Alone With You in the Ether

I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about this book but mann the endnotes got me. What happens when your broken brain becomes someone else's problem. I was rooting for them in all their awful-coexisting-toxic-mess and I think I was rooting for myself too.

Confusing, but I read it all in a few hours so pretty good I guess!

3.5 stars. Some very good writing here but the characterization felt very thin. That and the “plot” with forgery stuff felt very contrived, the author is an extremely talented writer so it felt truthful, if not real.

Beautiful prose, so profoundly poetic. I felt myself in both of these characters. A must read.

There were some genuinely beautiful moments in this book that I loved but others felt like the intellectual banter was forced and pretentious.

4.5 - This book is so beautifully written, but unconventional in its execution of a love story. Both characters are neurodivergent (mood disorder and ASD), which makes the texture of their conversations, the exploration of their feelings and the trajectory of their unique relationship feel like a beautiful whirlwind you're lucky to be privy to.

This novel includes stage directions, changes in narrator, and frequent switches from first to third person. I have never read anything quite like this. Stunning story with insightful prose that often left me with my mouth wide open. I will be recommending this book to so many people!

Some standout quotes that are spoiler free are:

“There was wonder here, even if Regan no longer saw it. Even if she no longer felt it, he would feel it for both of them. He would translate it for her later. He would learn to draw it for her, he thought, or to write it, or graph it.”

“If I'm a lover of impossible problems then will you have loved me for my impossibilities, so tell me, Regan, what else matters but this, us?”

Loved the first half. And Oh My God the tension!!! But I was so disappointed with the second half. Bummer

This was beautiful.
I don't care what anyone says but Olivie Blake has a way with words.
Did I understand all the mathematical terms and concepts? Hell no.
But was I captivated throughout? Did I take my sweet time to savour every single word written? Yes.
Did the relationships tumble to the edge of being toxic and obsessive at times? Yes.
But it worked, specially for the main love interests and it was beautiful to read.

felt like a fever dream ; the writing is so incredibly stunning.

2/5

yeah this book was just not for me. it had some beautiful quotes but it was a bit too philosophical and existential for me and it felt like it kept saying the same things over and over. also, i'm a sucker for mentions of multiverses but this did not do it well at all. I can see why some people liked it as a whole, but it's just not really for me.

3.5 stars. A romance novel about a codependent couple, one with bipolar disorder, who decides to go off her medication with some success. The author partially based the character off her own experiences with bipolar disorder, which is is cool that it's realistic, but at the same time the character is very flawed, selfish and pretty unlikeable so it's not a very flattering portrayal of it.

The trouble with this book for me was that because of the hype that this book has my expectations were high and this book didn't live up to them. Yeah, the prose is pretty but it is also tedious. This book wants to be a deeply philosophical love story and some scenes were really moving especially during the first part of the book but what was more prevalent than these true moments of beauty were the moments when both the main characters's thoughts were not intriguing at all. There were entire paragraphs that I wanted to skip. At around the 90 per cent mark, I wanted to DNF it because there was a scene after a fight that goes like this
“She wanted to stab him and stab herself and stab her mother and especially to stab Marc; she couldn't stop the images of herself, stabbing and stabbing and stabbing until her hands were soaked with tears and blood. She would do all of it, she thought, and then use the carnage to paint something new, something brilliant, and with Aldo's blood especially— from the vessels of his lovely wounds—she would paint a sky mixed with gold, dotted with constellations.”
like yes let's ignore this very obvious sign of her deteriorating mental health because love. bah! gimme a break.
but hey this book has about 10000 5-star reviews so it works for some people! might work for you hence 3 stars

this book is the perfection itself

I didn't like this one. The book suffers from pretentious characters, making it challenging to connect with the story. Blake, unfortunately, shows a lack of scientific understanding, making the science elements feel unconvincing and undermining the story's credibility. Hexagons and time travel, like whaaa...

2 ⭐️

This was - without a doubt - the MOST pretentious book I've ever read. And I ate that sh*t up in the first half.

