Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oh Honey | 2017 | Emily R. Austin | Buy |
| 2 | Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead | 2021 | Emily R. Austin | Buy |
| 3 | Interesting Facts About Space | 2023 | Emily R. Austin | Buy |
| 4 | We Could Be Rats | 2025 | Emily R. Austin | Buy |
| 5 | Is This a Cry for Help? | 2026 | Emily R. Austin | Buy |
Emily R. Austin’s standalone fiction spans her debut Oh Honey (2017) through to Is This a Cry for Help? (2026), with the books between them showing a consistent interest in characters who are funny about the things that scare them most. The novels work as standalone stories with no shared characters but a recognizable sensibility across them.
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead (2021) is the novel that brought Austin to wider attention. It follows Gilda, a gay atheist who ends up employed at a Catholic church, quietly impersonating a dead woman over email while her own mental health deteriorates. The book’s humor comes from Gilda’s internal monologue, her awareness of how absurd her situation is, alongside her inability to do much about it.
Interesting Facts About Space (2024) follows Enid, a young neurodivergent woman who communicates emotional closeness through astronomy trivia, dates casually from apps, and begins to suspect she is being followed. The novel shares Austin’s gift for writing characters whose coping strategies are recognizable and a little heartbreaking.