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krisalexcole's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Don't stop taking your meds, kids.
So the first half of this book is beautiful. Two fucked up and healing people stumbling into one another by chance and starting up a relationship. Five stars for the first half. I was considering buying a copy I was so into it.
But then, the second half... It seemed to romanticise going off of your psychiatric medication for "art" and "love."
I know this is a work of fiction and shouldn't be viewed as like a how-to guide for life or whatever, but I still found it to be problematic.
If I had read this like 10+ years ago when I was still in intensive therapy, I probably would've adored it. But I'm in a good place mentally now, so... yeah. š¤·š¼āāļø
So the first half of this book is beautiful. Two fucked up and healing people stumbling into one another by chance and starting up a relationship. Five stars for the first half. I was considering buying a copy I was so into it.
But then, the second half... It seemed to romanticise going off of your psychiatric medication for "art" and "love."
I know this is a work of fiction and shouldn't be viewed as like a how-to guide for life or whatever, but I still found it to be problematic.
If I had read this like 10+ years ago when I was still in intensive therapy, I probably would've adored it. But I'm in a good place mentally now, so... yeah. š¤·š¼āāļø
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Toxic relationship
Minor: Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Drug use, Violence, and Cancer
azrah786's review against another edition
3.5
**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
CW: mental illness, suicidal ideation, drug use/abuse, alcohol, addiction, toxic relationship, panic attacks, emotional abuse, infidelity, sexual content, abandonment
--
Olive Blake is an expert at writing messy, chaotic characters that you canāt help but be engrossed by and highly introspective narratives that really get you thinking.
Alone With You in the Ether is not your conventional love story. Itās about two people whose lives colliding sets them both on a journey of finding love and acceptance of themselves, of each other and of their place in the world. As made evident in the authorās note/acknowledgements it is a deeply personal book and after reading that part and seeing the idea at the core of the story it really enhanced the meaning behind everything.
However, I would be lying if I said I didnāt have issues with it and this for the most part comes down to the writing. Sporadic and inconsistent is probably the best way to describe it which I guess sort of reflected the protagonists themselves but it did also get confusing at times. At first youād have random cut off where external narrators would jump in and say their piece in between the main story. Eventually I thought this was pretty cool, I mean characters breaking the fourth wall to add a detail every now and again gave the story a film like feel. Bu then this then stopped happening midway and diverged into chunky monologues from the leading characters. Now Iāve personally come to realise that I donāt exactly vibe with the rambling monologue narrative style which is probably why I didnāt wholly enjoy it.
Though I will say that I really enjoyed the āconversationsā section of the book, it was the part that hooked me onto the characters the most. Blake has shaped two beautifully realistic and flawed characters through her words and I found that I couldnāt help but fall in love with the deep bond that formed between them despite elements of their relationship coming across as a little toxic.
If you pick this one up it is without a doubt going to stick in your mind for a long while.
Final Rating ā 3.5/5 Stars
CW: mental illness, suicidal ideation, drug use/abuse, alcohol, addiction, toxic relationship, panic attacks, emotional abuse, infidelity, sexual content, abandonment
--
Olive Blake is an expert at writing messy, chaotic characters that you canāt help but be engrossed by and highly introspective narratives that really get you thinking.
Alone With You in the Ether is not your conventional love story. Itās about two people whose lives colliding sets them both on a journey of finding love and acceptance of themselves, of each other and of their place in the world. As made evident in the authorās note/acknowledgements it is a deeply personal book and after reading that part and seeing the idea at the core of the story it really enhanced the meaning behind everything.
However, I would be lying if I said I didnāt have issues with it and this for the most part comes down to the writing. Sporadic and inconsistent is probably the best way to describe it which I guess sort of reflected the protagonists themselves but it did also get confusing at times. At first youād have random cut off where external narrators would jump in and say their piece in between the main story. Eventually I thought this was pretty cool, I mean characters breaking the fourth wall to add a detail every now and again gave the story a film like feel. Bu then this then stopped happening midway and diverged into chunky monologues from the leading characters. Now Iāve personally come to realise that I donāt exactly vibe with the rambling monologue narrative style which is probably why I didnāt wholly enjoy it.