I love the premise of meeting a stranger over six conversations, of healing yourself by learning who you are through the context of falling in love.

But then, you get to the last half of the book. In my opinion, it feels toxic, unhealthy, codependent, and gratuitous. It's giving tumblr, pick me energy, with Regan and Aldo acting as if they are the only two people of substance or value or original thought. It's a sex-capade of co-dependence and I got mega ick (think: Megan fox and whatever his name is)

This is also a character driven book, focused on the relationship over a typical plot. The issue with character driven books is that you have to be interested in the characters to make the “slice of life” storytelling worth it. I didn't relate to Regan, and I do not believe that you have to feel connected to a character to enjoy or derive value from a story (that is a dangerous thing to think). But I do think you have to be curious about their story, and I found her to be a frustrating character to read as I don't agree with her poor choices and how they are romanticized.

The author (sort of) addresses this in the acknowledgments, but I don't love the messaging that medication and therapy were obstacles to her finding love. The implication that she could only love Aldo, and that he could finally love her, once she stopped taking her pills and ignoring her the phone calls/therapy appointments of her court-issued psychiatrist felt like a dangerous narrative to tell.

This book got glowing reviews and emotional recommendations, but didn't land for me. The prose is nice, but if English is not your first language, good luck. You have to wade through parts of it and I found myself reading out loud just to understand what was being said and which characters were speaking.

I was expecting a book about flawed humans falling in love despite their imperfections, but I got a pretentious, unhealthy depiction of an obsessive relationship.

Dua orang bertemu di institut seni tanpa sengaja. Aldo, seorang mahasiswa doktorat yang mengendalikan pikiran destruktifnya dengan perhitungan kompulsif perjalanan waktu. Regan, seorang pelukis, yang sedang menjalani psikoterapi berdasarkan perintah pengadilan.
Bagi Regan yang bekerja sebagai pemandu tur, manusia mudah diprediksi dan membosankan. Termasuk dan kemungkinan besar dirinya sendiri. Bagi Aldo yang bekerja sebagai dosen, dunia terasa seperti kaos yang amat mengganggu.
Bagi Regan dan Aldo hidup adalah perkara memasrahkan diri pada cetak biru yang tidak terellakkan. Sampai keduanya bertemu.
Aku sudah tertarik pada buku ini dari bab-bab awal, rasanya susah berhenti membaca karena aku penasaran dengan kelanjutan ceritanya. Aku agak kesulitan mengungkapkan kenapa aku sangat menyukai buku ini. Cara Aldo berbicara mengenai sains dan matematika membuatku langsung insta-love padanya, aku ingin sekali menjadi Regan. Aku merasa terhubung dengan Aldo & Regan dari saat mereka bertemu, kisah mereka buatku sangat manis & menggemaskan.
Buku ini membuat Olivie Blake menjadi auto-buy author buatku. Ada sesuatu dari gaya dia menulis yang membuatku susah berhenti membaca, seperti candu. Aku merasa bahwa dia menulis buku-bukunya spesial ditujukan padaku, karena aku ketagihan dengan karya-karyanya.

im crying and shit man im crying

this wrecked me. if you don't like flowery language and meandering musings, you will probably not enjoy this. but i found myself sucked so deeply into these characters and their world. i had no idea what to expect going into this, but i loved what i got out of it.

first five star read of 2023! as someone suffering from a personality disorder, this book is special to me. it resonated with me in a way that non-fantasy books rarely do. and though a lot of the criticism surrounding this book talks about how “toxic” regan and aldo's relationship was, i can't truly bring myself to see it that way.

people suffering from mood and personality disorders often struggle with their self-image and their relationships. some of us out here will struggle for life — there simply is no cure. you have to manage it everyday, and the people you love will have to see your ups and downs as they come. 

this book gave us a peek into what it could look like, to love someone who has a “broken brain”. how it's not always easy, how it can be frustrating, how it takes a lot of hard work on both ends. regan and aldo both have their own demons, but love did prevail. the ending to their story is beautifully hopeful, and somewhere out their in a strand of the multiverse, i would like to believe that they are living happily ever after, despite the challenges that life and its multitude of complications must be throwing their way.

olivie blake, you are a real one for writing this beautiful, beautiful story. thank you.

