Gilda is 27-years-old, loves animals, is a lesbian and an atheist. Gilda is very depressed, suffers from anxiety and hypochondria and has reoccurring thoughts about death and the pointlessness of life. As a result, she has been avoiding day-to-day essential activities like cleaning her apartment, showering and showing up to work, and her personal relationships are disasters. After she loses her latest job, she finally decides to seek help. But when Gilda ventures into a Catholic church that advertises therapy sessions, she is misunderstood and is instead hired as their new office secretary. Gilda must now pretend she’s straight and Catholic in order keep a job she didn’t know she wanted.

Despite this recent “good” fortune, Gilda’s problems still feel insurmountable. When she learns that Grace, the elderly lady who previously held her job, has died and may have been murdered, Gilda becomes obsessed by the idea of learning the truth.

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin is a moving portrayal of its character’s struggles with mental illness and loneliness, and at the same time, also is a laugh-out-loud, quirky story that buzzes with a frenetic energy that makes it impossible to put down. This quick read allows a peek into the mind of a person suffering from mental illness as they try and find a way out of their despair, and it brings the reader out the other side with empathy. Place your hold for this amazing novel today.

-Carol