wildelwrcase 's review for:

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

3.0

dark funny reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I find myself in almost every single book I read but particularly this one. I love literature because I get to know people completely different from me and still find myself in their world, it's a trial in empathy and imagination.  In this book (through no fault of it's own) I don't find myself transported anywhere except back into my own neuroses. I too am queer, often surrounded by Catholics, I have an undiagnosed but obvious anxiety disorder, bouts of depression that lead me to never clean up, and an obsessive fear of death. Hell, when I was a teen I broke my arm and tried to convince everyone I was fine, and did so well in fact that I sat alone in an empty ER waiting room for 30 minutes waiting for an adult to sign me in. I later had surgery on that break.

What I'm trying to say is that, the issue is not that Austin holds up an unconvincing mirror. Unfortunately, I don't think it ever goes beyond simply being a mirror. And for a lot of reader that in and of itself will be profound! That's great! But one difference between me and Gilda is that I am also obsessively self reflective and extremely aware of all of my quirks at all times, so this book doesn't really tell me anything new. Every thought she has is already well trodden in my mind and neither the writing, plotting, or reflection particularly compels me.