I’ve been reading so many of Austin’s books lately with Everyone in This Room Will Someday be Dead and now this one. And this one swept me away. Mostly because I am totally obsessed with space and loved the fun facts so much. Keep reading my book review of Interesting Facts about Space for my full thoughts.
Summary
Enid is obsessed with space. She can tell you all about black holes and their ability to spaghettify you without batting an eye in fear. Her one major phobia? Bald men. But she tries to keep that one under wraps. When she’s not listening to her favorite true crime podcasts on a loop, she’s serially dating a rotation of women from dating apps. At the same time, she’s trying to forge a new relationship with her estranged half-sisters after the death of her absent father. When she unwittingly plunges into her first serious romantic entanglement, Enid starts to believe 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. Because at the end of the day there’s only one person she can’t outrun—herself.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Interesting Facts about Space is tender. It’s about the tendrils we extend to connect with others. Our insecurities which force us to hide ourselves away. It’s about the ways sometimes saying, “are you wearing lipstick today”? is our way of saying, “I love you, I’m worried about you”. These shorthand in the way we can only figure out how do. For Enid and her mother, their love language at the beginning of the book is interesting facts about space. But throughout, Enid has to figure out if this is how she wants her relationships to go.
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If she has the ability to have those hard conversations. The ones that begin with, “You hurt me”. Enid’s relationship with her mother was unexpectedly gutting. It hit me like a sucker punch. The pieces of our family which don’t have greased gears. I loved the character growth of Enid throughout Interesting Facts about Space. How she’s muddling her way through it, trying the best she can, struggling to find help. This book is multi-layered as it examines these past versions of ourselves and the possibility of change for our future.
It’s easy to root for Enid. To see how she feels so deeply broken and feels like she’s a danger to everyone around her. But how we can all feel like this and know that it’s not true. That we deserve love. Interesting Facts about Space turned in my heart around 40-50% through and made me fall in love. Additionally the audiobook is narrated by my favorite narrator, Natalie Naudus who does a brilliant job at conveying these doubts, fears, and slight hope.
Find Interesting Facts about Space on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.