REVIEW: Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin

Enid is many things: lesbian, serial dater, deaf in one ear, space obsessive, true crime fanatic. When she's not listening to grizzly murder podcasts, she's managing her crippling phobia of bald people and trying hard not to think about her mortifying teenage years - which is hard, when she's lost the password to her old YouTube account and the (many) vlogs that her teen self once uploaded. She's worried about herself, her depressive mother, and what the deal is with gender reveal parties. But as Enid fumbles her way through her first serious relationship and navigates a new family life with her estranged half-sisters, she starts to worry that someone is following her. As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid must contend with her mounting suspicion that something is seriously wrong with her...

"I've read that women are into [true crime] because it's like a dress rehearsal. They're more fearful of violent crime than us because they're victims more often. They're taught not to walk alone at night or trust strangers. They have a reason to pay attention to those stories."

We open the scene to just a normal story, Enid is going about her daily life, going to work, going home, going on some dates - but it’s an Emily Austin story so of course that trademark stomach-churning existential dread soon sets in and the average world around slowly morphs into something strange and unsettlingly beautiful.

Enid was remarkable - a strange narrator, with a slightly disjointed and jumpy storytelling style that might not be everyone’s cup of tea but to me was the perfect blend of chaos and charisma. She’s quirky, a little awkward in the way most of us really are deep down and painfully relatable in her dry humour and wit. Admittedly as a queer, spaced obsessed true crime fanatic with hearing loss in one ear and a bundle of anxiety and OCD this felt somewhat like a personal attack and I’m to check that Emily Austin isn’t outside my window with a notebook.

As she navigates through life, we see connections grow, form and break in different ways, we hear the way she sees the world and the many tangents her thoughts take her on. She navigates dark, difficult parts of life from her unique perspective and tries to make sense of a world where everyone is a little messed up but acting like they’re not and it’s all handled with such authenticity and grace to create a breathtakingly honest portrait of life after trauma. She also provided a lot of discourse on the true crime genre, asking why women in particular seem drawn to it - is it because we want to be aware of what could happen? And how do we respectfully consume content when there are real victims?

In true Emily Austin style, this book is so much more than it appears on the surface - it’s about life, connection, queerness, fear, trauma, family and all wrapped up in a peculiar little bow.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

• Interesting Facts About Space is out from February 1st with Atlantic Books. I was gifted an advance reviewers copy of this title in return for a review.
• This title contains content inluding PTSD, self-harm and childhood trauma that may be upsetting.