Books › Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead
280 pages
A hilariously bleak and deeply tender spiral into the mind of an anxious lesbian trying to survive her own brain.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being trapped inside a slow-motion panic attack that is somehow incredibly funny. The prose is sharp and deadpan, delivering devastating truths about depression and mortality right alongside laugh-out-loud absurdities. It reads briskly, propelled by short chapters and a relentless, spiraling internal monologue that makes it nearly impossible to put down. The mood is a unique blend of morbid dread and unexpected warmth, creating a space where existential terror meets the sheer awkwardness of existing in the world. It will deeply delight readers who gravitate toward messy, queer, hyper-anxious protagonists and who rely on dark humor as a coping mechanism for the overwhelming fragility of being alive.
- Mood
- absurd
- melancholic
- claustrophobic
- quirky
- Tone
- deadpan
- wry
- anxious
- darkly comedic
- tender
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- severe anxiety · morbid ideation · queer alienation · absurdity of daily life · human connection
- The writing
- Sharp, unadorned, and compulsively readable, driven by a relentless, deadpan internal monologue.
- The arc
- Moves from paralyzing, isolated dread to a messy but genuine acceptance of life's fragility and the necessity of human connection.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love messy, hyper-anxious queer protagonists and find comfort in dark humor about mental illness.
Content notes
- severe anxiety and panic attacks
- morbid ideation
- depression
- homophobia
- animal death
About the book
Gilda, a twenty-something lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace.
In between trying to memorize the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and erecting a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace’s old friend. She can’t bear to ignore the kindly old woman, who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can’t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace’s death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence.
Description from Open Library.
Books like Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead
See why they match
Our Wives Under the SeaJulia ArmfieldA haunting, slow-burn exploration of anticipatory grief wrapped in the eerie, claustrophobic dread of the deep ocean.
Cinderella Is DeadKalynn BayronA dark, defiant fairy tale where the glass slipper is a trap and the princesses are holding the matches.
Breaking CharacterLee WinterA deliciously tense, slow-burn Hollywood romance where a frosty facade melts under the warmth of a sunny, fake-dating co-star.
Don't Want You Like a Best FriendEmma R. AlbanA delightful, swoon-worthy romp through Victorian ballrooms where a matchmaking scheme accidentally sparks a breathless queer romance.
Plain Bad HeroinesEmily M. DanforthA deliciously macabre and queer gothic tale that blurs the line between a cursed Gilded Age history and a modern Hollywood haunting.
Honey GirlMorgan RogersA tender, lyrical exploration of millennial burnout and the terrifying, beautiful leap into the unknown of adulthood and love.