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

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Romance! Obsession! Feeling Seen! Love?

What I liked:
  • 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!
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