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A review by maddiefisherreads
Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
5.0
This is the best contemporary romance I've read this year.
The immediate standout in this book is its structure and composition. The main male character is a scientist studying time travel and the occurrence of hexagons in nature, so naturally he is preoccupied with the number six. The book has six parts. He and Regan have six conversations. Regan then has six conversations with her therapist. Its recurrence built trust in me as the reader. Every part immediately felt purposeful, earned.
Aldo is a memorable leading man because he isn't conventionally charming, or stereotypically grumpy. He's odd, refreshingly direct, and non-dramatic. Regan is extremely relatable. Rather than being the typical sunshine female main character, her compulsion towards novelty, art, and intrigue is portrayed as a complicated facet of her bipolar disorder, the way she copes with self-loathing and boredom. The whole of the book portrays Aldo and Regan as functioning adults who primarily cope. The story is about them growing in self-awareness enough to CHOOSE their means of living with their own psyches, beyond coping, masking, numbing, and distracting. It's such an aspirational message for those of us who feel compelled by our impulses, hoping to master ourselves.
This romance was full of beautiful dialogue. I underlined so many intimate and raw lines. No one writes obsession and fascination in a more real way than Olivie Blake. I don't know how she so artfully and accurately describes the compulsion to create art, to solve problems, to be known, to make others comfortable.
I'm so impressed with her exposition on truth used as a weapon, and how fear of the nastiest version of the truth can be debilitating. Regan is terrified that she is flighty, predictable, unreliable, and a burden. To some, that is the truth. On her worst days, perhaps it's accurate. But Aldo offers the perspective, that we choose to be who we are, and he believes she is something extraordinary, so she chooses to be extraordinary.
Finally, I love that Olivie Blake zooms in on conversations and places so vividly. She draws out the moment, so you feel like you're there. Recognizing each nuance and breath, each stutter, miss, and bit of magic. It's masterful.
It couldn't be improved. It's perfect.
The immediate standout in this book is its structure and composition. The main male character is a scientist studying time travel and the occurrence of hexagons in nature, so naturally he is preoccupied with the number six. The book has six parts. He and Regan have six conversations. Regan then has six conversations with her therapist. Its recurrence built trust in me as the reader. Every part immediately felt purposeful, earned.
Aldo is a memorable leading man because he isn't conventionally charming, or stereotypically grumpy. He's odd, refreshingly direct, and non-dramatic. Regan is extremely relatable. Rather than being the typical sunshine female main character, her compulsion towards novelty, art, and intrigue is portrayed as a complicated facet of her bipolar disorder, the way she copes with self-loathing and boredom. The whole of the book portrays Aldo and Regan as functioning adults who primarily cope. The story is about them growing in self-awareness enough to CHOOSE their means of living with their own psyches, beyond coping, masking, numbing, and distracting. It's such an aspirational message for those of us who feel compelled by our impulses, hoping to master ourselves.
This romance was full of beautiful dialogue. I underlined so many intimate and raw lines. No one writes obsession and fascination in a more real way than Olivie Blake. I don't know how she so artfully and accurately describes the compulsion to create art, to solve problems, to be known, to make others comfortable.
I'm so impressed with her exposition on truth used as a weapon, and how fear of the nastiest version of the truth can be debilitating. Regan is terrified that she is flighty, predictable, unreliable, and a burden. To some, that is the truth. On her worst days, perhaps it's accurate. But Aldo offers the perspective, that we choose to be who we are, and he believes she is something extraordinary, so she chooses to be extraordinary.
Finally, I love that Olivie Blake zooms in on conversations and places so vividly. She draws out the moment, so you feel like you're there. Recognizing each nuance and breath, each stutter, miss, and bit of magic. It's masterful.
It couldn't be improved. It's perfect.