Olivie Blake

CHICAGO, SOMETIME-Two people meet in the armory of the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. After their meeting, those things do not change. Everything else, however, is slightly different. Both obsessive, eccentric personalities, Aldo Damiani and Charlotte Regan struggle to be without each other from the moment they meet. The truth-that he is a clinically depressed, anti-social theoretician and she is a manipulative liar with a history of self-sabotage-means the deeper they fall in love, the more troubling their reliance on each other becomes. An intimate study of time and space, ALONE WITH YOU IN THE ETHER is a fantasy writer's magicless glimpse into the nature of love, what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you're not broken.

Alone With You in the Ether

This entire book is just ripping my insides apart and shoving sugar into the crevices

Taiha Morton

Yes, she thought, pained. Yes, it is perilously wonderful to suffer so sweetly with you. 

She had an innocent look; those wide eyes were tricky. She had a deceptive way if making attentiveness look like interest. 

He didn't see the problem in loving her that way, with a savagery that felt as ancient as his sorrows, until he realized that he could no longer recall a life without her. It was as if the older versions if him had been erased and could no longer exist. 

Olivie Blake's writing style is shockingly parallel to a certain very tall woodsy Irish musician and I love it!

"I worry that if you try to keep up with her, you'll burn out, Rinaldo." 

If this is what it is to burn, he thought, then I will be worth more as scattered ash than any of my unscathed pieces. 

There was wonder here, even if Regan no longer saw it. Even if she no longer felt it, he would feel it for the 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... Yes, he would draw it for her, and then she would see it. 

"Do you have, you know. A shaver?" she said. "Clippers? I don't know what they're called."

He arched a brow. "Should I be worried about what you're going to do to my head if you don't even know what the tool is called?"

Ashlyn Barrett

That she will keep turning corners until she finds him

She is my hope and for that she is dangerous, unequivocally, but she is also alive, unreservedly.

What kind of sad, unremarkable nothingness have you so callously lived that you can witness the splendor of her Exstence and not fall to your knees for having missed it, for having misunderstood it all this time?

Because we have agreed, collectively, that to proceed without knowledge or understanding is a stupid kind of bravery, an impulsive kind of blindness, but that to be alone without wonder of curiosity is to chip away any possible value we might discover in existing.

Art isn't about explaining shit. It's about sharing things-experiences, feelings. Art is something we do to feel human, not because we are.

It's part of our fundamental code to wonder, don't you think?

She wanted to bear his entire sadness for him; to hurt herself doubly, just to keep it from him, and was that illness or love?

There was a difference between craving and compulsion. People thought addiction was a craving, but the difference was this: Cravings were wishes that could be satisfied, but compulsions were needs that must be met.

He was gripped with terror, understanding now what it really meant to love something. That to love a person was to forfeit the need to place limits on them, and therefore to love was to exist in a constant, paralyzing threat.

"I's what people used to believe the universe was filled with," he said.

"So when people say we're alone in the ether?"

"Alone in everything. In time and space, in existence, in religion."

I came to look at art, to marvel at something, and here you are and so I will.

…how every moment of it should be spent at her side, the two of them together.

If this is what it is to burn, he thought, then I will be worth more as scattered ash than any of my unscathed pieces.

This feeling, this flutter in my chest and this lightness in my bones and this flicker in my blood, this must be happiness. This must be what it feels like to be happy.

I don't just e. differently about you—I feel more, a lot more. I's like you woke up something inside me and it won't be quiet.

I want you to say everything, anything. I want to have your thoughts, I want to bottle them, I want to put them in my drawer for safekeeping.

She thinks her brain is some sort of problem? Fine, good, he loves problems.

He doesn't want to be the person she hides from, he wants to be the person she hides with.

found myself getting so distracted throughout the entire book. Although there is a lot of beautiful quotes throughout and made me think a lot. 

Lex Forbes

Infinite stars. There just aren't enough words. Read it

Isabella 

This book is so beautiful. I don't think I'll ever get to read a book like this. The writing is so beautiful and the discussions about various themes. Everything felt so raw. The narrative style made it feel like I was in my own stream of consciousness. It was such an experience reading this book. I felt so connected to the world, to the characters. I don't think words can even express how much I love and recommend this book??? You have to read it yourself to understand. Olivie Blake never fails; definitely one of my favorite all time books! I love it so much.

i have super mixed feelings about this book. at first, i found the writing style a bit jarring. but then i fell in love with the characters and their banter. and then it all got to be quite a lot. so i don’t know lol.

Keira Ostrosser

✨"I heard you talked to Madeline," she said, something of a challenge.

"Not bees," he said, and handed her the blunt. "Bees are for you."

✨"Yes," he said—he would have said it to anything, she could have suggested a mutiny and he'd have searched tirelessly for an axe, a pitchfork, Excalibur itself-and she smiled up at him, lifting her chin to permit him full view of her approval. The prospect of it, of anything, buzzed in his veins.

✨You and me, you and me, you and me, Aldo, Aldo, Rinaldo, I am more addicted to the thought of your name on my tongue than I am to any other form of vice. The thought of having you is more dangerous than any cocktail of drugs, the idea of belonging to you endlessly destructive.

✨Empires have fallen like this, he thinks, but it only makes him want her more, makes him look at his hands and think, My god, what a waste of time doing anything else but holding her.

✨He'd like her to be honest if she wants to be but if she's going to lie then he d like to be in on it.

Yes it does, he doesn't want to be the person she hides from, he wants to be the person she hides with. These are distinct, doesn't she realize? Does she have any idea how difficult he finds it to exist with other people? And then here she is, this mystery, this puzzle, does she even know how much he loves her unpredictability, her twists and turns? She thinks her brain is some sort of problem? Fine, good, he loves problems.

✨It's like you woke up something inside me and it won't be quiet. It refuses to calm down, and why should it? It's not like 'Oh, you make me happy, it's nor something as clichéd as that. You make me feel like I'm alive for a fucking reason. Like for once I'm not just a goddamn waste of time."

✨"No, I'm ... I'm fine, Aldo, it's okay."

Aldo, I cry when it rains, I pick fights sometimes, I don't know why. I look at the sky and feel this inexplicable sense of dread. I'm afraid that everything will end; are you ever afraid like that? No, you're never afraid, you have numbers and thoughts and your genius to keep you warm. You don't need me, I need you, and it will always be like that, unequal like that. I will always cling to you in gratitude and you will always be kind, you're just made that way. You'll let me do it but eventually I will make you unhappy, and then it will be on me to leave, because you are much too good to give me the ending we both know I deserve.

✨"Aldo believed I was an artist, so I made it true," Regan said. "He believed I was an honest person who lied from time to time instead of a liar who sometimes told the truth, so I was. He believed I could love him and so I did, I do."

✨He woke me up, she wanted to scream; he woke me, and for that I will always rely on him, I will be to him what he is to math, and can't you see how fragile that is?

Regan considered it for several long moments.

She would remember that she said it because it was the only lie she told that day. She used them, her lies, sparingly these days. She found they were like old coping mechanisms, like the old pair of crutches she'd had when she was eight; something she d kept around,

Mariaaa

✨"I heard you talked to Madeline," she said, something of a challenge.

He shrugged. "A bit. Mostly about math."

"Not bees?"

"Not bees," he said, and handed her the blunt. "Bees are for you."

✨"Yes," he said—he would have said it to anything, she could have suggested a mutiny and he'd have searched tirelessly for an axe, a pitchfork, Excalibur itself-and she smiled up at him, lifting her chin to permit him full view of her approval. The prospect of it, of anything, buzzed in his veins.

✨You and me, you and me, you and me, Aldo, Aldo, Rinaldo, I am more addicted to the thought of your name on my tongue than I am to any other form of vice. The thought of having you is more dangerous than any cocktail of drugs, the idea of belonging to you endlessly destructive.

✨Empires have fallen like this, he thinks, but it only makes him want her more, makes him look at his hands and think, My god, what a waste of time doing anything else but holding her.

✨He'd like her to be honest if she wants to be but if she's going to lie then he d like to be in on it.

That doesn't make any sense.

Yes it does, he doesn't want to be the person she hides from, he wants to be the person she hides with. These are distinct, doesn't she realize? Does she have any idea how difficult he finds it to exist with other people? And then here she is, this mystery, this puzzle, does she even know how much he loves her unpredictability, her twists and turns? She thinks her brain is some sort of problem? Fine, good, he loves problems.

✨It's like you woke up something inside me and it won't be quiet. It refuses to calm down, and why should it? It's not like 'Oh, you make me happy, it's nor something as clichéd as that. You make me feel like I'm alive for a fucking reason. Like for once I'm not just a goddamn waste of time."

✨"No, I'm ... I'm fine, Aldo, it's okay."