A pretentious self centered wank.

Both main characters alternate between unbearable and slightly less unbearable.
The writing style is pompous, meandering and often meaningless-adjacent.
The romance - there were a couple of very well done scenes, but it was all tainted by cheating.

The first half of the book was a pseudo-intellectual drivel about the meaning of things and how nobody understands. Same was at the end.
The middle was a fever dream of unhealthy over-attachment, possessiveness and mania.

If I hadn't read this for a reading challenge, I would've DNF-d early on. I kinda wish I had.

I do not know how I feel about this book. Part of me wants to give it a 1, and the other part wants to give it a 5. I'm not going to rate it.

As a person who currently lives unmedicated and with bipolar disorder, this book did an excellent job of allowing the reader to inhabit that space. I really felt brought a lot with Regan's moments, which I think is invaluable in a book about mental illness.

But also because of that experience, I found the relationship with Aldo to be problematic and codependent. It felt like something really unhealthy being broadcast as something desireable or “sweet.” I can't in good faith rate that well.

I also don't think I'd recommend this book to anyone, unless they really want to know what it's like to live with BPD. there are no big takeaways other than an excellent depiction of that.

I understood going into this one that the main characters would probably be unlikeable and hard to connect with. I was still hoping that throughout the story, I would come to understand some of the manic behaviors and come to love this overall as so many other readers have.

Sadly, this one didn't work for me ... at all. It was extremely slow paced and I kept waiting for something ... anything to happen. With all the hyped reviews I was expecting a love story, but this was not that.

I am glad others loved this one so much and wish I had felt the same love for it. Overall for me it was just ok.

TWs: mood disorder (bipolar disorder), addiction, (mentions of), overdose (mentions of), emotional abuse

4.5 rounded up; I think this is my kind of love/romance story that I prefer and enjoy. I think the author did such a wonderful job of portraying and showing what it's like to have a mood disorder and how Regan is very different, and Aldo opens doors. I really loved the mix of dialogue, in and out of quotation marks which made it feel more intimate. I know it's part of Regan's disorder and thoughts, but the constant idea and mentioning of sex were a little too much for me personally. I agree with Aldo, and I felt really sad that she said it was a way to get to know the real images of people. But I'm glad Regan found an outlet of art and intertwined with Aldo's life and bees.

Rating: 4.63 leaves out of 5Characters: 4.5/5 Cover: 4/5Story: 5/5Writing: 5/5Genre: Romance/ContemporaryType: AudiobookWorth?: Yes!Hated Disliked It Was Okay Liked Loved FavoritedWant to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to listen to this book. I am on a high from this book. Wow. Honestly my expectations were low. I liked Atlas Six but it wasn't my favorite book so when I requested this one I was expecting the same thing. Boy was I wrong. This is probably my favorite book of this year. I normally loathe romance books. The artificial romance. The boring falling in love in the basic of ways is just not it for me. If you love them then keep on reading them, nothing wrong with that. That is just how I feel about them.With this book and this romance it is about exploring the minds and falling into a dark and endless abyss called love. Even with the highs and lows and non social norms, they fell in love with each other in such a cosmic way that I feel like I can't breathe. I absolutely loved it. If you like basic romance, this isn't for you. If you are a YA romance lover, 9/10 this might not be for you. There is complexity and it makes you think. This book was made for readers who loves books that make them do so. It gave me The Invisible of Addie Larue (V.E. Schwab) art. The beauty in both books are astounding. Though I will admit Alone With You in the Ether is better in way of exploring and going deeper into complex feelings.

one of those books you finish and want to read it again immediately

being rational this was a 4⭐️ read, i feel like the writing loses itself sometimes. however. it made me feel 5⭐️ feelings so it is a 5⭐️ book bitch