Though I will say that I really enjoyed the āconversationsā section of the book, it was the part that hooked me onto the characters the most. Blake has shaped two beautifully realistic and flawed characters through her words and I found that I couldnāt help but fall in love with the deep bond that formed between them despite elements of their relationship coming across as a little toxic.
If you pick this one up it is without a doubt going to stick in your mind for a long while.
Final Rating ā 3.5/5 Stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Alcohol, Addiction, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Abandonment, and Emotional abuse
whenjessreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book made me feel deeply uncomfortable because I saw myself in it.
Iām not going to write a regular review for this book because it feels pretty impossible. I looked up a couple of reviews on goodreads to see how other people managed to put it into words, but that just frustrated me - some of the lower-rating reviewers were saying that the way the FMC thought or behaved seemed unreasonable or unrealistic, and all I could think was: but Iāve had those thoughts in my OWN brain. Iāve felt those emotions in my OWN gut and if you think theyāre unrealistic then you should be thanking the lord you have never had the misfortune of experiencing what ārealā really is.
This is a book about love and how it will not fix you when youāre broken.
Itās a book about obsession and devotion and being too empty and too full and feeling that youāre not enough and believing that youāre too much.
The writing itself feels manic, like a spiral that starts in the first chapter and slowly tightens into a free fall at the centre. I know some people have said that they think it is pretentious, but I thought it was just beautiful. Maybe thatās because I have my own obsessions - and that the philosophical discussions and esoteric language intrigued me rather than bored me - but I do honestly think that if you have a healthy dash of curiosity, this book will pull you in rather than shut you out.
While Iām not usually a fan of books that are romance focused with no external plot, I didnāt feel like I was reading a romance. I felt like I was reading the debris left behind by a tornado. A tornado that had ripped through a stained glass factory, maybe. The magnetism of a disaster.
Everything about this book is fragile and pulsating and intimate and while some parts made me feel nauseated, it wasnāt due to the writing or the content, it was because it felt like Olivie Blake had somehow crawled into my head when I was sleeping and put words to my unspoken feelings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Drug use
Minor: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts
booksdogsandcoffee's review
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A profound and moving stream of consciousness that delves into what it means to be in love, live and deal with mental illness.
Alone with you in the ether is so real and raw and very much captures the thoughts that go through our minds, the dark ones, the ones of the future, the ones of failure, the ones of love and fear. So much of this book is a love letter saying it is ok to love and be broken.
This is so different than any romance novel I have read in a while. It is everything all at once. The writing is so beautiful and makes you really think. You can see how much Olivie put her self and life experience into this book. I think so many people will be able to relate to this book.
Cow
Alcohol
Over dose mentioned
Emotional abuse
Mental illness
Drug use
Addiction
Toxic relationships
Sexual content
Alone with you in the ether is so real and raw and very much captures the thoughts that go through our minds, the dark ones, the ones of the future, the ones of failure, the ones of love and fear. So much of this book is a love letter saying it is ok to love and be broken.
This is so different than any romance novel I have read in a while. It is everything all at once. The writing is so beautiful and makes you really think. You can see how much Olivie put her self and life experience into this book. I think so many people will be able to relate to this book.
