Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: July,
Fans of “sitelinkEleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine” will adore Emily Austins debut novel, “Everyone in This Room will Someday be Dead”.
Gilda is a twentysomething atheist lesbian, who struggles with hypochondria, anxiety and depression, She also has an obsession with death how people die, how she is going to die, how the planet and everyone on it will die.
When she inadvertently gets hired as an office assistant in a Catholic church, she definitely founds herself in over her head, as she tries to hide her sexuality and her religion from the congregation and from the priest, Jeff.
While she is reviewing emails left unanswered by the previous assistant, Gloria, she comes across one from an old friend of Glorias, Rosemary, who has not yet been told that Gloria is dead.
Unable to break the news herself, Gilda pretends to be Gloria, and the two continue their back and forth communication, When Glorias death turns out not to be an accident, Gildas strange behaviour and emails with Rosemary make her the prime suspect.
This novel is heartbreaking, hilarious and relatable sometimes all at once, Gilda is eccentric in every sense of the word, preferring to avoid social interactions and focus on the potentially negative “what ifs” of every situation.
Gilda circles between periods of deep depression and anxietyinduced panic attacks, to the point where she is on a firstname basis with the staff at the local hospital.
A sad, seemingly naïve character, Gilda is still realistic and charming enough to be someone to root for, Honest and upfront because she knows no other way Gilda struggles with forming relationships, There is something about Gilda that everyone can relate to I promise you I found my kindred spirit in a lot of her behaviours and attitudes about life.
The story is told in four main parts, which each part broken down by Catholic holiday such as “Advent” and “Lent”, so there are no chapters.
But it still is easy reading, as each part is broken down into smaller paragraphs, and I flew through each quickly, Gilda narrates the entire novel, adding a uniqueness to the storys structure,
There is a slight lull in the middle of the story that I had to push through, but the ending of the novel pulled me right back in.
Although it ended the way I expected, I was sad to see the end of Gilda and her adventures, I love the quirky and eccentric characters that are so different from the regular protagonist characters, and Gilda definitely touched my soul.
Thanks to this Canadian author for bringing Gilda into my life, I hope to see more of her,
I thought by the title and the cheery cover this would be funnier than it turned out to be, I was expecting dark humor, but this is mostly just dark, Depressing. Bleak. Lots of characters in this novel have mental health and substance abuse issues, Gilda herself is so depressed she stopped going to work, thus losing her job, so when shes nearly broke and stumbles upon a job opening at a Catholic church, she pretends to be a good Catholic instead of the Atheist lesbian that she is.
Despite being so depressed she cant wash a single dish, she manages to date a woman, and, when a parishioner sets her up with her male family member, Gilda initially puts off going on a date, but she ultimately goes out several times with a man she doesnt like at all, even if she were straight.
There were a few funny moments of fishoutofwater humor as Gilda tries to understand the rules of the Catholic religion.
Reading the Bible she thinks: “I cant help noting the use of the male pronouns, I wonder whether this directive applies to me, Am I subject to a womanly loophole Whoever wrote this book prioritized men so much, he forgot about the other half of humanity.
If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination, They must be put to death, Im disappointed God is so homophobic he forgot about lesbians, but I guess I would rather be forgotten than put to death.
”
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES JULY,,
ouchie this book, oh my god this book, its so me you guys which is probably a bad thing but either way its nice to see yourself reflected on page knowing you arent the only one.
so so beautiful and so so real, to struggle with existence is something that can be so isolating and this book perfectly captures that, if you like a little life definitely check this one out, i promise its not as devastating Everyone in
This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R.
Austin
I can't say I liked or enjoyed this book, It is so overwhelmingly depressing, so many people are depressed, and there doesn't seem to be any help for these depressed people, that I too lost the will to go on.
At the same time, I felt compassion for all the people we meet, I wanted things to be better for them but then, that's part of the problem of the main character, She seems to think her life might have a scrap of worth if she can only make people smile,
Twenty seven year old animal loving Gilda is also a lesbian and an atheist, She is so depressed that she can't even put her dishes in the sink so she just piles them up in her bedroom, a leaning tower of food rot.
She can't remember when she has showered and she loses her latest job because she forgets to go to work, Or was it because she forgot to get out of bed, Whatever. All she can think about is death and she see no reason to exist for herself or anyone else, Nothing matters and she can't even pretend to care, She longs for the day when maggots will eat her rotting flesh,
One day, as Gilda trudges toward a Catholic church that advertises therapy sessions, she accidently gets hired for a job there.
Now she is an atheist, lesbian, liar because she has to pretend she's not gay and that she is Catholic and that she knows what she is doing.
Maybe it's fitting though that the elderly lady who previously had her job is dead and might have been murdered, That's life, make it to old age and you suffer the indignity of being maybe murdered,
So I'm reading this story and feel like it's not good for me to be reading this story but every now and then, I really, truly laughed out loud! It felt good but the rest of the Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead's sad state makes it hard to remember why I laughed.
I almost gave the storybecause it seems weird to give itwhen it made me feel so bad, Still, it appears there is hope at the end of the story but I can't be sure, Is it an illusion
Publication: Julyth
Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for this ARC, .