A review by potatotoes
Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

emotional reflective 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

3.25


I don’t usually write reviews but I feel like I had to, because so much of what bothered me about this book is not talked about. 

This book is about… the characters minds? Aldo is a mathematician and Regan is an artist. He is on the autism spectrum (probably, it’s never really discussed) and she has a mood disorder. 

Here are some of the things I did not like about this book: 

  • While there are many beautiful quotes so much of the story is superficial.
    For example, in the past Regan commits forgery, gets caught and instead of going to prison gets mandated to see a psychiatrist. We never get the full picture of what she did, with who or why.
  • Aldo mentions his past difficulties with addiction briefly. He overdosed once and was able to stop using drugs  “because his dad asked him to”. That feels like such a simplified manner to depict addiction and to me it felt like an afterthought to add backstory.
  • Regan decides not to take her pills anymore to go back to painting… this one is tricky… As a health professional I have many mixed feelings about this.  There was very little consequence from her doing this, she was in hypomania at times but that is about it. While I am glad this was the author’s experience, I felt that writing about it in this way lacked some awareness. Bipolar is complex, so for many people it can be extremely dangerous and harmful to not use medication.
  • I enjoyed the first half of this book. The second half was dominated by Regan and I just didn’t like her that much. At the same time, I feel like after reading all of it I still can’t even describe her or what I didn’t like about her. 

This being said, the book is interesting at times, has some beautiful quotes and observations. To me it just feels a little Tumblr 2014 with some of the same romanticizations. 
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