Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead – Emily Austin

Look, obviously this one is worth picking up for the amazing title alone, but Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead is no bait-and-switch. The contents are every bit as great as you’d hope!

With hints of Convenience Store Woman and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, this book from debut Canadian author Emily Austin is a hilariously deadpan, macabre-meets-comedy read, kindly sent to me by my friends at Atlantic Books and Allen & Unwin.

Gilda can’t stop thinking about death (given the state of the world, it’s hard to blame her). In desperation, she responds to a flyer for free therapy from her local church – but instead of healed, she finds herself installed as their new receptionist.

For a queer atheist with intense anxiety, this presents many problems.

Her anxious apathy and her unsentimental delivery make an otherwise-dark story a hilarious and relatable read. Plus, it’s got a quick and neat resolution, a relief after the intensity of the previous pages, and it ends on a hopeful note (but not a saccharine one).

Get Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead on Booktopia.