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I am such an Emily Austin fan. Her books often feature smart, quirky, emotionally wounded, interesting lesbians. While this tackles mental health issues, it never feels too dark or overwhelming. It feels real, compassionate, and even absurdly funny at times. This book is about Sigrid and her sister Margit. They are each struggling in different ways that are discovered as you read their thoughts in the book. Austin treats her characters so kindly.

There is something so refreshing about Emily Austin‘s captivating dissection of life. She breathes a fresh perspective into whatever she is examining and managed to write a book about suicide that felt curiously delightful.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Emily Austin is an absolute must-read for me! Her books are the perfect blend of intellectual stimulation and quirky darkness; my favorite flavor of literally fiction. This is a heavy story told with an often light tone, and utterly thoughtful. I don‘t know how Austin pulled it off. It‘s hard to describe further without spoiling. This short novel says so damned much. #coverlove

https://multitudescontained.substack.com/p/surprise-me

Last book I read in January. I‘ve enjoyed all of her novels, this one maybe a bit less than the others. Austin has a special ability to relate vulnerability and despair with such gentleness and humor. A very special writer! Triggers for suicidal ideation. #BOTM

I didn‘t like the twists and turns tbh. By time I got to the 3rd part of the book I was pretty spent. I wanted to relate to the characters more than I did. There was some endearing parts. This book was just OK to me. #botm

This book brought up some feels. I wish I could write that I never experienced being on the surviving side of someone‘s suicide and those notes, but like so many that would not be my story.

I‘m on a work trip, and I‘ve had this one on my TBR list for so long. Naturally, I had to pick it up on my way back to the hotel room. 📖

I went in with expectations a bit too high because i just gave her last book (tagged below) 5⭐️ in the Fall. This book deals heavily with suicide as about half of it is a woman trying to write the correct suicide note to her friends and family. Some reveals in the second half 🤐 negatively changed the way I saw the characters, and I think that contributed to this being a more mid-range pick. I do want to reread knowing what happens at the end.