Ever since I read Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin, I knew I wanted to read more of her work. Austin’s writing style is the perfect blend of witty, engaging, and poignant, and I love that each of her novels features queer women as main characters. Picking up her third novel, We Can Be Rats, was a no-brainer.
Sigrid is a 20-year-old gay woman living in a small town. She only begrudgingly became a teenager and is now struggling to go through the motions of adulthood. Sigrid didn’t graduate high school and is working as a manager at Dollar Pal, a job she hates. She feels disconnected from her family and her older sister, Margit, with whom the dynamic has always been fraught. Her relationship with her best friend, Greta, the person who once understood her better than anyone else in the world, has been destroyed by Greta’s opioid addiction.
The novel begins with Sigrid’s suicide note. This was difficult for me. I had so many questions about where the book was going and why Austin would choose to start it by killing off the main character. Such finality when the book had just begun was jarring. To make matters worse, the tone of Sigrid’s suicide note was incredibly nonchalant. The fact that she was treating her death as trivial really irked me. The death of the main character combined with an unlikeable narrator so early in the novel initially made me really dislike the book. However, I made it to the other side and I’m here to say that if you experience the same feelings, keep reading!
We Can Be Rats is a multilayered and worthwhile read. As I’ve come to expect, Austin does a masterful job of fleshing out the complexities of her characters. I particularly enjoyed how she developed Sigrid and Margit’s characters, sometimes stitching together the patchwork of each of their personalities, sometimes unraveling who she had led me to believe each of them was, but always building. Austin’s writing is intentional and made me reflect on so many things: what it means to show up and hold space for others, the value of considering how someone else sees the world, and how significantly our actions can impact others. Though I admittedly felt disengaged early in the book, by its conclusion, I was completely locked in. The more I reflect on We Could Be Rats, how Austin structured it, and its takeaways, the more I like and appreciate it.
If you, too, love Austin’s writing style and you want to read more of her work, check out her backlist, which includes Oh Honey (a novella), Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead (her debut novel), and Interesting Facts About Space (her amazing sophomore novel, which I reviewed here).
Trigger warnings for discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation, domestic violence, drug addiction, and rape.
Raquel R. Rivera (she/her/ella) is a Latina lawyer and lady lover from New Jersey. She is in a lifelong love affair with books and earned countless free personal pan pizzas from the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! program as a kid to prove it.
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