Alone With You in the Ether
Reviews
It broke me apart, it told me that we can love a person with flaws, be with them, support them, even if we cannot fix them with our love. It was an extraordinary mix of both science and art.
bees, 6 conversations, time travel, hexagons, babylonians & utterly romantic đ
To be loved even when your mind is in chaos, to be understood so thoroughly it will be forever engraved into their system.
previously was rated 3.5 stars.
without getting too personal: many things clicked into place this time, my third go-round with the audiobook, fourth overall read. the narrative structure and the general narration will not work for everyone, but i think if you know what it's like to hear yourself and not like yourself and feel listless and desperate for something to spark a fire in you, then let this be an offered match.
i used to burn out, but now i just burn.
i don't even know how to put into words how this book altered my brain chemistry. it's one of those books that doesn't feel like just a 'story' â it was an experience. it's messy, gut wrenching, but so fucking beautiful. oddly comforting how i see myself in these two characters. literally everything everywhere all at once. and hexagons.
The book was written beautifully, as was the story behind it. I wouldn't recommend it to those who get bored easily or don't like to overthink. While reading, I experienced a mix of emotionsâat times I felt joy, butterflies in my stomach, sadness, concern, and moments where I just wanted to scream and cry.
read this at the peak of covid in 2020. bawled at the end, mental illness shrouds oneâs executive functioning but the love, will always be felt. very meaningful story, will not forget the rollercoaster of emotions i felt reading this
I am so remarkably changed by this book i had to read it twice
takes itself so seriously
I cannot explain the ways in which this altered my brain chemistry as I was reading it. Tortured artist & tortured mathematician fall in love and the world, time and parallel universes are all nothing, everything and also hexagons.
For plot driven people, this is not for you, unfortunately. If you are looking for a book to help you feel a little deranged this is it. Do with that information what you will.
Yes, this is one of my favorite books that I reread every year. Yes, this is a 3-star read. I've found that whoever I find the most annoying during my read is who I relate to at the moment, and this time it was Regan and all of her impulses. Regan and her insatiable needs. Regan and her mania, and her desire to create, her struggling and trying to find equilibrium.
When I recommend this book, I always say that this is not a love story, but it is about romance. It's about finding love in the mundanity, about what ties us together. Regan's human fears of people leaving her when the shine wears off, and Aldo's passiveness of letting life pass him is what causes their conflict. It's what makes their love storyâtheir mutual obsessionâexplosive, and when it does fizzle out... it pieces itself back together. Time cycles. People are creatures of habit. Love is not easy and clear cut and we keep moving. And things are the same, but shifted slightly to the left.
My new favorite book. I am so in love with this story and the writing and everything.
I canât believe i stalled this book. I canât believe i didnât finish it when i picked it up at first, only to find out thatâs itâs actually really good. I went through an emotional roller coaster while reading this book. I cried a bit because itâs was sad. Mental illness is real, and it could end something so beautiful, but they scaled through. I loved the fact that Charlotte and Rinaldo understood each other, they cared for each other and they were there for each other. Their love and the way they treated each other made me feel soft. sigh. My favorite part was when she decided to paint him; the way the author writes makes the imagination easier because you could almost feel every single thing sheâs writing about. Here, she writes about Charlotte painting Rinaldo; it was as if one was actually there, it was so real. The other part I loved so much was âfirstsâ; the first time they had sex, the first time they argued, their first time for everything. I love this book so much. The writing style is different, different from any book iâve ever read and Iâm so invested in it. the author writes like sheâs writing poetry omg. I really wish i could read this book for the first time again. A solid 5/5.