Cow
Alcohol
Over dose mentioned
Emotional abuse
Mental illness
Drug use
Addiction
Toxic relationships
Sexual content
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug use, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Alcohol, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Sexual content
hannahnasir's review
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
There is nothing I can say that would properly express how I feel about this book. So good. So crazy. So genius. Iād literally cut my arm off to relive what it felt like reading this for the first time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Body shaming, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Minor: Gaslighting
vigil's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
reading this book gave me a minimum of six migraines. i was taken on an emotional rollercoaster up and down, and up and down, and then down, down, down, down.
it is more ya purple prose than plot, dragging the reader on paragraph after paragraph of the same topic over and over and over again. this is much more prominent in the last third of the book which i found painful to read. any of the earlier chemistry that aldo and regan had is abandoned for description after description of all the times and ways they fucked in the same YA purple prose style and it didnāt mesh well. it was several sex scenes back to back and it was too many imo, and this is coming from ME, sex scene enthusiast. i mean truly. i donāt need a play by play of every single time these people had sex, (a little bit of intrigue wouldāve gone a long way!) and certainly not all at once. give me some room to breathe please. just write a handful (1-3) of really good quality sex scenes, (space them out PLEASE) maybe a mention here and there, a maximum of TWO snippets and stop. this could just be my lesbianism jumping out, but i stand by my point.
in the beginning, it is written in a play-like style, with a narrator often interjecting to provide context, or to set the scene, which i enjoyed. naturally of course, this is almost immediately abandoned, then haphazardly thrown in at the end like the author forgot about it. it is very very obvious this book is self-published because it desperately needed someone with professional experience to tell her to edit. instead we got whatever this is supposed to be.
speaking of aldo and regan, what the fuck was that? any sort of prior chemistry they have is immediately abandoned once they actually get together, for what? at least 20 pages worth of sex scenes? previously somewhat layered characters with high potential end up becoming each other's manic pixie dream girls, only to get upset when your codependent love story turns out to be hinging off someone kind of fucked up?
though to be fair, calling aldo and regan layered is quite generous. they are a hodgepodge of mental illness and toxic traits masquerading as a personality. (thatās harsh, iāll admit, but not untrue.) which is fine, iām into that, but not entirely acknowledged for what they are, and they never move beyond that. regan is clearly spiraling her way through a manic episode and aldo eats it up, calling her passionate and impulsive. this is meant to be a story about a woman learning to live without her meds but did she really? in general thatās a kind of story that i would enjoy, but i donāt think that was shown here. at least not sustainably or desirably. regan has a habit of being what people want or tell her to be, and when she picked her art back up (in an unhealthy almost obessive way) because aldo called her and artist, i saw that trend continuing.
i understand that this is a subject important and close to the author, but that doesnāt automatically make her capable of adequately portraying it. healthy is relative sure and regan will never not be bipolar, but at some point things are just plain old unhealthy across the board, and no amount of platitudes changes that. reganās mental illness was portrayed well on its own in my opinion, but not within the context of a relationship. i can see why the concept and early execution would be important to many people, but in my opinion she completely fumbled the landing.
aldo is an entirely different beast, describing her the way a drug addict would think about coke. he even directly says she's an obsession, just like his drugs were. in the last third of the book i just wished they'd go to therapy and stop wasting my time.
whatās honestly so disappointing to me about this book is that it had such high potential. i think it couldāve been a frank and honest portrayal of what relationships are like with mental illness and addiction, but it went for romanticism and natterings over sense. to give blake some credit, i think that is what it tried to be in theory, but fell flat on its ass in execution.
also, this book needs to be edited so, so badly. it is self-published and unfortunately upholds all the negative stereotypes about self published books.
overall, i'm sick of thinking and reading this book and i'm glad its over.
it is more ya purple prose than plot, dragging the reader on paragraph after paragraph of the same topic over and over and over again. this is much more prominent in the last third of the book which i found painful to read. any of the earlier chemistry that aldo and regan had is abandoned for description after description of all the times and ways they fucked in the same YA purple prose style and it didnāt mesh well. it was several sex scenes back to back and it was too many imo, and this is coming from ME, sex scene enthusiast. i mean truly. i donāt need a play by play of every single time these people had sex, (a little bit of intrigue wouldāve gone a long way!) and certainly not all at once. give me some room to breathe please. just write a handful (1-3) of really good quality sex scenes, (space them out PLEASE) maybe a mention here and there, a maximum of TWO snippets and stop. this could just be my lesbianism jumping out, but i stand by my point.
