Alone with You in the Ether: A Love Story

by Olivie Blake

Narrated primarily by Robb Moreira and Sura Siu, this program features a cast of cameos, including one from the author.

From Olivie Blake, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, comes an intimate and contemporary study of time, space, and the nature of love. Alone with You in the Ether explores what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you're not broken.

CHICAGO, SOMETIME—

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. But this is not a story about endings.

For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision.

To Aldo, the world feels disturbingly chaotic. He gets through his days by erecting a wall of routine: a backbeat of rules and formulas that keep him going. Without them, the entire framework of his existence would collapse.

For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability—until the two meet. Could six conversations with a stranger be the variable that shakes up the entire simulation?

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Mental Health, Adult, Fantasy

472 pages, Library Binding

First published June 20, 2020

About the author

Olivie Blake is the pseudonym of Alexene Farol Follmuth, a lover and writer of stories, many of which involve the fantastic, the paranormal, or the supernatural, but not always. More often, her works revolve around what it means to be human (or not), and the endlessly interesting complexities of life and love.
​
Olivie has penned several indie SFF projects, including the webtoon Clara and the Devil with illustrator Little Chmura and the viral Atlas series. As Follmuth, her young adult rom-com My Mechanical Romance releases May 2022.

Olivie lives in Los Angeles with her husband and new baby, where she is generally tolerated by her rescue pit bull.

Reviews

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a book that was clearly a labour of love for the author whose endnote explained her motivations in writing this book. For that, I applaud her. What an incredible effort to put into words a very vulnerable aspect of herself.

But...

To all the other reviewers of this book....did we...did we read the same thing? I've missed something major here. The prose is pretty but tangential, half the time it feels like it leaves off in the middle of a thought and while I'm mentally trying to fill in the blanks, I've lost all feeling for the story and characters. Its outer shell was pretty but otherwise it was empty on the inside.

The recommendations for this book were glowing. The reviews were gushing, ecstatic. I started this book the moment it landed at my door expecting to laugh and cry and love two flawed humans who were lucky enough to find and understand each other. That wasn't what I got.

The pace of this book is slow, halfway through it, I realised that it wouldn't be picking up. That's ok. It's a character driven piece. The trouble with this is, the characters need to be interesting to drive the story. Two thirds of the way through this book, I realised that I was ambivalent towards Aldo. Worse yet, I actively disliked Regan. Many will disagree with me on this and that's ok but let me just say that what is painted as her vulnerability and uniqueness in this story just came across as manipulative and dependant for me.

The last third of the book illustrated love in the form of sex. Therapy in the form of sex. Transcendence in the form of sex. Apology in the form of sex. This normally would not bother me, but between Regan and Aldo, there was sex, obsession, co-dependence and very little else. Do they really love each other? I honestly cannot tell.

There are some truly troubling messages about ignoring the signs of deteriorating mental health in this story and one harrowing scene in which Regan (having just semi-broken up with Aldo) has graphic thoughts of stabbing him and her family until she runs with blood. I mean...is this a metaphor for something or a truly disturbing intrusive thought of someone who IS NOT WELL! At many points, Regan is truly manic (not in the funny personality sense but as in DSM criteria mania sense), makes questionable personal decisions, commits a criminal act (this is never really addressed) and shapes her world entirely around Aldo and how him being a genius and wanting her somehow elevated her personal value.

There is also the issue in which medication and therapy are painted as obstacles to true love or feeling anything at all. She says so at some point - that if she was on medication still, she couldn't/wouldn't have loved Aldo. I find this deeply troubling but look, books are not real life, we can't extrapolate...but I can't help but dislike this theme of the book.

Ultimately, I struggled to finish this book. I did so because I hoped for a last minute turn around. I was disappointed...it just ended with more pretty, empty prose wrapped around a barely formed concept of time travel, multiverses and soulmates who are not really that.

[Ayman · Rating 5 out of 5]

new favorite book alert.

cried, sobbed, threw up, cut off all my hair, threw myself down the stairs, crash my car into a grocery store, drank bleach straight from the bottle, lit a cigarette next to my dads oxygen tank, and entered a lions den. this is the best written book i’ve come across.

i can’t even put into words how much i not only loved this book but connected to it. olivie puts into words the thoughts and feelings i feel that i myself can’t find the words for. how tf can someone write something so captivating?!?

this isn’t your typical love story. it deals with heavy topics such as mental health and mood disorders. the main characters, Regan and Aldo are so complex and deep with each other and separately. i found myself connecting to both of them in someway shape or form. god, i felt like i was fucking fighting for them and i was. i was so connected to their connection. i didn’t want it to end. their love isn’t this pretty perfect thing yet it’s so deep and heart wrenching. it felt tangible and flammable.

someone said this book felt like seeing god and they’re completely right. it felt like i was in heaven and hell at the same time too.

this is a character driven book and the plot is the characters lives so don’t go into it saying “omg it’s so pretentious” like that’s the point. it’s a book that you have to go into wanting to put some thoughts into. it’s a book that could be dissected for ages.

this book is the Amex black card with unlimited credit of all books. the writing is like no other. it’s not this overly descriptive and flowery thing. it’s speaking from the heart and the brain at the same time. i’ve been waiting to read a book that would consume me. this book scratched a part of my brain that heavily needed to be scratched. and i absolutely loved every bit of it.

this is kinda a side note but this book takes place in chicago and that alone can be a five star read for me, but my point is that olivie blake describes chicago so accurately that only a person who has lived here could ever do. olivie blake has all my gratitude for that.

