A review by seastheday
Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I suffer from mental illness but I’ve dealt with it for years and have an understanding on it and how it affects my life. I think this book may be dangerous to those that don’t fully understand their mental illness or are new to understanding it. The authors note at the end should be a prologue, explaining her reasoning for writing the book. I would definitely steer clear of this book if you are feeling manic or hypomanic. 

The book itself is interesting enough to finish. I didn’t want to DNF it. But sometimes the stream of consciousness (you are constantly in the characters thought process instead of formed thoughts) caused the book to be confusing at times. I believe this was done to show the mental illness and how it affects the brain. However, I don’t think it was done in a way that is helpful or inspiring. I ended the book feeling almost sad and annoyed. Annoyed at the characters and the conclusion to their stories. Again, I think this is a dangerous book to read if you are mentally ill or have had crisis’ recently that you have not worked though. 

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