A review by claire_perry20
Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Being loved and loving someone through mental illness is such a hard thing. I think she did that story very well and I know she has her own experiences that gave insights to this. She also wrote the feeling of being so in love with someone it’s all you can think about and it made me emotional to think of that time with my partner of 4 years. It was a slow moving and verbose story and it took me over a month to read it. It’s not a page-turner by any means but it did make me want to know what happened to Aldo and Reagan. I appreciate that she noted in the acknowledgements that she wasn’t endorsing coming off of medication for bipolar but I feel like that needs to be front and center. Reagan might somehow find a way to manage her disorder without medication but it’s really dangerous to stop. People ruin their lives by going into debt, making huge life decisions, having risky behavior generally when manic and the lows can be so low that suicide feels like the only answer. I just wished there was more warning for that.