Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Alone with You in the Ether

I don’t even know what to write for this review, as I still haven’t fully processed this book. I feel like I could read this book 5 times and still not be able to process it. I’m convinced that this book is unlike anything I’ve ever read before or anything that I’ll ever read in the future. Just wow wow wow. The Acknowledgements from Olivie Blake also totally had me in my feelings too

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annamay1021's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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lucielockettreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I feel bad for rating it so low because it might just be the writing style that doesn’t work for me, but I did not enjoy this book.

There were snippets I read and it did feel deep and philosophical, as though Blake herself was peering into my soul and wrote the words on paper. Then all the other parts, they just… muddled together. I started skipping pages and pages of waffle which of course is charlottes mania. But the message to do with mental health therapy and TAKING MEDICATION I hated. I study psychology and counselling at university and there is absolutely in my mind a support for therapy, and sometimes medical intervention where therapy is not effective enough, this story says screw therapy and screw my meds!

I understand that the FMC is bipolar and maybe that’s why she never bought it up but the therapist should of saw them signs earlier.

Also aldo and his father are a wonderful story and I actually enjoyed it mostly when they were talking to each other

Also also, sex doesn’t heal everything!!!!!!

TLDR; not my type of genre, which I learnt through reading this, and the writing style… some good moments but a lot was not, although that does relate to the FMC personality.

Check trigger warnings.

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ninahuynh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"A Love Story". Turmoil and recognition. Love and addiction. Lost and denial. Yearning and fear. Regan and Aldo's relationship has more waves than the ocean. While they both understand their own flaws, they're both volatile and have so much inner turmoil that many of us may recognize in ourselves and relate to. While they seem to be opposites, their polarity is what brings them together.

As much as I don't want to like it, their relatability (inner dialogue) is what keeps me chewing through. That acknowledgement!

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jbellomy's review against another edition

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emotional 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

3.0

Torn. The more I think about it, the more I dislike it -- it's like if an early 2010s NLOG watched Garden State and thought, "hey, I bet I could make that angstier." The messaging is icky, the format is needlessly convoluted (form following function? Olivie Blake could NEVER), the dialogue in the first half is so so stilted and offensively twee. The male lead literally does the Augustus Waters thing, but instead of a cigarette, it's a joint that he *doesn't* smoke! (OKAY FINE he does it for a different reason. But in the acknowledgements Blake states that the first image she had of the character was ~a guy who's not smoking the joint he's holding~ and I'm like girl. You obviously watched/read The Fault in Our Stars and the most iconic, silly, parodied-to-death character quirk stuck in your brain and eventually your subconscious convinced you the idea was yours. HOW did no editor catch this. HOW.) (I know it was originally self published but dear god why didn't someone take this out of the final version.) However. There were some moments I really loved (e.g. the church scene kicked absolute ass). It's interesting that most of the negative reviews praise the first half of the book, but I much preferred the latter half. Blake captures the early throws of romantic obsession so well. There were scenes that fully transported me back to my high school relationship, which is wild since these characters are in their mid-late 20's, and, judging by the ending, Blake does not seem to be aware that their relationship is dangerously codependent. Troubling, but what can you do? They're so misunderstood and unique and they simply must let their freak flags fly/ignore all other flags, namely red ones, and dive head first into their all-consuming love! Seriously though, Regan and Aldo think they're hot shit because they've got quirky names and they're malnourished insomniacs and they're mentally ill and have special interests -- like half the book is them saying to each other how different from the rest of the world they both are -- but has anyone told them about the internet?? We're all in the DSM here. Maybe you're not different. Maybe one of you is just kind of rude, and one of you is just kind of mean, and that's fine, but it is not aspirational or romantic. BUUUUT at the same time, *I'm* a kind of rude, kind of mean, mentally ill obsessive freak, and I also get even more insane when I fall in love with someone, so, like, relatable content I guess.* I was an early 2010s tumblr NLOG. And I kinda like Garden State. I'm not going to read the Atlas Six because I cannot stand another second of Olivie Blake's clumsy pontificating about bees or math or philosophy or time or whatever she thinks will make her self-inserts sound smart, but I'm not leaving this book with 100% negative feelings. Tl;dr no regrets about having read this; would not recommend to anyone I respect.

*Regan is out here representing the neurodivergent trust fund babies who are fully incapable of holding down a real job. Though I do not approve of her male manipulator ways, gotta appreciate the rep. She just like me for real.

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clairew97's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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joaura's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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zzara's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

This book was absolutely magnificent. The love story between Regan, a bipolar artist and former counterfeiter, and Aldo, a depressed mathematician, had its problematic elements but ultimately I was rooting for them to find the necessary equilibrium to co-exist and sustain their relationship. Because this book was very existential and theoretical about the place of individuals in the universe, I was a bit worried that this book would give me a bit of pretentious vibe which is something I have a very low tolerance for. And yet, I thought it was done perfectly. The discussions about time and the universe seemed authentic to me, maybe because they were loosely based on the author's relationship and discussions with her husband.

I also thought (from my own perspective not having experienced bipolar), that the author dealt with the topic of mental illness and medication really sensitively - even though

Regan found happiness and functionality without medication,

, the book didn't ascribe a moral judgement to the taking or not taking of medication to manage mental illness. It was just Regan's story.

The ending was perfect. I thought the third act conflict was well done if not a bit predictable (

for a bit I thought that maybe Regan or Aldo would suddenly die so I was very relieved that didn't happen

), and I loved the resolution. The only thing that confused me a bit about this book was that the format of the writing jumped around a bit - the cast of narrators in the first part fell away (thankfully, as I found them a bit annoying) and some parts omitted quotation marks. This book had me emotionally gripped and seeing hexagons and bees in the world around me, I really loved it.

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