Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead tells the story of Gilda, a gay atheist in her late twenties. Suffering from acute anxiety, she approaches an address for therapy only to find herself accidentally accepting a job in a Catholic church. Gilda is an enchanting and charming creation. She is intensely endearing and her anxieties, insecurities and uncertainties are entirely relatable. Austin writes about queerness and depression with warmth and wit and manages to spin a mystery out of it too. Every character is well observed and drawn with a lightness of touch which belies its skill. There were moments of laugh out loud humour as well as moments which were profoundly sad and tender. The tone is somewhat reminiscent of 'Where'd you go, Bernadette', although Austin's voice is all her own and Gilda a unique and delightful character.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book by Emily Austin is certainly original with a complex but endearing main character in Gilda. It wasn’t really my cup of tea but I did enjoy reading it in parts. It mixed the banal with the dark clouds in Gildas head in all areas of her life including her job,where she took over a role vacated due to an untimely death. This book gave us humour with an insight into Gilda mental health problems.

This book is endearing, sentimental and humorous - even though its serious and worrying at times. What if???? One of life's great questions. I'm a very positive optimistic person but I really related to Gilda - in her what some might call ''craziness'' about doom and gloom scenarios.Life and its uncertainties can be scary - how many times do see horrible stories in the news and if we were caught up in something similar.Don't we all think about parents/friends/ourselves dying... even though we know death and taxes are the only certainties .Don't we all think 'what if??? .... I fell while waiting for the underground ... or was in an accident in the car ... or in a plane.. on a train-- maybe we're all a little crazy about life - our zest for it or our lack of it.. Our gratitude or disregard for it.
It's written in a stream of consciousness - apparently random thoughts jutting up against each other as Gilda hazily glides through her days.. I think is representative of more people than we think -- she's lost her mojo and given up a bit -and let herself go..She doesn't ask for help, agrees to things that are just easier than explaining.. and is a hypochondriac/or not? who seeks constant medical attention.. Yet people still give her a chance and she ends up flourishing. You see how she relates to her normal /dysfunctional family depending on how you see it. No-one really wants to address life's difficult questions, challenges or problems eg death,alcoholism, sexuality,religious beliefs, family problems, preferring to gloss over them..But as she takes a seemingly incompatible job in a Catholic church and ends up wondering about who murdered the woman who se job she's now doing - someone she doesn't even know she shows ''empathy'''' kindness ''or some might say ''duplicity'' in trying to protect others from the harsh realities of life and taking all the burden on herself .
It's sobering and exaggerated but I enjoyed it.

This book is a new all-time FAVOURITE. Following Gilda's perspective throughout this novel was a delight. I fell in love with her. I LOVE HER.
Gilda's fixation on death is incorporated seamlessly into the narrative, harshly grounding her story in reality. This effectively contrasts the out-of-body feeling that Gilda experiences at many points throughout the novel. As her state of mind flip-flops around, so does her perception of events. Times shifts and warps around her and big chunks of her memory begin to disappear. Her voice was so sharp and memorable, now carved into my brain forever.
A big part of this story is mental illness; Gilda suffers with extreme anxiety as well as depression and dissociation (undiagnosed on-page). For me, this novel depicted living with these (untreated) conditions beautifully. Austin gave Gilda her very own "anxiety/depression voice" that ran alongside her own thoughts. Gilda's rational, witty internal monologue battling her intrusive thoughts/intense worries constantly. I think this would make her narration of the story quite taxing to get through, where it not for the...
IMPECCABLE PACING! The reader is thrust from scene to scene, rushing to try and keep up with Gilda. We are inside her head, flitting from person to place, trying desperately to stay present and aware while feeling utterly hopeless. Austin's use of skittish, start-stop and sometimes breakneck pacing was sublime and communicated such vital parts of Gilda's character with no words wasted. It also made this book read (and feel?) like a thriller.
This story was so incredibly readable, it had so much momentum and intrigue. I loved the sprinkling of gayness and the depictions of intense love. Gilda's wit made me cackle heartily and often, and when she was ignored or dismissed or not appreciated I cried buckets for her.
I love you Gilda, be my wife.

Thank you ever so much to the publisher for this e-arc!!

Trigger Warnings: intrusive thoughts (graphic), suicidal thoughts and attempts, death of a pet (on page), homophobia, self harm, suicide (off page, relatively unexplored side character).