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A review by mirandaleighhhh
Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'm still too overwhelmed to write an adequate review...
This was hard to get into, and all around pretty intense...but it fully sucked me in. Almost every character was unlikable and fairly un-relatable (mostly where wealth is concerned), and yet each was fascinating. I read this so fast I made myself sick. Olivie's writing is interesting, and there are some things I'm still not sure I understand...I'm going to need to let this marinate and come back with an official rating and review.
'When you learn a new word, you suddenly see it everywhere. The mind comforts itself by believing this to be coincidence but it isn't -- it's ignorance falling away. You future self will always see what your present self is blind to. This is the problem with mortality, which is in fact a problem of time.'
"So, somewhere out there, there's a hive of lady bees killing people for vengeance instead of doing what they're supposed to do?"
" yes, probably"
"That's--" Encouraging. Invigorating, even. Temporarily mesmerizing. "Interesting."
'Settle over me like the tide, cover me like a blanket, wrap around me like the sun.'
'See, I had a genius between my legs and held him inside me and swallowed him up, and then I made his brilliance mine.'
'I want you to say everything, anything. I want to have your thoughts, I want to bottle them, I want to put them in my drawer for safe keeping'
'It's you and me alone in the ether and you don't even know it, you don't even care, but still you are tied to this, and to me, and so be it, really.
So be it. This is what it means to live.'
'Because you and I, we are so different, aren't we, and yet we are more like each other than the rest of the world is like us, and for that I bless you, I condemn you, I sanctify you, I sustain you.'
This was hard to get into, and all around pretty intense...but it fully sucked me in. Almost every character was unlikable and fairly un-relatable (mostly where wealth is concerned), and yet each was fascinating. I read this so fast I made myself sick. Olivie's writing is interesting, and there are some things I'm still not sure I understand...I'm going to need to let this marinate and come back with an official rating and review.
'When you learn a new word, you suddenly see it everywhere. The mind comforts itself by believing this to be coincidence but it isn't -- it's ignorance falling away. You future self will always see what your present self is blind to. This is the problem with mortality, which is in fact a problem of time.'
"So, somewhere out there, there's a hive of lady bees killing people for vengeance instead of doing what they're supposed to do?"
" yes, probably"
"That's--" Encouraging. Invigorating, even. Temporarily mesmerizing. "Interesting."
'Settle over me like the tide, cover me like a blanket, wrap around me like the sun.'
'See, I had a genius between my legs and held him inside me and swallowed him up, and then I made his brilliance mine.'
'I want you to say everything, anything. I want to have your thoughts, I want to bottle them, I want to put them in my drawer for safe keeping'
'It's you and me alone in the ether and you don't even know it, you don't even care, but still you are tied to this, and to me, and so be it, really.
So be it. This is what it means to live.'
'Because you and I, we are so different, aren't we, and yet we are more like each other than the rest of the world is like us, and for that I bless you, I condemn you, I sanctify you, I sustain you.'
Content Warnings
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts