Hardcover, 256 pages
Published July 5, 2021 by Atria Books.
Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace.
In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace’s old friend. She can’t bear to ignore the kindly old woman, who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can’t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the …
Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace.
In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace’s old friend. She can’t bear to ignore the kindly old woman, who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can’t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace’s death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence.
A delightful blend of warmth, deadpan humor, and pitch-perfect observations about the human condition, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is a crackling exploration of what it takes to stay afloat in a world where your expiration—and the expiration of those you love—is the only certainty.
Gilda is a depressed, hypochondriac, atheist lesbian who gets a job as a secretary in a Catholic church. This is pretty dark subject matter but there are some very funny scenes when Gilda is at mass and trying to figure out the lines..... "The jig is up!!". Had no idea what this was going to be about, but I really enjoyed it.
Content warning suicide, violence
I received this book as a gift from my sister. The bookstore put it into a kraft enveloppe so that she could not look at the cover nor read the summary. There were three keywords on small post-its. "Lesbians, Catholicism, Depression". She thought I would enjoy it.
I did, a lot. It's the first book I read that describes what I go through when I'm having a panick attack. The feeling of dying for no particular reason, and the coping mechanism (destoying things, crying into the bathroom). Both the vastness and emptyness of the universe.
It is a very touching book. It also deals with really dark things, like intrusive thoughts. There's one specific thought described in the book I struggle a lot: when I carry a baby, I must be very careful to not think about hurting them.
Finally, I enjoyed the writing. There are four big parts in the book, but most of the text is a succession of impactful sentences. They are usually short but can deploy into longer strings of words that express very deep and sincere stuff.
