Is This a Cry for Help? (publication day January 13, 2026) by Emily Austin was so, so good! This is the third book of Austin’s I’ve read and reviewed (Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead, and We Could Be Rats), and it lived up to my already-high expectations!
Darcy, a queer librarian who reads as neurodiverse, has just returned to work after a mental breakdown caused by finding out that her ex-boyfriend from ten years ago has died. While at work, she has to deal with someone offended by another person watching porn on a library computer, which makes it into a local “news” outlet and causes all kinds of public outcry for “traditional values”.
In the meantime, her wife, Joy, has just become an aunt, and is away supporting her sister after a c-section. Plus, a big orange cat just walks into the library, and Darcy can’t take him to the local shelter because she knows what will happen to him, but they already have two cats and there’s no guarantee they will all get along. All the while, she’s in therapy, trying to figure out her grief and guilt from this old relationship, which she’s just now dealing with.
I love Austin’s characters, their humor, and the way they soldier on, despite the absurdity of life and things that we all have to deal with like parents who don’t understand us and circumstances that seem like too much for anyone to bear. Her characters are always wise and I highlighted many passages. One great observation:
Some people complement each other; they rub off on the other in ways that make them both better people. But some people don’t complement each other, and they make each other worse.
Emily Austin. Is This a Cry for Help. Kindle Edition.
I highly recommend and consider it mixed fat-positive and anti-fat, as Darcy recalls how her mother pushed anti-fat bias with her and her attempts to deal with it. Darcy recognizes how what her mother was doing was rooted in anti-fat bias and how it resulted in her bingeing.
Reading While Fat 