A book about depression, estranged family, and feeling like the odd one out. We Could Be Rats is told in a series of letters written by first the younger sister, Sigrid, then the elder sister, Margit. Sigrid has attempted to commit suicide and is trying to write the perfect note to leave her loved ones; a note she asks her sister, Margit, to help edit. Told in an unusual layout and chronologically nonlinear, Austin delves within the psyche of two sisters who have been holding in years of emotion and trauma, only to realize all they needed was to be honest with each other.