in the beginning, it is written in a play-like style, with a narrator often interjecting to provide context, or to set the scene, which i enjoyed. naturally of course, this is almost immediately abandoned, then haphazardly thrown in at the end like the author forgot about it. it is very very obvious this book is self-published because it desperately needed someone with professional experience to tell her to edit. instead we got whatever this is supposed to be.
speaking of aldo and regan, what the fuck was that? any sort of prior chemistry they have is immediately abandoned once they actually get together, for what? at least 20 pages worth of sex scenes? previously somewhat layered characters with high potential end up becoming each other's manic pixie dream girls, only to get upset when your codependent love story turns out to be hinging off someone kind of fucked up?
though to be fair, calling aldo and regan layered is quite generous. they are a hodgepodge of mental illness and toxic traits masquerading as a personality. (thatās harsh, iāll admit, but not untrue.) which is fine, iām into that, but not entirely acknowledged for what they are, and they never move beyond that. regan is clearly spiraling her way through a manic episode and aldo eats it up, calling her passionate and impulsive. this is meant to be a story about a woman learning to live without her meds but did she really? in general thatās a kind of story that i would enjoy, but i donāt think that was shown here. at least not sustainably or desirably. regan has a habit of being what people want or tell her to be, and when she picked her art back up (in an unhealthy almost obessive way) because aldo called her and artist, i saw that trend continuing.
i understand that this is a subject important and close to the author, but that doesnāt automatically make her capable of adequately portraying it. healthy is relative sure and regan will never not be bipolar, but at some point things are just plain old unhealthy across the board, and no amount of platitudes changes that. reganās mental illness was portrayed well on its own in my opinion, but not within the context of a relationship. i can see why the concept and early execution would be important to many people, but in my opinion she completely fumbled the landing.
aldo is an entirely different beast, describing her the way a drug addict would think about coke. he even directly says she's an obsession, just like his drugs were. in the last third of the book i just wished they'd go to therapy and stop wasting my time.
whatās honestly so disappointing to me about this book is that it had such high potential. i think it couldāve been a frank and honest portrayal of what relationships are like with mental illness and addiction, but it went for romanticism and natterings over sense. to give blake some credit, i think that is what it tried to be in theory, but fell flat on its ass in execution.
also, this book needs to be edited so, so badly. it is self-published and unfortunately upholds all the negative stereotypes about self published books.
overall, i'm sick of thinking and reading this book and i'm glad its over.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Drug use, Alcohol, and Mental illness
villainsandpoets's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
if the word "love" was a book, this would be it. taylor swift songs i relate with this book: willow, the lakes, mad woman.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders
shmandy's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This is a pretentious book about art, math, time, bees & sick people loving each other while acknowledging how un-fixable they are and I adored every single second.
The writing is absolutely stunning and while I do not think the content, characters or story is for everyone I think the writing itself stands on it's own as a reason to read this book. I will be reciting different lines from this book for weeks.
I'll leave you with a few while I go pick which Olivie Blake book is going to ruin me next:
"Deities themselves had changed over time, but the act of devotion had not."
"Time is a function of lies, a trick of light, a mistranslation"
"Oddly, some people seem to have no interest in bees."
The writing is absolutely stunning and while I do not think the content, characters or story is for everyone I think the writing itself stands on it's own as a reason to read this book. I will be reciting different lines from this book for weeks.
I'll leave you with a few while I go pick which Olivie Blake book is going to ruin me next:
"Deities themselves had changed over time, but the act of devotion had not."
"Time is a function of lies, a trick of light, a mistranslation"
"Oddly, some people seem to have no interest in bees."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use and Drug abuse
Moderate: Alcohol and Mental illness
deadbookishsociety's review
emotional
informative
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content
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