Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead

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).

This book is an anxiety attack on a page and I had to stop reading at some point to give my poor adrenal glands a break. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to finish, despite loving it, so I give a genuine content warning for anyone whose anxiety may be triggered by reading the perspective of a character who is essentially suffering a slow burn panic attack throughout her narrative. 

As I said, however, I did love this and think it's fantastic, and that's mostly because of the fantastic narrative voice of poor Gilda. 

Atlantic have really been knocking it out of the park recently, they're pretty much an auto-click for me at this point. 

My thanks to Atlantic Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

I’ll admit I wanted to read this because of the title alone - but it was definitely a good decision.
I loved and was immediately drawn into the writing style, and Gilda was a fascinating narrator. The story was a really interesting insight into a differently working mind than my own, with some beautiful existential thoughts.

Oh my goodness WHAT a book! I consumed it in 24 hours (unusual for me). It was heartfelt, gripping and emotional. The author communicates Gilda's depressed and confused mindset in a way that makes her sympathetic and fascinating. Absolutely brilliant.

Genre: Literary Fiction | LGBT+ Fiction | Adult Fiction

Release Date: 8th July 2021

Trigger Warnings: Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Addiction, Injury, References to death, murder and suicide. 

Gilda doesn't want to die - but she can't stop thinking about death. How it works, how inevitable it is, and most of all about how one day something is going to kill her and everybody she cares about. And seeing as she's on first-name basis with most of the local emergency room, she is keenly aware of the many things that could do it.

Existential dread aside, Gilda is breaking under the pressure of her own growing anxiety and of her overbearingly repressive parents and their expectations. On a whim, she decides to attend a free therapy class at a local choice and finds herself in the peculiar situation of accidentally replacing their recently deceased receptionist, Grace. Not the most ideal job for a lesbian atheist but she needs a job anyway and she has gotten very good at pretending. 

Amongst getting to grips with her new life, navigating the waters with her almost girlfriend and finding herself deeply invested in finding out what really happened to Grace - Gilda has a choice to make. Finally learn to live her own life, or just waiting around until the day she dies. 

"I have to make money to pay my rent, and buy food, and sustain my existence because that is the purpose of my life."
Everyone In This Room was uniquely compelling and engaging, with Gilda capturing my attention within moments of being introduced to her. Suffering with her own mental health issues and societal pressures, she openly shows us the side of mental illness that is usually covered up - the instability, the unreliability, the unrest. 

Gilda has two voices - her rational and her irrational, both living in uncomfortable harmony with one another, giving us a deep insight into her mind. This book delves into some dark places, and handles them all brilliantly while still keeping up that morbid humour that made this book so iconic. 

Dryly witty and darkly funny - this is a heartrending exploration of the human condition and odd comfort in knowing that some time in the future, everyone in this room will someday be dead. 



RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐



Thank you to Emily Austin and Atlantic Books for an ARC in return for an honest review.