Review copy provided by publisher.
Enid is a lesbian in her mid-20s obsessed with interesting facts about space and true crime, is convinced a bald man is stalking her, and has a complicated relationship with her deceased father’s second family. These elements of her identity aren’t unusual, but Enid becomes increasingly lost in a prison of her own making eventually seeking professional help to find her way out.
Interesting Facts about Space is a complex and quirky character study of a woman’s fears, phobias, and traumas coming to a head. I loved Emily Austin’s Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead. In both books Austin has such an incredible ability to mix humor and absurdity with profundity.
Enid is awkward, relatable, and repellant. It’s uncomfortable being in her head, it’s also an uncomfortably recognizable place at times. In another’s hands a story like this could end up untenably bleak or too wacky; in Austin’s it somehow manages to be empathetic, hopeful, and even inspirational.
That Bookish Life 