I need someone to wipe my memory so I can read this book again for the first time!!! Olivie Blake's writing is so unique and introspective for the characters!!! Most beautifully written story I've read this year <3
This book took me on a journey through the minds of the characters, but also through my own. Painfully beautiful prose.
what if i say this is actually one of the best books i have ever read? it shattered my heart, changed the trajectory of my brain, made me feel sick and what not. âi love him, and for a moment it doesnât matter whether he loves her back. it is enough to have known that the inside of her chest is more than a place for storage.â i relate to regan so much that it scares me. her moodiness, her obsession with change, her repulsion for emptiness. so on point. âwithout the volatility of her extremes, what was she?â exactly. what am i without my extremes? Regan's monologues tore me apart because how can i unhealthily relate to a character that much? Aldo is so precious. now, i cannot help but see bees and time in a wholly different light because of them. AldoRegan were so realistic, complex and layered, just like us normal people. wish i could read it again for the first time!
that was ... something
found myself getting so distracted throughout the entire book. Although there is a lot of beautiful quotes throughout and made me think a lot.
I have no idea about this. was this good? yes, a little perplexing? yes. but I know that this one is beautifully written. the characters, moments, personas, they were all exciting and well-made. but one thing that I know that this book is dedicated for pretty girls, boys and they who are hopeless romantic. âïžâïžâïžâïž
Beautiful writing, realistic depiction of mental health, lots of meaningful quotes and passages, and highly character-driven. It takes us deep into the characters' brains and thought process and motivations. Unfortunately, it did not personally appeal to me and I found myself bored half the time I was reading.
Not for me but I can really understand why people love this book so much. First 35 pages and I was feeling uncomfortable and bored; so close to DNFing which says alot since I rarely do that. Once Aldo and Regan met, I really started to love it, the beginning of the middle if you really understand what I mean was what I loved, it felt so fresh and new and real and authentic: the 6 conversations was my favourite part. Now, as we went further and futher into the "middle" of the book and even closer to the end, everything became really blended and just muddled up, where alot of the time the author was just assuming we'd understand what was going on, and I'm guessing people did, but I really didn't. Didn't really understand what was going on last 15 pages because something very big and theatrical and melodramatic happened but I didn't have a clue about what was going on. I love the characters though; Regan's mental issues which she used to fix with pills which she tries to ditch, and neurodivergant Aldo, who's confusing in terms of his obsessions with maths and theories with time.
Didn't understand anything, but in theory this book is great. Wouldn't really recommend.
this is a pleasant surprise for me. i went in blind and now i came out speechless. wow
Ăntimo, sensĂvel e reflexivo. Tenho pra mim que esse Ă© um livro pra ser lido com a maior atenção possĂvel e digerido aos poucos, mas eu nĂŁo consegui, a leitura me prendeu do inĂcio ao fim ao passo em que Aldo e Regan entravam na vida um do outro como um furacĂŁo, eu me afundava na leitura cada vez mais. As emoçÔes ou falta delas, transmitidas de forma que eu sentia junto deles. Nos momentos de intimidade fĂsica ou nĂŁo era como se eu estivesse interrompendo algo, presenciando momentos que nĂŁo deveriam pertencer a ninguĂ©m alĂ©m dos dois. E quando ouvia os pensamentos de Charlotte me vi um pouco naquelas pĂĄginas de maneira que nĂŁo esperava me ver. Bem, o dia que comecei a ler disse que esse seria um livro que eu sentia que iria mudar minha vida e assim como o casal protagonista, que sabem que nunca mais seriam os mesmo apĂłs tudo, acho difĂcil eu ser a mesma tambĂ©m.
Infinite stars. There just aren't enough words. Read it
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.
Highlights
They both paused, sipping from their respective thoughts. âI like it,â he said. âWhat?â He loosened the wine from his lips. âYour brain.â
âfingering the stem of his glass. âAnd I donât enjoy the necessity of having to predict how other people think.â âYouâre doing it now, arenât you?â He shook his head. âIâm not trying to predict you. Iâm trying to understand you.â
sighs, grabs a mic.
