Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Alone with You in the Ether

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Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

136 reviews

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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aileron's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

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

1.0

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m4rtt4's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-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

3.75

What a book! For someone who seldom reads romance, this book was an excellent choice — I still wasn't very interested in the love story, but oh my god, the language! I could listen to anything written by Blake for hours to end, she really has a skill to bring out the magic in the most mundane of things. The audiobook was also very skillfully narrated, I highly recommend it!

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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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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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nataliebootlah's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I devoured this book in just over a day.

At the beginning, I wasn’t so sure that I would enjoy this book, but a few more chapters in I couldn’t put it down. This truly is a brilliant portrayal of the realities of falling in love, mental illness, and two broken people coming together. It’s a love story, but not really. It’s hope, time, space. Bees, hexagons, math, art. The complexity of connection and the grief of loss.
It will most definitely make you feel the feels.

This book does not shy away from the fact that neither Regan nor Aldo are well. It showcases their mental health, codependency, and perhaps their unfavorable personality traits without judgement, which was wildly refreshing.

Alone With You in the Ether is not for everyone, but damn, it really left its mark on me. 🐝

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horizonous's review against another edition

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nightstitch96's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

3.0

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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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