Aldo, I cry when it rains, I pick fights sometimes, I don't know why. I look at the sky and feel this inexplicable sense of dread. I'm afraid that everything will end; are you ever afraid like that? No, you're never afraid, you have numbers and thoughts and your genius to keep you warm. You don't need me, I need you, and it will always be like that, unequal like that. I will always cling to you in gratitude and you will always be kind, you're just made that way. You'll let me do it but eventually I will make you unhappy, and then it will be on me to leave, because you are much too good to give me the ending we both know I deserve.

✨"Aldo believed I was an artist, so I made it true," Regan said. "He believed I was an honest person who lied from time to time instead of a liar who sometimes told the truth, so I was. He believed I could love him and so I did, I do."

✨He woke me up, she wanted to scream; he woke me, and for that I will always rely on him, I will be to him what he is to math, and can't you see how fragile that is?

✨"Do you think Aldo knows that?"

Regan considered it for several long moments.

"Maybe," she said.

She would remember that she said it because it was the only lie she told that day. She used them, her lies, sparingly these days. She found they were like old coping mechanisms, like the old pair of crutches she'd had when she was eight; something she d kept around,

Riya

I have mixed feelings towards this book because on one hand, I felt utterly mesmerised by her fluid and stupendous proses while on the other hand, even those breathtaking proses couldn’t make me care about our mcs. I really don’t think that each and every paragraph of this story needed to have these transcendental proses, it just made me feel distant to the story because most of my time went into dissecting them.
The other thing that I really didn’t like was the length. If the book were a little shorter, I’m sure I wouldn’t have minded the verbiage explosion that happened on every page. 
However, I did like the way she showed the mcs’ outlook on the concepts of art and space and time. It was endearing the way science and art were so interspersed in their lives that almost everything they talked about or did was related to that, my heart felt so happy whenever they tried to understand each other through art and mathematics. You could tell it helped them know each other in a way that is rare among people; that knowledge of each other's truest truths. I loved the emotional intensity this book has. It felt like that they had their own secret language in which they talked. Seeing them find solace in the wonders of time and each other was comforting to read.

Kendall McClain

4th re-read lmao, This book has done more for me then therapy ever could !

reading this book isn't enough, i need this circulating all throughout my system.

One of my favourite when it comes to contemporary romance novels. All I can say is that the story was beautiful written in a unique way. I love how the plot seems realistic. This book penetrated deep through me and I feel connected to the characters.

aldo, regan, and their world of bees, hexagons, math, art, and time: i love you

kamille

nina 

this book was like a piece of art and it was full of poetic lines. there was so much depth to it but the second half really pulled me out of the story. if i could rate the first and second half separately i would. 2.75 stars therefore is the only rating that feels fair.

2.5 stars, dnf’d at 70%. i guess the reason why i kept trying was bc i thought olivie blake’s words were pretty but i just. couldnt stand the story and the protagonist. its just not for me :/

🦌

“The day before was nothing special. It was special only because of how unspecial it was, or perhaps by how unspecial it would very soon become. things were always stranger in retrospect, which was a funny little consequence of time.”
Found this book firstly in between my shelf and heard almost everyone around me talked about it— before I decided to put my hold on the line to read each page of it. Based on its title, my first impressions of this book was sorta kind like; `Wedding Tomorrow You,’ as it lead us The Ether or the holy places on the altar, to the science-fiction phrases that make this book sound more tragically unrequited love happening at its core. As I try to dig into it, I found it far away from that! 

It's like a magicless glimpse into the nature of love, what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as it you are not broken. The story is soft-crack and safe, that immediately lead you to the home sweet home ambience as you wouldn't turn your page down. It's a little guide for us to find in the meaning of inner peace in between this crowded hazardous place. As what people used to believe the universe was filled with light needed to pass through something, only Einsten proved light can be particles, which don't need a medium to travel through. Ether was what they called the air in the realm of the gods, a shining, a fluid substance. Alone in everything. In time and space, in existence, in religion. 

Alone With You in The Ether, like its name, is the story of how you let yourself be all alone with the love you cherish. It's a book about love, loss, and fighting those against it that come upon it all the same. It is a story that will teach us if this is what is to burn, then they will be worth more as scattered ash than any of my unscathed pieces. It also showed us for some reasonable disguises how toxic relationship works based on mental clinical issues, as we learn how to face it and deal with it with other people. Two cupids with their arrow from the east and west coast to find each other. It will be a little magical thing that laid on your mind for more decades later. If you are looking for the sacrifice of life-time to make it works for the whole flowers pathway, then I really recommend this book for you.

