it had me second-guessing what I knew to be true and advanced the plot in such a profound way. definitely some heavy topics around suicide, mental health, substance abuse & sexual abuse present.

ty to Atria books and Netgalley for an Advance Reading Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was provided an ARC by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is so poignant given the current climate of the world. This book deals entirely with the concept of suicide and is both heart breaking and inspiring. This is a story of Sigrid, a queer woman navigating early adulthood in place where everyone around her hates everything she is. This is a story of navigating your world alone despite being surrounded by people. Finding yourself and understanding that not everyone and everything is good. Finding your people in a cesspool of haters. Incredibly well written and thought provoking. My first book by this author but most definitely not my last.

unfortunately I feel as though Emily R Austin keeps rewriting the same book but none come close her debut. I had that thought with interesting facts about space and I had it again after this. It’s been seeming like the characters are more collection of traits/experiences than people and it’s really hard to connect with books entirely set in their isolation. I will always always hope for more though and this is certainly not hard to get through, it’s really just hard to have had something so excellent and always be compared to it

For a while didn't know the book direction but once the plot unravels, it's a beautiful story about learning to be and two sisters gripping with their mental health. It's quite fun and depressing but so is life.

Another absolute hit by Emily Austin, dare I say her best! This story executed many things well, I will touch on my favorite parts. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

-The complex family dynamics and the role of family dysfunction within the characters lives. We have Margit who walks on eggshells and is always trying to make peace and protect everyone around her, and Sigrid who tunes it out and marches to the beat of her own drum. I thought the lines from Margit about recognizing footsteps to be able to tell what mood her parents were in was so impactful.

-The reality of the political climate in the US and how intertwined politics and identity can be. Sig speaks for so many of us and the frustration we feel. I really loved the exploration of this throughout the novel

-The whimsical brain of Sig contrasted by the overly cautious brain of Margit. Sisters are usually so opposite of one another, and we see this so often. It was so well done and realistic. The sisters don’t end up magically fixing everything.

-The beauty of companionship that was shown between Sig and Greta. I loved hearing about them finding one another and thought it beautifully depicted what it feels like when you find someone who truly matches you inside and out. The execution of this was so well done in my opinion.

-Sig’s resistance to adulthood and Margit’s embracing it was so well done. I loved hearing how Sig’s brain worked and exploring the doomy gloomy world through her eyes. Meanwhile Marg is developing a life of her own and trying to make better than what she came from. Sig is still there, and has never left it. The contrast between these characters wasn’t cliche, it was perfectly written.

The characters weren’t perfect, and I think that made me love this book as much as I did. One of my favorite books of the year FOR SURE.