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lauren_shilling's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I expected to enjoy this book, but not nearly as much as I did! It was beautifully written, first of all. The amount of utterly gorgeous quotes in this book is incredible. It's the kind of writing that has the ability to tackle super complex topics and ideas and explain them in ways that both make them make sense (if they need to make sense at all) while also emphasizing just how complex they are. I loved following these two characters. I will never forget about Aldo and Regan and their story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness
Moderate: Sexual content and Drug abuse
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
randiymkje's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction and Suicidal thoughts
chaos_and_chapters's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Drug abuse, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Eating disorder
Minor: Car accident and Addiction
hollyleapurtill's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content
piggelin's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
An impactful representation and perspective of mental conditions and what impacts them. And especially a portraial of how it is to live with them. Great writing, even some confusing parts fit the context.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness and Suicidal thoughts
ells___'s review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Sexual content
alysereadsbooks's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Oof. I wanted to love this book, but I didn’t. I found the writing nearly impossible to keep my interest because it was so flowery. So slow and the ending overall was unsatisfying. Felt unfinished.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Addiction
writerres27's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
4.25 stars for Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake. I found the story very satisfying, real, and raw. I enjoyed the vulnerability of the story, the ability to see yourself within the characters (especially in their flaws), and the honesty of the plot progression. Love as a compulsion is a hard thing to capture without seeming flamboyant, but this book certainly does it. It hit me where it hurts in all the right ways, and I have highlights all over my copy.
Because the story is heavily character-driven, I will not be writing separate review sections for the plot and the characters, but instead will write one comprehensive entry.
This story explores the journey of two individuals, floating through life in their own troubled and often conflicting ways. Yet, when their paths cross, everything suddenly seems to make sense, and the things that don't make sense are now something to admire rather than something to...fix. Or avoid. Or destroy. No, these two unlock hidden portions of each other, Aldo finding an element of humanity he otherwise programmed out of himself and Regan discovering the safety necessary to be herself without pretense. Both find something to live for, to die for, something they did not previously realize was possible for themselves. They need it, and yet they are afraid of it. They want it, and yet neither truly has faith in it. Their journey takes twists and turns (pun intended), ultimately circling one central truth: through prosperity or destruction, they will always return Here. It may look different, the route may change, but Here, alone together in the Ether, they will always gravitate back.
Love can be ugly. It can be terrifying. It can be obsessive, compulsive, hyperfixating, addicting, earth-shattering, uplifting, revealing. Blake conveys all of this in its purest form, no sugarcoating or romanticizing (well...maybe a little. it is a romance, after all), just demonstrating. Feeling and understanding and allowing you to feel and understand it, too. This book shows the good, the bad, the ups, the downs, the challenges and rewards of seeking out a companion in the tumultuous, turbulent course of life, especially for those of us who are mentally ill. But in the end, regardless of what it took to get there, the characters are still better for it, and you close the book with a soft smile.
Because the story is heavily character-driven, I will not be writing separate review sections for the plot and the characters, but instead will write one comprehensive entry.
This story explores the journey of two individuals, floating through life in their own troubled and often conflicting ways. Yet, when their paths cross, everything suddenly seems to make sense, and the things that don't make sense are now something to admire rather than something to...fix. Or avoid. Or destroy. No, these two unlock hidden portions of each other, Aldo finding an element of humanity he otherwise programmed out of himself and Regan discovering the safety necessary to be herself without pretense. Both find something to live for, to die for, something they did not previously realize was possible for themselves. They need it, and yet they are afraid of it. They want it, and yet neither truly has faith in it. Their journey takes twists and turns (pun intended), ultimately circling one central truth: through prosperity or destruction, they will always return Here. It may look different, the route may change, but Here, alone together in the Ether, they will always gravitate back.
Love can be ugly. It can be terrifying. It can be obsessive, compulsive, hyperfixating, addicting, earth-shattering, uplifting, revealing. Blake conveys all of this in its purest form, no sugarcoating or romanticizing (well...maybe a little. it is a romance, after all), just demonstrating. Feeling and understanding and allowing you to feel and understand it, too. This book shows the good, the bad, the ups, the downs, the challenges and rewards of seeking out a companion in the tumultuous, turbulent course of life, especially for those of us who are mentally ill. But in the end, regardless of what it took to get there, the characters are still better for it, and you close the book with a soft smile.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and Mental illness
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Minor: Cursing, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship
mirandaleighhhh's review
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'm still too overwhelmed to write an adequate review...
This was hard to get into, and all around pretty intense...but it fully sucked me in. Almost every character was unlikable and fairly un-relatable (mostly where wealth is concerned), and yet each was fascinating. I read this so fast I made myself sick. Olivie's writing is interesting, and there are some things I'm still not sure I understand...I'm going to need to let this marinate and come back with an official rating and review.
'When you learn a new word, you suddenly see it everywhere. The mind comforts itself by believing this to be coincidence but it isn't -- it's ignorance falling away. You future self will always see what your present self is blind to. This is the problem with mortality, which is in fact a problem of time.'
"So, somewhere out there, there's a hive of lady bees killing people for vengeance instead of doing what they're supposed to do?"
" yes, probably"
"That's--" Encouraging. Invigorating, even. Temporarily mesmerizing. "Interesting."
'Settle over me like the tide, cover me like a blanket, wrap around me like the sun.'
'See, I had a genius between my legs and held him inside me and swallowed him up, and then I made his brilliance mine.'
'I want you to say everything, anything. I want to have your thoughts, I want to bottle them, I want to put them in my drawer for safe keeping'
'It's you and me alone in the ether and you don't even know it, you don't even care, but still you are tied to this, and to me, and so be it, really.
So be it. This is what it means to live.'
'Because you and I, we are so different, aren't we, and yet we are more like each other than the rest of the world is like us, and for that I bless you, I condemn you, I sanctify you, I sustain you.'
This was hard to get into, and all around pretty intense...but it fully sucked me in. Almost every character was unlikable and fairly un-relatable (mostly where wealth is concerned), and yet each was fascinating. I read this so fast I made myself sick. Olivie's writing is interesting, and there are some things I'm still not sure I understand...I'm going to need to let this marinate and come back with an official rating and review.
'When you learn a new word, you suddenly see it everywhere. The mind comforts itself by believing this to be coincidence but it isn't -- it's ignorance falling away. You future self will always see what your present self is blind to. This is the problem with mortality, which is in fact a problem of time.'
"So, somewhere out there, there's a hive of lady bees killing people for vengeance instead of doing what they're supposed to do?"
" yes, probably"
"That's--" Encouraging. Invigorating, even. Temporarily mesmerizing. "Interesting."
'Settle over me like the tide, cover me like a blanket, wrap around me like the sun.'
'See, I had a genius between my legs and held him inside me and swallowed him up, and then I made his brilliance mine.'
'I want you to say everything, anything. I want to have your thoughts, I want to bottle them, I want to put them in my drawer for safe keeping'
'It's you and me alone in the ether and you don't even know it, you don't even care, but still you are tied to this, and to me, and so be it, really.
So be it. This is what it means to live.'
'Because you and I, we are so different, aren't we, and yet we are more like each other than the rest of the world is like us, and for that I bless you, I condemn you, I sanctify you, I sustain you.'
Content Warnings
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts
haerin's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
a love story that isn't romance, in my opinion. i don't think this book is for everyone, especially the way it's written. that being said, it ruined me in a way i cannot explain. i haven't read olivie blake since a couple of her dramione fanfics, and i'm glad this was my first step back into her world.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Mental illness
Minor: Suicide attempt and Death of parent