Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead hits that sweet spot: a fun, page-turner of a novel that engages both heart and head. Gilda believes that Eleanor is trying to steal her identity when they first start messaging on a dating app. Q: There are so many instances in the book where health care professionals, employers, the police, and even Gilda’s friends and family could have done so much more to help her instead of leaving her isolated. Q: This book is so beautifully written that we feel like we’re experiencing Gilda’s reality while we read it.

This book makes me feel as if my feelings are not ‘normal’ but relatable for some people and for me that makes me feel validated. This book is all about the thought of death being the main form of anxiety for Gilda and the thought of this consumes her everyday and there is always something leading her back to this thought, whether it be taking a job from a dead lady or witnessing a house fire she will constantly be thinking about death.

I would be lying if I said I loved this book but I did like Gilda as a character and I enjoyed going on her journey with her. 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). Hit from behind by a minivan, her airbag not only deploys giving her a punch, but the hot coffee that was once in her thermos is now covering her.

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. Not wanting to hurt Rose's feelings by revealing that Grace has died, she answers the messages using Grace's name and they carry out a pleasant correspondence. Sometimes she is in a disassociative state where she feels she is floating and observing herself below and there are memory gaps. Q: We have a very close point of view to Gilda throughout the story—we feel like we’re within her mind, listening to her thoughts. They leave her unable to do dishes or shower, they cause her to obsess over things she can’t control (like the missing cat), and they often cause her to break into tears or have panic attacks at inconvenient times.It’s impossible not to root for her as she navigates love, religion, mental health and everything in between.

In some ways, I make this easier for myself, due to the fact that I am so critical, hateful, and generally unpleasant that it happens as infrequently as possible. This book has many trigger warnings so please check them before reading but this book is eye-opening, and it definitely will be on my mind for the foreseeable future. This queer and hilarious debut novel from Emily Austin promises plenty of existential anxiety, awkwardness, and second-hand embarrassment. This effectively contrasts the out-of-body feeling that Gilda experiences at many points throughout the novel.On one page there could be three separate paragraphs, each one focusing on a different conversation/moment of Gilda's life. I can understand the reasoning: the book is written from the perspective of someone with a fragmented mind.