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A review by margotcolville
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, and Gilda can't seem to think about anything else. Gilda is a depressed, anxious, lesbian, atheist twenty-something who has found herself working as the receptionist in a Catholic church, and as if that wasn't enough, that church is inextricably mixed up in the suspicious and confusing death of her predecessor. Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is a beauty of an exploration of the human condition, anxiety, the inevitability of death, lying, rhinos, and just about everything else.
The majority of this book sits within the mushy and likely trembling confines of Gilda's brain. This perspective is really what seals the deal on this book for me. It allows us to follow every tangent of Gilda's brain and this simultaneously feels relatable in a "yeah, of course, that makes total sense." way and serves as a point of reflection to later combat my own anxious tangents. Emily R. Austin has perfectly encapsulated what it's like to be debilitatingly anxious, feel entirely too much or nothing at all, and try to stay afloat in the world. However, this seems to be very polarizing, and from what I've seen through other reviews across book-centered social media platforms, readers with anxiety (or at least a working understanding of what it's like) click and fall in love while, more often than not, readers without feel confused and put off. One review I read described Gilda as "a bit intolerable" and stated they "found [themselves] annoyed at being in her head often" and "couldn't understand the choices she made". This is an entirely justified reason to dislike a character or a book, of course, and I mean no slander towards them nor their opinions. However, I think the juxtaposition between my reading experience and theirs lies in, honestly, an assumption I'm willing to reach for that they likely don't have anxiety. With that I make the following assertion: if you have anxiety, you are likely to love this book (although I suggest reflecting on your own wellbeing and making sure you're in a relatively positive place mentally before picking it up), but if you don't, I wouldn't be surprised if it felt, at the very least, unrealistic to you.
I screamed not only audibly, but loudly twice in the last 10 minutes of the audiobook.
The majority of this book sits within the mushy and likely trembling confines of Gilda's brain. This perspective is really what seals the deal on this book for me. It allows us to follow every tangent of Gilda's brain and this simultaneously feels relatable in a "yeah, of course, that makes total sense." way and serves as a point of reflection to later combat my own anxious tangents. Emily R. Austin has perfectly encapsulated what it's like to be debilitatingly anxious, feel entirely too much or nothing at all, and try to stay afloat in the world. However, this seems to be very polarizing, and from what I've seen through other reviews across book-centered social media platforms, readers with anxiety (or at least a working understanding of what it's like) click and fall in love while, more often than not, readers without feel confused and put off. One review I read described Gilda as "a bit intolerable" and stated they "found [themselves] annoyed at being in her head often" and "couldn't understand the choices she made". This is an entirely justified reason to dislike a character or a book, of course, and I mean no slander towards them nor their opinions. However, I think the juxtaposition between my reading experience and theirs lies in, honestly, an assumption I'm willing to reach for that they likely don't have anxiety. With that I make the following assertion: if you have anxiety, you are likely to love this book (although I suggest reflecting on your own wellbeing and making sure you're in a relatively positive place mentally before picking it up), but if you don't, I wouldn't be surprised if it felt, at the very least, unrealistic to you.
I screamed not only audibly, but loudly twice in the last 10 minutes of the audiobook.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcoholism and Cannibalism