[persephone ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

if art is supposed to make you feel something, then this book is art in its purest form, for there is no emotion this book hasn’t made me feel.

i will cherish this book with every fiber of my being for the rest of my life and i want it engraved upon my heart. call it insanity, i call it common sense because in what world would someone not be completely bewitched by this masterpiece ?

i know this might sound awfully selfish, but if i could, i would keep this book to myself forever and ever and never let anyone approach it. it is so dear to me in a way that is almost inexplicable, perhaps because of how heartbreaking yet tenderly comforting it was, who knows, but what i can say with the utmost certainty is that i will treasure it for the rest of my life <3

second read update : yes. i am emotionally hurting. no. i won't recover anytime soon.

[manuela · Rating 5 out of 5]

dementia runs in my family... that means i’ll be able to read this book all over again for the first time and i thank my genes for that

[pearl · Rating 5 out of 5]

olivie blake could do romeo and juliet but shakespeare couldn't do alone with you in the ether

[maxine · Rating 5 out of 5]

pardon my blasphemy but reading this book felt like seeing God

[lisa (fc hollywood's version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

reading this masterpiece is not enough i want it engraved on my tombstone tattooed on my body injected into my veins

[Hannah Azerang · Rating 2 out of 5]

i have many thoughts…..they’ll be in a video soon

[Misha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spent the first 60% or so MARVELING at the FANTASTIC writing. I don’t want to make light of that. I was moved. The building tension was so good. We were careening towards disaster and I knew it would hurt and I couldn’t wait. I kept imagining that my review would just be one word— Ow.— next to a 5 star rating. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind.

And then… it got worse. The writing became a little too self-indulgent. It took on that fake-deep/Jared Leto/tumblr circa 2014 tone. It started feeling pretentious.

I found the last third to be totally unsatisfying. The content wasn’t profound enough to match the theatrics of the writing. Just think about how much buildup we got hinting at the final conflict. How dramatically it was referenced. How many times we were told there was this one pivotal moment that unraveled everything and in how many different ways we read about Regan and Aldo dissecting their decisions in retrospect. But… what really happened? What pulled them apart? What drew them back together?

Regan’s art exhibit was so cliché that I couldn’t believe it. Really? We’re going in this direction? This is the big finale? How basic! This book was set up to be so much more than that— so much edgier than that— what happened?! How did we end up in Live, Laugh, Love territory?

The way people are ENAMORED by this book in the reviews surprises me. Are you guys just enchanted by the writing? Because, sure, I get that! But, what part of the story was so profound to you? Because to me, it felt like unwrapping a beautifully wrapped present only to find an empty box underneath.

I take zero joy in being a contrarian. I liked all of the same things you guys liked: Aldo, the poetic writing, the nuanced observations on the human condition, the romantic tragedy of it all. I’m not… not seeing what you guys are seeing— it just didn't really come to fruition for me. Didn't quite land.

[jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

ugh. im so confused. i have no idea if i like this or not.

on one hand, this is so cerebral, bordering on pretentious. the narrative definitely gives off the vibe that its trying too hard, not to mention how inconsistent it is in a few different ways.

but on the other hand, i cant stop thinking about this? as unlikely as it sounds given the negatives i just listed, there are some true moments of beauty in this. most of them coming from aldo and how his brain works. the way he views the world and describes how things fit mathematically is really quite something. i could listen to him talk about bees all day long.

and so i totally understand how other readers can immediately find a kindred soul within this book. and even though i have some issues with the narrative structure and style, i did find some parts of it to be inspiring. and i think this quote is enough to round up:

“she is in all of his spaces and all of his thoughts. he contemplates formulas and degrees of rationality and they all turn into her. he thinks about time, which has only recently begun, or at least now feels different. he thinks: the babylonians were wrong; time is made of her.”

↠ 3.5 stars

[Shale DeMuth · Rating 2 out of 5]

i don’t understand why so many people like this book lol desperately trying to be deep and existential, aldo and regan giving very much mgk and megan fox, did not enjoy it, was hard to finish

[Haley pham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most underrated book ever and I think Olivie Blake is my fav faction author.

[lisa (fc hollywood's version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is like a religious text to me yk

[tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

reading this book wasn't enough i need it injected into my veins

[bruna · Rating 3 out of 5]

★ 2.75 stars

𝅄 𓂃 𖥻 “So when people say we’re alone in the ether…?”
“Alone in everything. In time and space, in existence, in religion.” 𑇛 ۫

i’m severely disappointed.

i had such high expectations for this book. i’ve been wanting to read it since 2022, but it took me awhile to actually get to it because i wanted to find the perfect moment to read it. my expectations have always been super high since everyone’s always speaking highly about it and for that reason i was a hundred percent convinced that it would become a new favorite of mine, so i didn’t want to rush and pick it up at the wrong time.

recently, i felt like i was finally in the mood to read this story [better late than never!] and i dived in right away. at first, it was enjoyable and i really could see myself loving it; but when the story started developing more, i sadly changed my mind. the book went from enjoyable to boring quickly.

the writing, while confusing at times, was absolutely magnificent from beginning to end. that i can’t and won’t deny. Olivia Blake is a great writer and the way she depicts what living with a mental illness feels like is beautiful and human. but the other aspects of the book didn’t captivate me as much as the writing did. the protagonists are fleshed out and they are not one-dimensional, which is undoubtedly a good thing, but for some reason i couldn’t find myself deeply connecting with them in the way that many others did. i was able to understand and sympathize with Reagan & Aldo to an extent, but i never truly felt that deep connection to them if that makes sense.

same goes to the plot as a whole. well, actually, there isn’t much of a plot here (not necessarily), don’t expect that or you’ll be disappointed. be aware that this is a heavily character-driven story. i particularly don’t have a problem with character-driven stories, i enjoy reading them — but when you read a character-driven story about characters that you don’t necessarily love and feel connected to, it just becomes hard to enjoy it, you get what i mean? sure, there were some interesting scenes here and there, but overall, i didn’t care much about what’s happening.

it’s strange that i had mostly negative thoughts about Alone With You in the Ether, because it has everything that i love in a book: complex and realistic main characters, poetic/flowery writing, profound and philosophical dialogues, artsy themes, a raw, heart-wrenching and unique story. but even so... i couldn’t love it. and no matter how hard i try and keep trying, i can’t pinpoint exactly why that happened. perhaps i expected something different? perhaps i didn’t read it at the perfect moment like i thought i did? perhaps my expectations were way too high? i really don’t know.

i honestly feel like it’s more of a me issue. it’s definitely a “it’s not you, it’s me” type of situation here. as i said, the book has everything that i personally love and i do think it has a brilliant premise, so i can genuinely understand why the majority of people are obsessed with it. i can’t really blame the book, though — it didn’t work out for me, which sucks and makes me feel disappointed, but i still think it offers a beautifully written story. that’s why i’m deciding to round up my rating because i don’t think it’s fair to give it a solid two star rating.

i strongly recommend Alone With You in the Ether to anyone who’s looking for something deep, well-written and meaningful. i hope — and believe — that others can have a better experience than me.

𓂃 ⚝ 𓂃 𓈒 ݁ . ₊ ꒰ ✉️ favorite quotes. ꒱ ₊ . ݁ 𓈒 𓂃 ⚝ 𓂃

𓏲 ⭒ “Can you love my brain even when it is small? When it is malevolent? When it is violent? Can you love it even when it does not love me?”

𓏲 ⭒ “But if you want to identify an emotion, or a sensation, then there is nothing more precise than art.”

𓏲 ⭒ “He could spend infinite lifetimes studying the mathematical basis of the universe and the universe would still not make sense.”

𓏲 ⭒ “Once upon a time, men looked at the world, took in all its beauty, and still only saw it flat.”

𓏲 ⭒ “Sometimes I feel like I’m just waiting for something that will never happen. Like I’m just existing from day to day but will never really matter.

𓏲 ⭒ “For every sensation Regan could conjure, there was an artist who had beautifully suffered the same.”

𓏲 ⭒ “I could study you for a lifetime, carrying all your peculiarities and discretions in the webs of my spidery palms, and still feel empty-handed.”

𓏲 ⭒ “You need to be loved, you need someone to believe you’re perfect, you hate being reminded you have flaws. I already figured it out, so you needed someone else. Someone new. And when he figures you out, you’ll just find someone else.”

𓏲 ⭒ “Humans were inherently flawed, crippled by their insubstantial life expectancies, by mortality itself.”

[Zoë! · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 ???( I’m sorry I keep changing my rating, I just genuinely can’t decide what to rate this. I like it more than my other 2 star reads though)

This book was an incoherent mess (intentional I know) that deserves an incoherent mess of a review. Here we go.

- Related a little TOO much to Regan

- And not in a good way

- (I don’t know how it could be in a good way? The bitch sucks)

- I finished this in two days so that must mean something, right?

- Both of these characters are autistic because I said so

- The writing in the first half of the book was brilliant, show stopping, never been done before

- Second half was an incoherent mess which I believe was intentional? And yet.

- Not sure if I liked the ever changing narrative style but I’m leaning towards not liking it at all

- I wish all the metaphors from the first half could’ve actually meant something in the end, spoiler alert! They didn’t.

- What even was the end?? I don’t even know, but I sure didn’t like it!

- I love you Aldo…

- The side characters were so one dimensional it hurt

- Especially Marc. Marcus? See, I don’t even remember his name.

- He was such an unrealistic character and only existed to tell Regan she sucked, prove me wrong.

- But the writing though……… it really was beautiful, guys……

- But also really pretentious at times if I’m being honest

- The line “occupy her cunt”. Yeah……

- Pls just say sex Olivie, I don’t want to hear about cunt occupation ever again

- How is that in the same book as “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.”

- Or “She is in all of his spaces and all of his thoughts. He contemplates formulas and degrees of rationality and they all turn into her. He thinks about time, which has only recently begun, or at least now feels different. He thinks: the Babylonians were wrong; time is made of her.”

- It doesn’t compute.

- Also loved the references to classic lit

- “Whatever you are made of, Charlotte Regan, I am made of it, too.” WUTHERING HEIGHTS SNEAK?????

- So I did love it.

- But I also hated it.

- My opinions are as messy as the novel itself and I think that’s fitting.

So should I sell my copy for 2 million dollars??

[signe! · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was cool in the beginning with their dialogues about bees, time travel and art etc, but as the book dragged on i just found myself less interested in the characters, and when the writing style changed into just endless paragraphs without any conversations at all towards the end, i just lost my patience with it. i can still totally see why people adore this book, but it just wasn't my cup of tea

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘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 exists a maxim that love transcends all, and Olivie Blake has finely crafted a fragile, fiery love affair that transcends even her characters to become a sensual romance between art and science. Alone With You in the Ether finds Regan and Aldo caught in each other’s gravitational attraction of love, a love that scorches through them and their physical selves to expose their very essences as forces navigating either by emotion or logic. As they come closer together, we must wonder is ‘it love between them or was it need?’ and are they a safe harbor where the other may flourish or will they run to ruin, dashed to pieces on the shoreline of the other. This is, ultimately, a literary romance, one with grit and uncomfortable explorations into themes of mental health, co-dependency, compulsive self-sabotage and the ways the veil of illusion begins to slip as relationships progress and we must decide to crack or embrace that ‘it is perilously wonderful to suffer so sweetly with you.’ These are flawed characters bruising themselves against the world. Told through prose that has passages so ethereally gorgeous it could only exist in service of love and with a dual narrative that threads their lives together, Alone With You in the Ether is a gorgeously interior and intimate portrait of difficult love that we can’t help but dive into even if it is destined to burn us down to ash as Blake’s storytelling beautifully cuts right into the troubled heart of matters as deeply as she cut into the heart of the reader.

‘There would be times, particularly at first, when Regan would attempt to identify the moment things had set themselves on a path to inevitable collision.’

Olivie Blake—a pen name of chosen through a name generator—began her career writing fan fiction and self-publishing novels until going viral on social media landed her a book deal with Tor and the recognition she certainly deserves. Best known for her dark academia fantasy series, The Atlas Six, here Blake writes in ways that feel magical without having to be magic beyond the sparks of love but still retains a very academic atmosphere to her characters and settings. Blake brings Chicago alive here, taking us through the streets, the classrooms of the University of Chicago where Aldo teaches and into the absolutely amazing Art Institute where Regan works as docent. I love that museum intensely and the pair having an affection for the Armory there as the place of their first meeting steals my heart.

The Art Institute of Chicago

Blake delivers seemingly effortless storytelling that loops through exciting metafiction techniques, such as a whole host of narrators intruding in on the story in part 1, including an “overzealous Cubs fan,” or “an aging, arthritic man in possession of many books” as well as stage direction details. It ushers us into the narrative with a fun and frenetic cinematic energy. I would have enjoyed it if Blake continued this style more through the book as I missed it, but once the characters are established it instead turns more inward as they attempt to have more of a harness on their own narratives. The perspective rotates between Regan and Aldo, offering both internal and external perspectives on each other creating more dynamic characters but also allowing us to detect inconsistencies that show how a self-image is often a slight fiction. This is particularly true for Regan who ‘ was most comfortable when she was at her falsest. Regan did not enjoy honesty, she hated it, was repulsed by it and by her own truths especially,’ and the way the readers perceptions on Regan morph over the course of the book—and with new revelations on her life—emphasizes the way a person seems always in flux. But most notably, this sashaying of perspectives is like a needle threading the two together until, at the end, we witness them as a seamless whole viewed from the outside with a conversation entirely narrated of he said and she said instead of a duality of perspective.

‘Art is something we do to feel human, not because we are’

The prose is quite engaging and this is a much faster paced novel than I tend to read so I was gripped the whole way through. Blake aims for grand phrasing of emotions that land quite impactfully and, sure, it may be overwrought at times but that's exactly how obsessive love feels. I love the way it spirals through the stratosphere or seems to be tumbling out of control or even trails off mid-thought because it so lucidly captures untethered emotions (and intrusive thoughts, which are constantly present in this book). There is a musicality to it, but it is like every instrument in a band trying to all take a solo at once in the cacophony of feeling so much you aren’t sure if you can contain it. It is art, pure and simple.

‘You wouldn't make love with him, you'd make art.’

The premise is rather cute with Aldo and Regan agreeing to have six conversations to see what they learn about each other, something right in Aldo’s wheelhouse as ‘for Aldo, to love something was to study it; to devote every spare thought to understanding it.’ Yet there is a darkness lurking just beneath, something that might not be immediately evident in the blinding glare of meet-cutes and warm infatuation but still casts shadows they choose to find intriguing instead of alarming. Though Blake does capture the way in the falling-hard stage you tend to feel everything reminds you of that person, akin to learning a new word and seeing it everywhere:

‘When you learn a new word, you suddenly see it everywhere. The mind comforts itself by believing this to be coincidence but isn’t—it’s 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.’

Was their love for each other there even before them, existing out of time? Or is this a romanticized notion that might not be that healthy to cling to? There are clear mental health struggles with both of them, Regan is avoiding prison for white collar crime largely due to her wealthy parents, and both seem to struggle within society due to their own personalities. Plus Regan has a boyfriend, Mark, who can be cruelly perceptive at times despite being stock-market-wealth garbage. Perhaps the easiest to love character is Masso, Aldo’s charming, well-meaning father—a sharp juxtaposition from Regan’s mother who we see as highly judgemental through Regan’s perceptions—though even he warns Aldo that Regan is the type to burn someone up.

‘So this is what it is to love something you cannot control, he thought. It felt precisely like terror.’

The adorableness of the first half of the novel begins to give way to doubts and fears, and this makes a good case for how someone cannot be “fixed” by inserting another person into their lives and that emotional high and romantic monomania will eventually return to the difficulties of love. But in the blazing glory of their initial infatuations we see clear into them and the very essence of their beings, with Regan representative of art and Aldo representative of science. It is why they continuously say they love each other’s brains more than any other aspect of one another, they are trying to love the pure consciousness and essence of the other. Their looks, fears and flaws become just as ornamental as the time and art theories of their conversations that point like maps to their underlying feelings, and I find it a rather beautifully bittersweet theme to place art and science together as a romantic couple hoping their union is an eternal, cosmic force that can even bend time to its will. Aldo’s mind approaches life and love like a math problem, and with his bee obsession I just assume glimpsing in his mind is like looking at this book:

OMFG, BEES!: Bees Are So Amazing and You're About to Find Out Why
Regan approaches life on whims of feelings, something she feels stifled by through her court-ordered medications (‘even though she hates her feelings, she'd still rather have them than not’) and has a taste for darkness and self-destruction. ‘Art is loss,’ she muses, ‘it’s the fleeting breath of a foregone moment, the intimacy of things undone, the summer season that passes.’ What begins as romantic starts to look like a mental health spiral, and what comes easily at first is now fraught with fear and uncertainty, especially in Regan. ‘Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone,’ wrote Ursula K. Le Guin, ‘it has to be made,’ and through these trials will Aldo and Regan discover a way to make lasting love or will they burn up in each other’s atmosphere?

‘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.’

Regan is a fascinating character, one who is certainly flawed and can be rather frustrating at times but you want her to learn to love herself for herself and not because someone else does. She chases highs, she is assailed by intrusive thoughts (some violent), she is her own worst enemy and both she and Aldo fear she is using their relationship as a fix instead of truly working on herself. They are difficult characters but they still deserve to feel love and there were fleeting moments I felt this book was akin to Sally Rooney characters. Regan struggles to define herself for herself and even many of the bad-faith representations of her she rages against are mostly invented in her mind (Blake has a brilliant moment of narrative crafting when we discover the argument between Regan and her mother is all staged in her head though proceed to assume her fictionalized words are the truth of how she feels about Aldo and Regan). Her choice to abandon her meds is troubling, though Blake explains in the afterword that it is not meant as ‘perscriptive’ and is largely based on her own experiences and struggles with medication after a bi-polar diagnosis. It does touch close to the romanticization of mental health struggles being a gateway to good art, which is a troubling perspective, though that doesn’t seem the intent. As Jeanette Winterson writes in her memoir ‘creativity is on the side of health – it isn’t the thing that drives us mad; it is the capacity in us that tries to save us from madness.’ Blake does well by having the story reject any quick fix or certainty, showing mental health is a lifelong journey and encouraging therapy and repeated self-assessment to remain both productive and healthy. Though as the narrator notes ‘“healthy” for them will always be a relative term.’

‘I want you to bet on me, Aldo. I want you to make investments, I want your future.’

People who are difficult to love still deserve to be loved, and that is captured so elegantly in Alone With You in the Ether. I really loved this book and had goosebumps at multiple moments, it is very moving and searingly gorgeous at times. I’m not one usually for a romance novel, but this feels rather different than what one would expect. It is certainly a literary work, and all the heady topics of time theory and reflections and analysis of art are handled in accessible yet ponderous ways that are folded productively into the larger themes of the book. This was my first Olivie Blake and I will certainly read others, it is a book without any fantastical elements though still is undeniably magical.

4.5/5

‘Tell your mind to be kind to you today.’

[♥︎ Heather ⚔ (New House-Hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Heartachingly Beautiful Stars!!

"He took another drag from the blunt as her fingers skated down, running lightly over his cheek and down to his mouth. The dark tips of her nails traveled the shape of his upper lip, curving with it, and in another version of this precise moment, he said, Regan, come closer, let's see what happens, let's see how the stars shine on your skin."

Where do I even start?

Tattoo this book on my body, inject it into my veins!

You know that feeling when you can feel emotion stirring in your chest and it just seems to bubble up your throat to the point you audibly gasp and that raw emotion just steals the tears from your eyes? Just me? Okay, well I got that feeling so often during this book- it held me captive for the entirety of it's 288 beautifully poetic pages.

This book has captivated and held me hostage in a way that no other romance or even general fiction novel has before. It's beautiful, literary, philosophical, and magical without being fantastical yet also romantic, and intimate. It's like baring a part of your soul to another, so that they can crawl inside and live there. Make a home there, in your mind and soul. The affinity that comes with a conversation with someone who doesn't just simply listen to what you're saying but with someone who engages with what you're saying no matter how little they understand- simply because they find you interesting.

It channels the feeling of letting someone into your space, of letting someone see you- and not the you that you let the rest of the world see on a day to day basis but the you without makeup, without the facade used to protect yourself from complete vulnerability - to let them see the real, raw and uncut you. Because they not only see you, they see through you.

One of the most beautiful romance novels I've read in a long time - It is truly underrated and I can't even understand that? I want to scream from the rooftops what an amazing book it is- I wish everyone would read it. I was moved to think deeply about love, life, time, art- astonishingly enough math lol just not on as deep of a level.

Told in third person with alternating points of view, we follow two characters in this story-

╰┈➤ Charlotte Regan aka Regan, who has mental health issues, has a court-ordered psychiatrist, and has been arrested for counterfeiting art. Regan is a curious and complex woman, a compulsive liar and has plenty of issues with family - specifically her mother.

╰┈➤ Rinaldo Damiani aka Aldo, is a pot-smoking, leather jacket wearing, motorcycle riding doctoral student of theoretical mathematics who has an incredibly low rating on ratemyprofessor.com. He's anti-social, clinically depressed and OCD.

I love that the point of views alternate between our two characters, they play so well off of each other- in the way that with only Regan's POV , Aldo would come across boring and bland. And without Aldo's POV, Reagan would come across as manic, unpredictable and extremely unstable.

This book is very cerebral and neurotic in a way that I find so appealing-almost abstract at times. Based on the two characters you would imagine that they would be one big hot mess but they aren't - they simply just complete the other. It starts off intimate, in a way where it's just all the little things you notice when you , well notice someone, when you find yourself intrigued by them- their scars, the way their hair falls, the quirk of their smile. These things that you just want to collect and bottle up to savor forever. Tumbling together towards a more candid form of romance.

"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."

"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."

What is Alone With You In The Ether if not a collision of forces? A meeting between two people who get to connect and grow to understand each other on a deep level. It almost feels like a fated meeting if either of them believed in such a thing. This is something Regan touches on in the first pages of the book, in her hypothesis about her and Aldo meeting. Later on in the book, Aldo even says that he’s toyed with the idea of the multiverse and essentially says that he’d rather there be one universe, a universe where they meet, one Aldo and one Regan, not multiple possibilities, or multiple versions of themselves.

Honestly, I could go on forever about this book. It's amazing, it's art, it's life, it's love, it's vulnerability, it's profound and thought provoking. Olivie Blake doesn't traditionally write linear stories from my experience so if you need something with absolute structure she might not be for you, but if you love a Jackson Pollock of an author who can give Shakespeare a run for his money it's an absolute must to read this book.

╰┈➤To quote Lei, another reviewer "Olivie Blake could do Romeo and Juliet but Shakespeare couldn't do Alone With You in the Ether"- Realer words have never been spoken.

I really could have highlighted this book in it's entirety because there are so many beautiful scenes and quotes but here's some of my top favorites in addition the the ones above :

The sentence rung with familiarity. Regan wasn't sure how to identify what specifically had struck her as relatable, but she felt certain that whatever mental space Aldo had just occupied, she had been there before herself.

They both paused, sipping from their respective thoughts.
"I like it," he said.
"What?"
He loosened the wine from his lips. "Your brain."

Three conversations, Regan marveled, and she already understood that was the highest compliment in Rinaldo Damiani's arsenal. Clearly he was onto something with his rule of sixes.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

"So within those parameters, some people are exponential functions, but still largely predictable. Regan" Charlotte, he reminded himself too late, but dismissed it as a forgone error- "isn't just difficult, she's convoluted. She's contradictory- honest even when she lies," he offered as an example, "and rarely the same version twice. She's confounding, really intricate. Infinite." That was the word, he thought, clinging to it once he found it. "She'd have to be measured infinitely in order to be calculated, which no one could ever do."

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

He could feel it again, the buzzing she'd come into the room with vibrating there in that empty space, now occupied by the tremors of possibility. She could fill it with herself, she could shove him away, she could pull him closer. She could pry apart his ribs and leave him there, gutted, doe-eyes wide with, I didn't think it'd be so wet.

He waited there, in the gruesome image of himself spilling crimson over her hands, seeping into the beds of her narrow fingernails and forever staining the sheets and the floors - and, if he were lucky, her conscience-when she matched the distance towards him that he'd already undertake towards her. He could smell her hair, her skin, her lack of hesitation. The other half of her truths was a lie.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

"These keys of mine," she said. "If you could have one of them."
It was an implied question: If you could open only one part of me for your consumption, for your delectation, for the whims of your carnivorous mind, which part would you wish to see?

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

How mundane, Regan thought disdainfully. How small your concerns. How very little the scope of your understanding. "And why don't you?" "Because I'm painting." It's obvious, don't you see it, can't you hear it? His name is written on my skin, he scarred me, I've changed my entire shape for having fit within the enormity of his thoughts, and now the only words I know are lines and color.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

She didn't feel whole with Aldo inside her. Instead, she felt splintered; like she became, in his hands, an infinite number of pieces, an entire infinity herself. Like she and eternity and omnipotence were the same, or like omniscience could be equated to the sound of his ragged breath in her ear. She wanted him to mess her up, deplete her, to deliver her to something lesser, something baser. Something less inclined to rational thought, and instead diminished only to sensations.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

“Can you love my brain even when it is small? When it is malevolent? When it is violent? Can you love it even when it does not love me?” 💙


➽──────────────❥
Next. Week. 📖 I'm ready for Olivie Blake to own me once again.

[Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

↳actual rating: 4.5 stars

great book for heartbroken gorgeous girls and boys and hopeless romantics

[maggie (taylor’s version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

“She is in all of his spaces and all of his thoughts. He contemplates formulas and degrees of rationality and they all turn into her. He thinks about time, which has only recently begun, or at least now feels different. He thinks: the Babylonians were wrong; time is made of her.”

this is the most beautifully written book i have ever read.

[pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I. LOVE. THIS. BOOK!!!

The beginning might confuse you and might leave you scratching your head but godddd, this story was so beautiful. Push through and you're going to fall in love with them.

There are books that are written in such a beautiful way that it feels like no words can do my thoughts justice on this. Their nonverbal interactions had me SCREAMING!! Butterflies in my stomach.

Interactions that seem so small and minute between them felt so intimate and so tender that my heart ached in the best way. It was like I watched it unfold so slowly in front of me. A single paragraph left me so giddy and not a word was spoken between them. It was the way they gravitated to each other that felt so intoxicating and... am I just being dramatic?!?! Idk you'll have to find out and read it (I totally dont think so though 🤗)

Highly recommend!! Their love story is beautiful and complicated and I'm just happy to have read it

[Olivia (Stories For Coffee)]

I will not understand how this book is classified as a romance when it felt like a horror story in my eyes. Following two vulnerable and flawed characters who come together to form a deeply unhealthy, sex-addicted, codependent relationship, this book left me baffled that people can romanticize and idealize the relationship between Aldo and Regan when I was actively rooting for them to separate and seek help.

