Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Alone With You in the Ether

Love how Blake made me want something desperately, gave it to me, then immediately had me begging for the opposite multiple times. Like yes, take me on a journey!
Once things picked up I raceddd through this. A lot of it felt like a car crash I couldn't look away from. It's messy and unhealthy and problematic but I loveee an obsessive all-consuming "love" story, sorry!!!
There were some real tender moments between Aldo and Regan, and I was really rooting for them individually. And the way they genuinely saw vs. romanticized each other, the way they helped vs. hurt each other... I liked that it was all there.
Blake plays with the narrative structure a lot, and *some* of these choices worked for me. Especially the parts that really made me feel like I was in Regan's head. Great way to show how she rationalized things but also how off things were.
Miss girl really knows how to build the tension!!
Bees (when Aldo talked about them, sorry Regan).
Chicago.

What I didn't:

On the often-changing narrative structure note, the narrator gimmick in Part 1 made me almost put the book down. And then it comes back at the end randomly? Throw it out.
Sometimes really pretentious ngl. Or I'm dumb and Didn't Get It, but a lot of things that were probably supposed to feel super deep kinda just had me rolling my eyes.
Again maybe me Still Not Getting It, but a lot of the time travel/multiverse/hexagon conversations had me boredddddddd. I was rocking with the bees tho.
I don't know if it would have worked, since this was really about these two together, but I wish there had been more insight into Regan's Big Thing from her perspective and Aldo's Big Thing from his.
Bad ending. [4 hour later edit: This is harsh. Fine ending. Wrong ending to me. Fitting ending for them, I suppose.]

I would not call this a good love story, but there is romance and chemistry and tension! Leaves me reflecting on how easy it maybe could be to romanticize, use, or get lost in others and that big nasty question of What Is Love (bell hooks tap in).

I've seen critiques about the portrayal of mental illness/medication, but I feel like if anyone reads this and walks away thinking "that was normal" or "I should be more like them," that is a reading comprehension problem.

Will probably re-read and feel completely differently, time will tell!

Content Warnings

melusinedln's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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sukidookie's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.0

This was a hard read sometimes. Watching Regan fall into manic episodes made me fall along right with her. She was relatable in a lot of ways, and I found myself thinking that the system was failing her. I also believed that she was better off the pills, that she was more herself and happier, despite her obviously unstable and not-that-great personality. I think she needed to listen more to herself, and ignore the voices around her telling her that she couldn't trust herself. Everyone, even the man she truly loved, spelled out to her just how much of a problem she was, how unhealthy. But she knew she liked herself more when she could be herself unapologetically, despite how impulsive and morally grey she was at heart. And she needed a very specific someone who knew, or could learn, how to love her like that. But doesn't everyone need that specific someone? Love is not finite and nobody can tell you how it's supposed to feel, not really. Even if it's obsessive and all-consuming, as long as it works, that's all that matters.

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chasinggrace's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow

Content Warnings

eviereadsallthetime's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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witcheep's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The story shows the struggles of two people who don't feel like they fit in with the rest of the society. The story is at times challenging to understand –it has many very complex subjects and issues depicted in it – but the narration complements this perfectly and makes it more understandable as a whole. I really enjoyed the audiobook experience of listening to this. The narration and the audiobook's narrator's performance are what impressed me most in this book.

The audiobook's narration is a little unorthodox: it matches the characters mind in a creative and very depictive way. The book's narration is in the third person, sometimes coupled with explicitly named external narrator's sidenotes with different narrator's voices. The female main character Reagan has mental illness which's treatment includes therapy and medication; the latter she wants to forgo. The male main character Aldo struggles with interpersonal relationships and often finds himself drifting off to his own thoughts. Both of them have gone through very dark times, and they share them with each other.

These chaotically organized minds of the characters are reflected with the narration, and this has nuances with chapters focalized by different characters. Regan is very impulsive and thrives in chaos; the chapters in her pov are told with a rushed pace, sometimes multiple voices speaking at the same time. Her chapters revolve around Regan's feelings of the events around her and those are what dictate her interactions with the world. Aldo is very organized and relies on patterns and stability. His pov chapters are more calmly paced, and the subjects are dissected with rationality. He is open to listening to other people as well.

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claireisagrisha's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

Regan was a complex individual, as was Aldo. Regan's journey with mental health, and how it influenced her art, was truly beautiful, paralleling the way a writer creates books. There is great depth to Regan's character. Aldo is well-described, and he has a strong affection for bees. He also has an interest for math. (Personally, I'm not a fan of math.)

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