Emily Austin: Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead (2021, Atlantic Books, Limited)
English language
Published Dec. 3, 2021 by Atlantic Books, Limited.
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.
