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

emotional reflective 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

It’s only January, and it will be most likely impossible to find a better book than Alone With You in the Ether for the whole year. And that says a lot. 
 
I refused to read this book for so long as I kept hearing mixed reviews. Some said that the romance was horrible, some said that the realism made them feel things. I also heard that it was insta-lovey, and I was like ‘no, thank you’. 
 
Alone With You in the Ether is about two people who meet in the armory of the Art Institute by fate. Aldo is a PhD student who, before they met, uses compulsive time travel calculations to control his negative impulses. Regan, on the other side, is a bipolar counterfeit artist receiving treatment under court order. Those things remain the same following their meeting. But everything else is a little bit different. From the time they first meet, Aldo and Regan, who have both eccentric and obsessive personalities, finding it difficult to stay apart. Because of the facts—that she is a crafty liar with a history of self-sabotage, and he is a severely depressed, anti-social theorist—their dependence on one another grows more alarming as their love grows. 
 
Now, if you have known me for a long time, you know that I love a good cry. And as someone who relates to Aldo in a deep and personal level, I definitely did. Truth is, if someone expects this to be a romance novel, then they’re expecting really different things. This love story was definitely not rainbows and sunshine, yet it was so raw and so mesmerizing. And I guess that’s because it’s literary fiction. 
 
This is not my first encounter with Olivia Blake, and as someone who always heard how good the prose in this book is, I was DYING to see how godly it is, and oh. my. god. I felt every word injected to my veins. Every word was crafted perfectly. Literally no misses. Pardon, my beloved philosophers, but THIS is how you understand the human condition. If I was not busy with school, I, for real, would have never put this book down from beginning to end. 
 
If you haven’t read this book yet, I really recommend it to you, and just give it a try. It’s definitely not for everyone, but there is beauty in it. 
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