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.

A brilliant new voice in fiction, and I can't wait for more. The protagonist was so original in her voice and opinions, I was compelled to love her! It was such a readable look, and I loved how it touched on mental illness too. I This is a relevant title that a lot of our customers will appreciate, and I can't wait for it to be published!

While reading Everyone in the room will someday be dead remind me of Eleanor Oliphant. The story is about Gilda who is depressed, has panic attacks and is obsessed with dying. I felt really sorry for her character and it seems she is very lonely and has no one really to confide in how she feels so she lies to make people happy. There are five big chapters. I did really enjoy reading this book and it was written.
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book.

I really really enjoyed this novel! I sped through it, not because I was rushing but because I was having so much fun reading it. That's not to say it's always a "fun" book, it's full of black humour and is amusing, but there are some dark topics explored here. This novel is about Gilda, a highly anxious, depressed woman who is fixated on death and dying. She's a regular at the hospital and then accidentally, when trying to attend a therapy group, ends up getting a job at a Catholic church - two problems, she's an atheist and gay.

I absolutely loved the characters in this book, particularly the characters working alongside Gilda at the church and the way we see them through Gilda's eyes. Emily Austin does a great job at depicting Gilda's mental state, the spiralling anxiety and outer-body experiences. Despite the novel taking place in Gilda's head, it's surprisingly pacey and engaging, particularly as the reader wonders if and when Gilda's secrets and lies will be uncovered.

Thanks to Atlantic and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I adored this book so much! Although it is marketed as a darkly funny book, I would caution the reader that this is in fact a rather dark, bleak read and, while I agree the narrator can be very funny, the story itself is so claustrophobic and Gilda puts herself in such agonizing, cringe-y and outright terrible situations due to her declining mental health, that some parts were really difficult to read. I find it hard to recommend this for everyone because of this, but Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead was nevertheless such a great read, impossible to put down as the events snowball into impending disaster - reading this felt exactly like all my fears when I am anxious coming true. So while I disagreed with most of Gilda's actions, I felt like I understood her and could not be upset at her obvious self-sabotage. This is one of my favorite "disaster woman" trope books of all time.

'Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead' is a marvellously funny, yet also heartbreaking, story of Gilda, a young woman trying to find her way in the world. Desperate for a job, and suffering from crippling anxiety and panic attacks, Gilda finds work as a receptionist in a Catholic Church. The only problem? She is a gay atheist. Added to her problems is the issue of her predecessor, a woman who may or may not have been murdered. I thoroughly enjoyed inhabiting Gilda's head, seeing the world from her skewed perspective. Her character was flawed, yet so loveable, and the supporting cast were believable and well constructed. I look forward to reading more by Emily Austin in the future.

Gilda is a twenty-something lesbian atheist, who can't stop thinking about death and has just been in a minor car accident. In order to find some calm, she responds on a whim to a flyer advertising support meetings at a local Catholic church, and accidentally becomes employed as the Church's new secretary. The previous post-holder recently died, so when the Church's inbox receives an email from this woman's friend, Gilda pretends to be her in order to avoid sharing the bad news about her friend's demise (it makes sense to Gilda!).

Amongst all this, Gilda is attempting to commit to a relationship with Eleanor whilst trying to avoid a set up with a congregation member's brother and ignoring the growing tower of dirty dishes in her apartment... Add in a gentle bit of sleuthing and you've got quite a layered novel!

This was a great book, lots of dark humour and spot on observations of a young person desperately ill with depression and anxiety but who is trying so hard to 'be normal'. I loved the character of Gilda and really cared for her. As someone who hasn't suffered from anxiety or overthinking it was a really fascinating insight into how someone's mind can work against them. The observations/commentary from Gilda about what it's like working as a receptionist/secretary were really funny - as someone working in office administration/assistant work, much of it chimed true! 

This book won't be for everyone, there are references to suicide/self-harm and Gilda is not always a cheerful soul! I'd recommend to readers who enjoyed Normal People, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy!