Alone With You In The Ether - Olivie Blake

Two people meet in 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. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. (link)

Review: 5/5

I saw this book on TikTok about two or three years ago, with a reader claiming it was the best love story ever written, but in a realistic sense. I have to say, I agree for the most part.

One thing about this book is that the people are real (not for real, but more in a sense of “oh she's so real!”). These characters are multi-faceted and feel like people you know or might have known in another life. I felt very connected to this book and the leads.

I think I adored this book because of my “I will never be fully loved because of my faults” insecurity. Woah, trauma dump! With a woman with bi-polar tendencies, I related to our female lead Regan, and empathized with her. I also love a solid poetic style within writing, and for that alone, this novel hit the nail on the head!

I loved the sense through the entirety of the book “they won’t work;” I feel in a fast paced world, we’re used to seeing “perfect” relationships, with Facebook or IG posts that reflect the happiness and constant vacations; the dates and love reflected in big and extravagant gifts. Especially in the books we read (I’m referring to some Emily Henry or Julia Quinn) we get a quick snippet of a third act break up, but it goes ignored once over. I enjoyed the theme “imperfect people can love each other fully” and the reality of that bite, no matter how daunting to swallow.

There were two things I didn’t love about this book. The first was the writing style, there were narrators and it felt very “performing arts” when I wasn’t prepared for that. By the time I understood the narrator and set changes, they were completely removed from the further pages. I don’t know what this meant or if it was an artistic point of noting change, but I’m too lazy to think that hard about it.

Another dislike of mine, was the un-character-development in our lead male, Aldo. In a way, I was thankful Aldo was so entranced by Reagan, he became all engrossed by her. I felt this was a realistic depiction of being infatuated vs. being in love. However, he lost a lot of dimension through this process, and I missed the analytical, almost robotic character we received such a thorough understanding of.

The romance in this book gives the energy of a nostalgia of relatable-ness, with its own modern setting twist. So, I was brought back to some modern(ish) indie tunes that give me a nostalgia of young love. Here’s the playlist I made in relation!

Spotify: LINK