Shaz

i live laugh love alone with you in the ether

. It shows how the real modern love is embodied and for that I will never be the same <3

Olivie Blake really outdid herself in this one 

which is saying something because I couldn't get through even 10% of The Atlas Six

, so much so that contemporary romance might be my new go to genre + my first new favourite adult romance book! Double happiness.

On a serious note, something about the characters, dialogue (very intelligent banter exchange I might add is chef's kiss), and story shook my brain and feels to the core. I think the impact of the realistic self-experience from the author reinforced the non-fiction essence throughout the character development and probably me having read 

 right before just made the kick from it that much more. This combo has transformed my take on love feel ever better <3

Definitely one to be added onto the re-read pile and the owned-book collection!

(I will probably update this later with a more detailed raving review on Aldo and Regan quotes and relationship - but my mind just wants to rug up under a blanket now crying)

This book destroyed me. It shows how the real modern love is embodied and for that I will never be the same <3

Olivie Blake really outdid herself in this one which is saying something because I couldn't get through even 10% of The Atlas Six, so much so that contemporary romance might be my new go to genre + my first new favourite adult romance book! Double happiness.

On a serious note, something about the characters, dialogue (very intelligent banter exchange I might add is chef's kiss), and story shook my brain and feels to the core. I think the impact of the realistic self-experience from the author reinforced the non-fiction essence throughout the character development and probably me having read Conversations on Love right before just made the kick from it that much more. This combo has transformed my take on love feel ever better <3

Definitely one to be added onto the re-read pile and the owned-book collection!

(I will probably update this later with a more detailed raving review on Aldo and Regan quotes and relationship - but my mind just wants to rug up under a blanket now crying)

Hannah Yang

I actually don't know whether or not I like Alone With You in the Ether and I keep dropping my star rating for it because (as another review said), the more I think about it, the more I dislike it.

There are some really beautiful, human moments. What is love if not trying to reach through the limitations of our minds to truly understand and see another person and embrace all that they are!! For the most part, though, the relationship between Regan and Aldo is extremely codependent (especially on Regan's part, although Aldo also literally describes his feelings as obsession) and the conclusion that they would give up everything else for each other is not the kind of portrayal of love that I think we should be championing. They create each other: Aldo the genius, Regan the artist. They shape their work to speak to one another, anticipating each others' curiosities and interpretations. At the same time, their love enables behaviors like infidelity, skipping medication, and sex on a Chicago rooftop in the cold (this merits a mention because it's objectively stupid and unromantic). I was constantly torn between really believing and rooting in their love because of how they saw one another, while feeling like at no point did their relationship represent what love should be: I can't say that they become 'better' or grow together in their love (Regan's rediscovery of art is 'good' but the fact that she feels it is because Aldo believed her into it / that he could at any moment stop believing in her as an artist and she would no longer be... definitely less 'good'), and their mutual need often veers into the territory of horrifying. The fact that they (spoiler) end up together felt like resignation to their reliance on one another. 

The book follows Regan and Aldo through the course of their relationship: a chance encounter at the Art Institute, six conversations, and a tumultuous romance. The structure involves a myriad of time-jumps, perspective changes, and the writing is often as pretentious and theatrically-grand as my high school reflections on Looking for Alaska (which was off-putting at the start, but it somewhat settles and by the end, there were consistently moments where I felt genuinely moved). 

The way Olivie Blake writes is the way people think. By the end of the novel, we are so familiar with the cadence of Regan's and Aldo's thoughts - their distortions, escalations, anxieties. Many moments were just really, really well-done: their Conversation in church; Regan wanting to fake an emergency so Aldo would come home earlier, then realizing this intrusive thought by calling him after her argument with Marc and being filled with shame; Aldo realizing Regan's forgery; the first time they say they love each other. While the end of the novel is a little cliche, the way Aldo thought about Regan's piece is genuinely the way I feel about my favorite artworks/literature (aka, a little crazy in the head - How ignorant are you to look at this and diminish it to some kind of trinket, are you dead? It's the human condition! It's the entire universe itself! [...] Pretty, that's what you think this is? You think that's all she's capable of? You fool, she's done the impossible. She has explained everything there is to know about the world in less than the time it took for your eyes to fully focus, and do you realize that I will spend a lifetime trying to do the same and never come close? This is an opus!, this is a triumph! - you know). I can think of few contemporary novels which portray such rich and beautifully-written inner lives, particularly for characters that are as unstable/unwell as Regan and Aldo.

