skudiklier's reviews
602 reviews

This was so so good!! I'd read another of Emily's books and that made me interested in this one, especially given the topic. I'd highly recommend reading this, especially if you deal with burnout or stress, and especially if you're a woman (or like, woman-adjacent lmao). 

My one critique is that there are definitely some feminist vibes that feel a little....idk how to describe it. Outdated? Cringey? But that's not too intense and I feel like overall I really agree with their politics generally so I was willing to forgive it. I really like how the book addresses systemic causes and things that a lot of self-help books don't address. 

I want a physical copy of this book to reference! The tl;drs at the end of each chapter are super helpful. This book will genuinely change how I live my life. 

To be honest I have no idea how to review this! It was really good but also the audiobook was clearly very different from the print book. She was never reading the actual lines, and she added so much so it was way longer. But it was really good, honestly hilarious, and I loved getting to know so much about her life. Also as a HUGE Ghostbusters (2016) fan it was devastating to hear they filmed so much that wasn't in the movie and that the studio basically ruined it 😭 I want the director's cut of that movie soooo badly.

If you're okay with a very unusual audiobook and you're interested in Leslie and her work then I'd definitely recommend this!! But if you want a more traditional memoir experience you'd probably need better off reading the print book. 

Kaveh Akbar is one of my favorite poets, so I had high expectations for this book. I'm happy to say it didn't disappoint in the slightest. It actually made me realize that I think novels written by poets is one of my favorite genres of books, because I love them so much.

The writing is phenomenal, as expected. But I was also so drawn in by the characters and the story? And I don't want to give anything away because I think it's probably better if you don't see it coming, but WOW did I not see the plot twist coming. I read most of this book all in one day because I couldn't put it down. It'll stay with me for a long time. 

I still don't know how I feel about this series as a whole or the author more generally, so I wouldn't really recommend this book or the series probably. But that said, this was my favorite book in the series so far. It starts out slow and some of the pacing is weird, but the last section of the book really makes up for all that and the ending is incredible. I actually cried. 

It's been a week since I read this and I still have no idea how to review it. I really liked it. I had no idea what was going on for the first third of it. I found the main character really enjoyable. I thought so much of it was fucked up and graphic and dark. (vague spoilers ahead)

I was surprised and devastated by the ending. I was really hoping/expecting it to turn into enemies to lovers and I still can't tell if that might happen in a future

 

I'm definitely going to read the next one, and I convinced my sister to read this one so I could have someone to talk about it with. But like. Wow. What a book. 

I'm so glad I read this. I didn't realize I was autistic until I was an adult, and I found a lot of this really relatable, despite having very different experiences from her (both with regard to autism and just life in general). It's a really detailed and honest look at growing up undiagnosed, and so much of this was really frustrating or sad to read. I wish everyone would read this if only to get this full of a picture of one autistic person's experiences. 

I loved this series as a kid and I'm finally rereading it as an adult for the first time. It's definitely got a couple things that haven't aged well (all/most of the books in the series so far have had some (minor?) sexism, fatphobia, and ableism), but all things considered it's not too bad. In my opinion this book holds up and I would still recommend it to anyone interested in the series, with the caveat that it's aimed at middle school kids. I'm really enjoying my rereads and getting familiar with these characters again, especially since I forgot so much of the plot specifics. This book is probably my favorite in the series, both when I was a kid and now--I really enjoyed reading it. 

God I really liked this. It was interesting because I read the whole rest of the Murderbot series all in a week or two over a year ago, so at first it was a bit difficult for me to remember things. I kind of wish I'd reread them all before reading this one. But in the end I was able to catch up and not feel like I was missing anything (and I'm going to reread the whole series with my partner at some point anyway so if I did miss anything I'll get it when I reread this).

Anyway, this was excellent, just like the rest of the series. Murderbot is the best and it's so relatable as always. The world is fascinating and I love learning more about the characters. I can't wait to get more Murderbot in the future.

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. 

I really liked this! I sped through it in about two days because I couldn't put it down. I love the way the characters do their best to communicate and treat each other well even in a complicated and tense situation. I love how realistic the authors tried to make this while also making it engaging and a bit over-the-top in the way so many romances are. I loved the Portland-specific things, as it's always fun reading books set where you live. 

I had a couple very minor criticisms but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt since this was an uncorrected ARC, and I hope that those will have been fixed by the time it's published in May. All in all I'd definitely recommend this to queer romance fans! 

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this ARC.