I think I have a pretty good sense of humour. I love comedies such as Arrested Development, The Office, Parks and Recreation, Community, Schitt’s Creek, Party Down, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place, The Other Two, I could go on and on. I try to see the humour in every situation (within reason – I am not completely heartless). But it seems like every book I have bought lately that is supposed to be “hilarious” I do not find funny at all. Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is the latest such book, but the reason I did not find this book funny is because it hits way too close to home for me.

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is about a young woman named Gilda who is gay and an atheist but accidentally finds herself working as a receptionist at a local Catholic Church after she goes there for free therapy, and then finds herself getting involved in her predecessor’s murder investigation. Gilda has an anxiety disorder and thinks obsessively about death. The novel consists of Gilda having anxiety spiral after anxiety spiral after anxiety spiral. Not a fun read for me as someone who also has frequent anxiety spirals and is prone to the occasional panic attack over the thought of dying. It was hard to get through this book.

The hardest part, though, was the helplessness and frustration I felt over Gilda not having anyone in her life to help her. Her parents are the type who pretend that mental health issues do not exist, and her brother is an alcoholic who is (not) dealing with his own mental health issues. Her girlfriend would probably help her, if Gilda knew how to help herself and tell her girlfriend about her anxiety. Gilda makes frequent visits to the ER and keeps getting referrals to a psychiatrist, but no one follows up with her and Gilda does not take matters into her own hands.

If you want to know what it is like to have an anxiety disorder, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead will give you a good idea of what it is like. I just could not see the humour in a story about a woman who has serious mental health issues.