Despite being a relatively short book, it took me a longer time to get through, in part because it's simply not a happy book and it creates a distinct sense of constant careening towards disaster. If you're a fan of poetic writing and character-driven novels, though, there is a lot to appreciate in Alone With You in the Ether.

I feel like the reason I am so torn about this is: what is the point of a novel? What I love about The Classics is that while most portray very flawed characters, we are meant to empathize and learn from them. Their mistakes are clearly delineated, at least in hindsight. Alone With You in the Ether has a bunch of great pieces: unique and complex characters, beautiful writing, deep exploration of relationships. And here, to say that the characters are 'flawed' is almost positioned as something harmful (because can you fault Regan for having BPD? or Aldo for having depression? Their most concerning patterns arise from mental conditions they did not choose). Mental illness certainly doesn't make healthy relationships impossible by default, but I would not describe their relationship by the end as 'healthy.' The takeaway seems to be that it was all good, all worth it, love is accepting flaws and concerning patterns of behavior rather than - as it sometimes should be - letting people go or pushing them to grow. I can't help but feel that Alone With You in the Ether validates an idea of romance and love that is actually terrible. Like watching a movie that portrays a trainwreck with beautiful cinematography: it's exquisite, but what you are seeing is a tragedy. The beauty lies in the craft, not the content.

my new favorite book ♡ i love you olivie Blake

Giving it a 4 because her writing goes crazy. Really interesting writing style with believable layered characters. It’s also a little toxic with a dash of mental illness.

Valentina Williams

Giving it a 4 because her writing goes crazy. Really interesting writing style with believable layered characters. It’s also a little toxic with a dash of mental illness.



marta blesa

This is such an incredibly hard book to review, this is definitely the kind of story you need to sit and marinate in for a while, however I finished it approximately 15 minutes ago so take this with a grain of salt. 

Alone with you in the ether is a profound love story that isn’t really a love story. A dive into the inner workings of a MC with a mood disorder fluttered with melodic prose and long (I mean LONG) thoughts. 

I’m in two minds, after reading the authors note at the end of the novel I wanted to cry, this story comes from a place of love and deep feeling so it makes me immediately appreciate it more. However, for my personal taste this story lacked the depth I usually go towards, I found myself losing interest a fair few times throughout due to the seemingly pretentious dialogue. I understand what the author was aiming for but for some reason it just didn’t hit that spot for me. 

Nevertheless I would 100% say that this book reminds me a lot of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine which is one of my top 5 star reads. So if you enjoy books about mental health and isn’t too triggering this is definitely something you should pick up. 

jaz ☁️

This is such an incredibly hard book to review, this is definitely the kind of story you need to sit and marinate in for a while, however I finished it approximately 15 minutes ago so take this with a grain of salt. 

Alone with you in the ether is a profound love story that isn’t really a love story. A dive into the inner workings of a MC with a mood disorder fluttered with melodic prose and long (I mean LONG) thoughts. 

I’m in two minds, after reading the authors note at the end of the novel I wanted to cry, this story comes from a place of love and deep feeling so it makes me immediately appreciate it more. However, for my personal taste this story lacked the depth I usually go towards, I found myself losing interest a fair few times throughout due to the seemingly pretentious dialogue. I understand what the author was aiming for but for some reason it just didn’t hit that spot for me. 

Nevertheless I would 100% say that this book reminds me a lot of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine which is one of my top 5 star reads. So if you enjoy books about mental health and isn’t too triggering this is definitely something you should pick up. 

I actually loved the first half of this book. I loved how slow they were. I loved the gentle touches and the soft, longing looks. I loved how the tensions in the first part didn’t lead up to sex and how it’s just them wanting to be with each other. Wanting to learn more about each other. Wanting to talk to each other. It was just so sweet. And hearing their thoughts about each other? Absolutely adorable. How each of them were slowly falling for each other and how Aldo literally calls her perfect in her own beautiful flawed way? Melting. I wish more romance books were like that because sex scenes in nearly every chapter bores me. However, the part where they finally got together had me feeling like everything was rushed. Despite it being kind of cut in half (first part them getting to know each other, second part them being together), the second part felt so fast. The sex, sex, sex was just eh to me. Which is why it’s a 4. But i do get the purpose of the second part and why it’s rushed, which is why i still love it. Would definitely reread again (Probably the first part mostly). I have so much to say but this review is far too long already

Leann!

Teeeeeesha

A raw and beautiful love story about a girl with a mood disorder and a boy obsessed with impossible things. It's something that will make you fall in love with being in love and make your heart hurt.

Alone With You in the Ether

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