âShe hated all scenarios preceding the assumption that someone could predict her taste. Either they thought it universal enough that she could be lumped in with masses or they thought (usually incorrectly) that they understood her specific needs, and she wasnât sure which crime was worse.â
âIf it helps, not too many people are all that difficult to puzzle out, comparatively.â âI find that difficult to believe.â âMost people are a very specific set of variables. You know, goals, motivations, flaws, varying degrees of psychological traumaââ âNo,â she corrected, âI meant I find it difficult to believe Iâm in any way complex.â He stopped for a moment, tilting his head."
"Curiosity was unspeakably worse and far more addicting than sexual attraction."
One mildly flattering review said, âDamiani is really fucking smart and probably a lunatic. Good news is he grades strictly to the department-mandated curve, so statistically speaking someone will magically wind up with an A.â
<3
"When you learn a new word, you suddenly see it everywhere. The mind comforts itself by believing this to be coincidence but isnâtâitâs ignorance falling away. Your future self will always see what your present self is blind to. This is the problem with mortality, which is in fact a problem of time. It isnât constancy that keeps us alive, itâs the progression we use to move us. Because everything is always the same until, very suddenly, it isnât."
"Eventually she would marry him, and then everything she was would vanish into his name."
oh......
"so the process is about the moment of catharsis. The reverence is in making artâin being part of its creation, but then leaving it open to destruction. What Native Americans did with sand, Jackson Pollock did with paint, which is perhaps an empty rendition of it. In fact, he never openly admitted to adopting their techniquesâwhich makes sense, as itâs far closer to appropriation than it is to an homage. But could you do it?â She turned to look at The Husband, sparing him a disinterested once-over."
sighs catharsis
"His mind was like a computer with multiple applications open, some of them buzzing with contemplation in the background. Most of the time Aldo did not give others the impression he was listening, a suspicion that was generally correct."
"because everything was a consequence of something and therefore what became of them was somehow predetermined, or no, it did not matter at all, because beginnings and endings were not as important as the moments that could have happened or the outcomes that might have been."
Knowing her would mean knowing everything, not just her thoughts or her truths or the way she liked to be fucked. Knowing her would mean knowing her future, having it for himself. It was knowing what her children would look like, and what she would look like someday, when the youth was gone from her face and replaced by something else; by what? A mnystery.
Maybe this is why men rule the world, because they were clever enough to convince women that virginity is precious, that sex itself should be secret, that being penetrated was sacrosanct.
He lived each day over and over, with only his memory of rising each morning to prove that his existence fol- lowed the same rules of motion as everything else. He didn't know it was vacancy until his new life was overfull, bursting, his sense of stability lost to the effort of pacing himself to her. When she moved, he moved, and it was unsteadying: debilitating.
âSo this is what it is to love something you cannot control, he thought. It felt precisely like terror.â
âHe loved her fiercely for that.
He didnât 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 of him had been erased and could no longer exist. He realized that his relationship with time, whatever it was before, was now forever altered.â
âHe lived each day over and over, with only his memory of rising each morning to prove that his existence followed the same rules of motion as everything else. He didnât know it was vacancy until his new life was overfull, bursting, his sense of stability lost to the effort of pacing himself to her. When she moved, he moved, and it was unsteadying; debilitating, at times.â
âThe idea that even he didnât recognize happiness when he felt it was comforting, in some way. She was comforted by knowing he was equally as stupid and hopeless as she was.â
âIf this is what it is to burn, he thought, then I will be worth more as scattered ash than any of my unscathed pieces.â
âIf she were any less impulsive, she wouldnât be with me and I would have never known what she was, or how it felt to hold her. I would never have known what it was to matter for once; for the first time, and for the only time that I have ever known.â
âShe and his thoughts were inextricably linked now, to the point where even math, which had always been pleasing for being solitary, had become profoundly lonely.â
âhe doesnât want to be the person she hides from, he wants to be the person she hides with.â
âhe doesnât want to be the person she hides from, he wants to be the person she hides with.â
âCan you love my brain even when it is small? When it is malevolent? When itâs violent? Can you love it when it doesnât love me?â
heavy on this