Their personalities had two or three distinct traits and little to nothing else to cling onto, as a reader, as we meander throughout their relationship that seems all consuming to them, but, as an outsider, deeply confused me because they speak for hours on hand but manage to say nothing in the process. Their connection is superficial and deeply obsessive (they both don’t have a single friend and barely reach out to their family because they are all consumed by each other), and it concerns me that their ending connection feels like a triumph when they are not in a good place to be in a relationship.

There’s even a point in the novel where they have a fight and Regan has thoughts of stabbing Aldo, her family, and herself, all because she cannot have a man that she is literally addicted to because she puts all her value as a human being into one other person. Um…. Are we going to act like that’s okie dokie?

I will never understand how this is labeled as a romance when it left me horrified, concerned that impressionable readers will seek out toxic relationships similar to this, and the fact that therapy and medication is subtly made out to be the wretch in their relationship, the thing that’s holding them back? Yeah………… no.

I understand this is the point of it all, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy the ride, nor does it negate how often I see people praising this as one of the most romantic books they’ve read.

I have more to say, but wow. Wow. Wow. Wow….

[Evie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is what I get when I go into a book expecting it to become a new favorite based on the synopsis and glowing reviews. Expectations be damned.

This ended up being the worst read of the year. The fact that I even finished this book is an accomplishment for me because I came thisclose to dnfing it more than once.

The author went overboard trying to make the story and the characters seem deep and complex, and it turned out unbearably pretentious, tedious, overwritten, and straight-out boring instead. I couldn’t bring myself to care even a little bit no matter how hard I tried.

I can kind of see why some people love and praise this book so much, but for me personally, it was a huge miss.

[Lilyya ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ✨

“i like it,”
“what?”
“your brain.”

’Alone With You in The Ether’ shouldn’t be read once. not even twice. but it is certainly one of those books that you should read once in your lifetime, someday.

it’s a love story, not a romance (maybe a little). told through a hypothesis, befores, keys, firsts, variables, turns. carried by an avant-gardiste pen that brilliantly embroidered each part of the narrative with its own voice, its own tone, its own style. it traversed the most poignant and emblematic moments of Aldo and Regan's love story, permeating it with a sense of timelessness and intimacy. It was as if we were witnessing their own innermost emotions unfold, their love blossoming irremediably as they became increasingly entwined with one another.

Aldo was a bizarre personage, one who provokes introspection and forces you to reexamine their inner turmoil. the intricacies of their conversations and monologues necessitate close reading to unravel the underlying meaning. I have a predilection for writing that is unafraid to be challenging, rather than merely ornate or sophisticated. each phrase should be imbued with an abundance of nuance and depth, warranting careful consideration and interpretation.

Regan was one of those individuals who had their life mapped out for them, with expectations and prescriptions that governed every aspect of their existence. despite their conviction that they were the architects of their own destiny, they never truly lived for themselves until they gained insight into the nature of authenticity and self-actualization. It was only then that they learned to break free from the constraints of societal expectations and forge their own path, discovering how to live life on their own terms.

but have you ever read a modern ouvrage and thought ’this is going to be studied as a classic, in the foreseeable future, someday.’ ? because this is it for me. ‘Alone With You in The Ether’ will be a studied classic, someday.

————
here we go..

[Amina · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the family is gathered, children playing, and everyone being merry, this book came to me like a gift, packaged with elements of raw, unadulterated beauty. It was toxic love, but not toxic love, it was rampant, but not rampant, it was mesmerizing…

It. Was. Mesmerizing.

Regan, a twenty-something, is living a complicated life. She is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and after a brief stint as a B-class criminal (counterfeit stuff), she's court-ordered to seek therapy. She has a boyfriend, Marcus; he's kinda just there. She works at a Museum, mostly as a guide, her parents are absent as hell, her mom-destructive and cutting, and her sister, too perfect for words.

Aldo, a math wizard obsessed with hexagons, teaches at U of Chicago. He lives a pretty straight-edged life, permanently trapped in his own thoughts, compulsive. He's honest, complex, and unique.

When Regan and Aldo's worlds collide, a chance encounter at the Art Institute, they bank on six conversations, a measure that elevates their relationship to an alternate world. Regan doesn't adhere to standard rules, always thinking of a better or worse outcome, bored with monotony. Aldo, on the other hand, looks straight into the present, or the future, almost always lost in quantum matters.

There was nothing worse than being predictable. Nothing smaller than feeling ordinary. Nothing more disappointing than being reminded she was both.

This is a love story, but not a love story, because it's complex, shatters, and sometimes has jagged edges, giving everything life. Which gives life to love.

Something about 'Alone With You in the Ether' drew me in, tangled me in its abyss, trapped in the world of these two complex characters.

Can you love my brain even when it is small? When it is malevolent? When it is violent? Can you love it even when it does not love me

The craziest part about this story is that through Olivia Blake's words, we ride all the rollercoaster of emotions Regan encounters. It's like she had bipolar disorder, but I could feel, in some small way, what it would be like—the words reverberating like one in a manic episode. The shifting of thoughts and changing moods all spoke to Blake’s fabulous writing.

Regan and Aldo fall into something far beyond existential, beyond the quantum physics Aldo obsesses over. They fall deeply into each other.

