Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin

Literary

Feb 24

Written By taylor shepeard

Title: Interesting Facts About Space

Author: Emily Austin

Publication Date: January 30, 2024

Audience: Adult

Genre: Literary

POV: Single

Series: Standalone

Format: Audiobook

—Narrator(s): Natalie Naudus

4.5 ⭐

Pros:

✨Introspection and Inner Monologue
✨Queer/Deaf Representation
✨Character Development
✨Interwoven Plot-Points
✨Heavy Topics Handled with Care

Cons:

✨Abrupt Ending

Synopsis

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.

Brimming with quirky humor, charm, and heart, Interesting Facts about Space effortlessly shows us the power of revealing our secret shames, the most beautifully human parts of us all.

*Blurb taken from The StoryGraph

Review

This review may contain spoilers.

This novel follows our hella neuro-spicy protagonist, Enid, as she navigates her social anxiety, her paranoia of bald men, her inability to invest in a stable relationship, and the blank spots in her memory from when she was a teen. I connected with Enid and her internal processing of the world almost immediately, which honestly probably says a lot about my own mind. This is true literary fiction, meaning there are plot points that happen and seem completely pointless (like the date with the polyamorous couple) because their function is to give readers more insight into the character’s world-view. That being said, the disjointed moments of the story all tied in together to form Enid’s prevalent PTSD, and the memory reveal was as heartbreaking as it was healing. I adored her relationship with her mother, complicated and shattering as it was, and I fell in love with bug-obsessed Polly. The entirety of the cast have quirks that make them stand apart, and I’m certain each individual would have their own ponderous story if we were allowed inside their heads. I bet all of them have parasites, just like Enid. I think I have a parasite as well.

Austen touches on topics of homophobia, misogyny, disability prejudice, and more in a way that never felt like readers were being talked at. They all fell into Enid’s way of interpreting social constructs so she could better understand her place within them. Though the ending was abrupt--like, to the point where the audiobook conclusion music started playing and I thought I had accidentally skipped forward—I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and will definitely pick up more works from Austen. If possible, listen to the audiobook. It’s narrated by Natalie Naudus, one of my favorite voice actors. She’s phenomenal!