I read over a hundred books in 2023, and out of all of them, Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead was my favorite. Because of that, I had really high expectations for Interesting Facts About Space, and I was honestly worried I had too high of expectations, and I'd be disappointed because of that. Given all that as context, it's saying a lot that this book didn't disappoint in the slightest. It's exactly what I wanted, and even though we're only a week into 2024, I feel confident that it'll be among my favorites this year again.

I loved the way this was written, in every way you could love how a novel is written. There's something about Austin's writing that's just so perfect to me--it's relatable, it's interesting, it's funny, it's real, it's entertaining, it's engaging. I never had a dull moment while reading this, and couldn't put it down. I was rooting for Enid so much. This book also kind of fucked me up in more than one way, not gonna lie. I cried, I found some of it a little too relatable, and I got so sucked in at a couple points that I was worried the book would ruin my day (in a way that's both actually bad but also a real credit to the writing, in my opinion). But! It didn't ruin my day. I'm so glad I read this book and I can't wait for Emily Austin to write more books so I can get to experience feelings like this again. Genuinely, both this and Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead are the kind of books I would pay money to be able to forget and read again for the first time. I want to reread this again for sure, and I can't wait for it to come out so more people will read and talk about it.

Smaller comments for anyone who has read Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead and maybe could be worried it's the same for some reason (? idk): in comparison, I found Interesting Facts About Space to be less tense/stressful to read, and maybe more hopeful/happy in a way. (Moderate spoilers ahead for both books:)

One of the most distressing parts about Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead (again, in a good way, I loved everything about that book, but still) was how hard Gilda found asking for help, and how much she lied to those around her and said she was fine. It was a relief when Enid finally went to therapy and started confessing what was going on to some people in her life. And again, I truly loved Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead, and honestly don't know which book I like more at this point. But just in case anyone else found reading that one stressful, I think this one is less stressful to read. Less tense, even if it's still pretty dark and existential and all that.

Oh and another even smaller note--I wondered at many points while reading Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead if Gilda was autistic, but the book never addressed that, which was fine. While reading Interesting Facts About Space I kept thinking "this is the most autistic bitch I've ever read," so I was excited when the therapist mentioned she might be autistic. (For context I'm also autistic.)

 

I have so much I could say about this book but I don't even know where to start. Maybe when I inevitably reread it I'll come back and update this with some of my favorite parts. But genuinely it's like.....the entire book is my favorite? Everything about it? I'm just so glad I got to read it, and I'd recommend it to anyone (with my only reservation being if your mental health is *really* bad in similar ways to Enid's, then maybe this would be a little too real sometimes...but that's such a personal thing so who knows).

Thank you so much to Atria Books and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this ARC.