I could study you for a lifetime, carrying all your peculiarities and discretions in the webs of my spidery palms, and still feel empty-handed

Another trippy element: I've lived in Chicago for work. My Mom lives here now, and I'm actually visiting her while I was reading this book--all elements that elevated the story. It feels surreal to read a book and stand in the same place as the character.

Olivia Blake adds in her 'acknowledgments' that she, too, has lived with a mood disorder, and in some of her sleepless manic moments, she wrote her best. It was interesting to learn that the character of Regan came from the depth of her experience and the truth.

'Alone With You in the Ether' is raw. Beautiful. It hit different, and I loved it.

5/5 stars.

[jiya ✧*。 · Rating 1 out of 5]

It should come as no surprise that I *really* disliked this book.

I've read so many reviews and seen people online talking about the book purposely being "pretentious." And you know what? That would have been okay if the characters were even the least bit likeable or relatable. I understand they both have their respective issues when it comes to functioning day to day but it just didn't seem as realistic as people were making it out to be.

Like the book was literally classified as a "love story" and by the end of it I wasn't even sure if the characters remotely even liked each other. Like we have Regan who is borderline obsessed with Aldo and vividly described killing him and painting with his blood???? Which was somehow supposed to make me understand her at a deeper level but just scared me????? And then Aldo who doesn't even seem like he likes Regan half the time (LOL) and just cares more about how having her in his life just takes away from him solving 2+2 but make it theoretical (math) everyday???? (that's basically all I understood from the multiple tangents about quantum theory because *surprise surprise* not everyone is in a theoretical math PhD program!!! I know big shocker).

And for goodness sake can people stop normalizing/romanticizing the stupid writing/dialogue style OB writes with in this sorry excuse of a love story?

"Do you feel human?"
"In some interconnected way, like I'm part of a common species? Not often. You?"
"Almost never."
"Well, it was a good try."

WHAT?! What possible profound insight am I supposed to have from this conversation? This is basically the equivalent of "I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. I don't fit in and I don't want to fit it in" and *no one* can convince me otherwise.

And as per usual Olivie Blake has granted me the very *special, rare* experience of hating her mcs and not wanting them together in the end. Regan is annoying as hell and Aldo has nothing else going on for him except talking about bees and how they somehow relate to time. (Don't ask me I couldn't possibly explain it.)

And I will end this by saying I am probably too simpleminded to comprehend the clearly very *PROFOUND AND LIFE ALTERING* message from this dumbass book. Since apparently everyone online is suddenly a scholar and can follow along with Aldo and Regan's stupid ass conversations about time and space and quantum theory and how it somehow relates to falling in love. If this is what love is then I wish to God I never go through the pain of having to experience it.

this book is a waste of fucking time lol. *insert time and relativity joke here*

ig: jiyasreads

[Linz_loves_books (Semi-Hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

∞ Infinity ⭐'s
BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL

"What did you learn? He asked neutrally. That I could study you for a lifetime, carrying all of your peculiarities and discretions in the webs of my spidery palms, and still feel empty-handed."

“You are brilliant. Tell your mind to be kind to you today.”

Olivie Blake, you have written your way into my heart and soul, written like a song and my soul felt every word and every note. I have never experienced or read something so stunning and captivating. So devastatingly beautiful that it is hard to put into words what you have done with this piece of work. After reading it, I feel so full yet so empty because all I want is more. I could never forget this book and the way it made me feel reading it. I don't know if I will ever find another book like this. This is not a book that you "read" this is a book that you take your time with and "feel". A book that you feel so strongly it’s engraved into your being.I'll still be thinking about this book months and years from now!💓💓

This is not your usual love story. This story is just as much about mental health as it is the concept of love and time. We meet two characters: Regan and Aldo, who for better words are opposites and yet the same. Regan, who suffers from bipolar disorder, lives impulsively searching for the ability to feel "awake" in the midst of her numbness.

"She'd crave a senseless rage, a dried-up sob, a psychotic joy, but find only pulse after pulse of nothing. Without volatility of her extremes, what was she?

Aldo, who suffered from addiction at one point, finds the world to be chaotic and keeps himself going by following specific routines, rules, and equations to solve . We experience the characters insecurities, flaws, cracks, in such a deep and personal way.

"Can you love my brain even when it is small? When it is malevolent? When it is violent? Can you love it even when it does not love me?"

The writing is so deep and intimate that you almost feel as if you are experiencing the emotions yourself. What I would do to go back and read this for the very first time. Will forever be one of my faves!

"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."

"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.

"She couldn't prevent the urge to know his thoughts, she wanted to lace them between her fingers, to root them in her hands, to twine them around her limbs until he'd secured her with the invisible web of his carefully ordered madness."

"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 could honestly go on and on about the beauty of this story and the writing. Do yourself a favor and just go read it! I can not imagine anyone not loving this one!💗 I just can't say enough about this book!💖

[zia · Rating 5 out of 5]

i was in a horrible reading slump when i decided to read this. the writing style felt pretentious to me at first; how dialogues switch from being in first person i to being in third person she or him. but as the story progressed, i saw the beauty in it. how the characters were viewed in an omniscient way; all their cracks and flaws laid out for us to comprehend. the story seemed personal and deeply thought out which makes this such an emotional book to read.

the moment i read the last paragraph of this book, i thought ah, i would never find a book like this. i will always single this out of all the books i have read. there is nothing inside my head but aldo and regan and bees and quantum formulas and differential equations and the crevices of their fragile minds and i am at lost for words to describe how utterly devastatingly beautiful this book was.

[maddy ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

not to be dramatic or anything but this book means everything to me