reillypepper 's review for:

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

4.25

emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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people who experience anxiety find it much easier to empathize with non-chronically anxious people than non-chronically anxious people can empathize with chronically anxious people. 

my favorite thing about the ending is that there was no magical epiphany or “poof” that just made Gilda not experience anxiety, that made her just okay with death. too often stories about mental health ending in a “fix,” insinuating that anyone with mental health struggles has to be “fixed” to live a fulfilling life. emily austin wrote such an inclusive protagonist with a voice of a person free of internalized, exclusive perspectives from Catholicism (& Western religion altogether), and Gilda’s blunt take about religious traditions like communion had me, a deconstructed girl, laughing my ass off. like, sure, it’s funny in general, but it’s funny when you’ve grown up with family and peers making those traditions seem so much more than what they actually are. 

one of my fav parts of this read is the realities of talking to people in organized religion as well as those who don’t actively practice religion (her parents) but still exhibit internalized religious sentiment that those in the organized christianity believe (bc colonization and white hetero institutionalization etc. etc.)  

i’ll carry Gilda’s honesty, courage, humor, and articulation of anxiety through forever. and i will be reading all of emily austin’s works xxxx