Book Review: Everyone in this Room will Someday Be Dead
18/01/2022
Book Review: Everyone in this Room will Someday be Dead by Emily Austin
Unexpectedly one of my top reads of 2021, I requested this book on Netgalley because I’ve also been writing a novel about a young woman obsessed with dying and I was keen to compare and learn. Of course, because Everyone in this Room will Someday be Dead (let’s ‘shorten’ this to EITRWSBD) starts in such a well written and attention grabbing way I instantly lost the will to write my own novel.
As a side note to this review - I know there are debates as to what a writer should read while they’re actively working on something. Do they stick with the same genre or should they avoid anything that’s remotely similar to what they’re writing? Personally my reading tastes don’t alter hugely when I’m writing. While I do tend to seek out anything that touches on similar topics, whether fiction or non-fiction, I also opt for complete escapism when something gets too heavy. So, for example, while I’ve been working on my novel (which takes ages, by the way) I’ve read widely around the issues I’m writing about for research and inspiration, but I’ve also opted for books that are entirely opposite in genre and style - romance, graphic novels, thrillers - that don’t touch in any way on what my brain is trying to navigate.
One of my other top reads in 2021 was Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss and Austin’s EITRWSBD has a number of similarities with that novel. Both are written in the first person, both are from the POV of someone struggling with poor mental health and both have interesting stylistic choices. In EITRWSBD the narrative jumps around quickly without warning. One minute the protagonist Gilda will be in a car accident and within the same sentence she’ll be at home with her girlfriend. Flashbacks appear out of nowhere and then, just as quickly, we’re back in the present day. It took me a little while to get used to this but once I did I really enjoyed the pace and how the sudden changes in topic reflected Gilda’s scattered thinking. I’m generally a fan of pretty straightforward formatting and dialogue but between this, Sorrow and Bliss and Little Scratch I’ve definitely started to enjoy some slightly more experimental writing of late.
Quite a big difference between Martha in Sorrow and Bliss and Gilda in EITRWSBD is how much more alone the latter is. Although mental illness can make someone feel entirely isolated, Gilda is genuinely lacking much of the support network Martha has from her father, sister and husband. Gilda’s brother is struggling with addiction, her parents tend to turn a blind eye to problems and she lives alone. She has a nice girlfriend but the relationship is new and Gilda definitely keeps her at arm’s length. For this reason, a lot of aspects of Gilda’s life which would be massive red flags go unnoticed by those around her. The repeated visits to A&E, the state of her flat, her obsession with death. Her mind and her life are so disordered, the decisions she makes are often ill-advised, if not incomprehensible, and she’s a horrendous communicator. It’s easy to get annoyed with her but instead I was worried about her, desperate for her family or the nurses at A&E to take a closer look.
I personally found Gilda’s voice and predicament to be very affecting. She was unique, yet relatable and the character offers a nuanced portrait of someone who is quietly yet consistently struggling. Even if a whole book of that seems a bit full on for you though there is thankfully also an excellent plot. Though atheist, Gilda heads to her local church after seeing an ad for free therapy. It’s assumed she’s there for a job interview for the new Church receptionist and in need of work she somewhat misrepresents herself on the spot as a straight, Christian woman and secures the role. When a long distance friend of the recently deceased receptionist Grace begins emailing, Gilda responds as Grace rather than tell the old woman her friend is dead. Though an utterly strange choice, this decision reflects Gilda’s inability to deal with death and her limitless empathy for others.
This empathy is, I think, what really elevates the book for me. Though another novel about a woman in her late twenties struggling with her life and her mental health might seem like a bit of millennial navel gazing, it absolutely is not. Gilda is actually always attempting to connect with the world around her, trying to keep everyone happy and safe, looking to fix problems and going above and beyond what is either expected or wise. She’s certainly a quirky character but not in a superficial way. Instead she’s weird and human and lovely all at once.