Everyone in this Room will Someday be Dead Book Review

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“I resolved not to involve an ambulance because I do not like to be a spectacle.“
Well, this took a direction I wasn’t expecting; I didn’t know much going in, but I loved the messy and chaotic narrative it sounded like it would have. Right from the get-go I found so many aspects painfully relatable. The novel gets dark in ways that I didn’t anticipate but there are so many smaller moments that I could easily recall myself acting in the same capacity, for example after ordering a glass of milk, Gilda remarks: “She hands me some sort of smoothie, and I accept it without flagging that she must have misheard me when I ordered.”
From ignoring the dishes, to being unable to confront social situations, and being crippled by anxiety at even the slightest interruption to her life, Gilda was complicated to say the least. The character study on display in this definitely gets uncomfortable in places and Austin really makes us confront the nasty parts ourselves, the parts we try to hide from the world. Maybe we do think about death far too often? Or are overwhelmed by the sight of the washing up, but Gilda’s imperfections made her extremely relatable and I commend the book for its candour.