A book about two very similar people who look at things (mostly daily life and relationships) very differently. IMO it's a book about two people who started out with a similar canvas and their lives went very different ways, and when they find each other they find a person who they both deeply understand, but can still learn so much from. 

A book not about mental health issues, but about the people living with them. A book about time travel, and not at all about time travel. A book I wanted very much to love and absolutely did, though it wasn't what I expected. And the thing is, I don't even know what I expected but this book did exactly what you want a good book to do, it came at me from out of left field and blindsided me and left me thinking. 

Does it have a happy ending? Yes? It's not a sad one, it's what I would call a fitting one for the story and more importantly, the people. 

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an advance review copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest review.

so I'm gonna start by saying, in the beginning this is a lot. there's narrators and little asides that kinda break the fourth wall a bit like Plain Bad Heroines so if you start this and think it's not for you, trust me when I say it comes together beautifully when you get into the story.

this felt a bit like an offshoot of atlas six or early drafts of some of the characters and I love it. one of my favourite things about atlas six was the wide variety of characters and the way Blake developed each one and made them feel distinct. although that did mean the two "main" characters didn't get enough time together on the page and Alone With You In the Ether feels like an answer to that. a little something to appease those of us who wanted more all wrapped up in a new story that's different but equally compelling. it's got all the same layered and complexly flawed characters but under the microscope of their meeting and early relationship.

all that to say I liked this a lot and devoured it in a couple days and the acknowledgments made me very teary. this story is about struggling to exist in a world that is not made for the way your brain works and wanting to "get better" for the person who finally sees you and refuses to look away when it gets messy. it's also told partially through unspoken thoughts and imagined conversation which I always love. we generally keep our most interesting and honest thoughts to ourself and getting to see long narratives of both characters' inner thoughts really made them feel so much more tangible and real.

Let me start by saying, I don’t think audiobook is the best version of this. There were times when a narrator chimes in and it got a little cluttered. Overall, the story was very interesting and dealt with some interesting mental health issues.

🌀Synopsis
Regan and Aldo meet at the Art Institute in Chicago. They are both just dealing with life by doing what is expected of them. She has a relationship and goes to therapy. He buries himself in calculations and being a terrible teacher.
When they meet, though, everything changes. They find a way into the depths of each other. They pull out the long hidden pieces to make each other the very best version of themselves.

Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake was a little bit of everything. I wasn't an emotional wreck as a lot of other reviewers were, but I did enjoy most of the novel. I loved the 6-conversation challenge and what came of it; it was very original and intriguing. I like that mental health is addressed but felt uncomfortable when Regan expressed an opinion or did something and was told she needed to take her pills instead of being listened to. However, I also don't think how she handled it was appropriate either.

I thought the book was too abstract for my liking, but I think that was the intention of Olivie; it (metaphorically) read like a painting. It just wasn't what I thought it was going to be.

The main narrators Robb Moreira and Sura Siu were amazing! I enjoyed listening to them and the back and forth within the same chapter. The additional narrators (Dion Alexander, Eliza Foss, Emma Paige West, John Pirhalla, Olivie Blake, Steve Wagner, and Tim Campbell) were unnecessary and didn't add anything since their time was so short (one line or so, aside from the author), except for making it initially read like a play.

Overall, I give Alone with You in the Ether 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ALC.

"Where are we in the cosmos, because I have lived this so many times in fantasy that it has become six different forms of reality and now, tell me, which reality are we?"

A beautiful story about how mental health, untreated, can destroy your life and the lives of others, and how it can warp your perception of what is really happening.

I think literary fiction is harder for me to get into for various reasons but this was not hard at all. It felt like I was in the brain of the characters while also didn't know anything about them. They were both familiar and foreign. Both Regan and Aldo felt very real and very human, they didn't feel like characters conjured up to exist within this universe - they felt like I might bump into them if I ever visited Chicago. That human aspect of the characters made me even closer to them.

And while they had their ups and downs in their romantic relationship, I was so connected to the mental health aspect of this story. I think every person searches for ways to help themselves to survive and sometimes you need external help.

I would also love to mention the voice actors who narrated this book - they are amazing, giving the characters so much life and emotion and character. It was also very nice to hear Olivie and hear her story in the acknowledgments <3

4.5/5

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was so good. This was an audio reread (I read the indie version), and I truly loved everything about it. Such a real and raw love story. Can't recommend it enough!

Such a brilliant piece of art. Never have I read something so real, raw, and beautifully relatable. I only wish those that can relate to this book find as well the peace it brings me.

Regan is a docent at a museum. Aldo is a doctoral student. The two meet and make a deal to have six conversations with one another. But when those six conversations have passed, they realize they can’t let each other go quite yet.

I’ve been thinking about this book since I finished it hours ago and I still don’t know if I have the proper words to describe it, but I’m going to try!

This was a phenomenal love story between two characters with so much depth. I loved reading about them and Olivie Blake’s writing style was so perfect for this story.

The audiobook was narrated by a full cast and I really enjoyed the listening experience.

In which Olivie Blake writes a beautiful love story that will simultaneously rip your heart out and make you hug your loved ones. I didn't know what I was getting into when I picked this up. I just saw Blake's name and proceeded with trust. Watching these to characters stumble across one another and then stumbling across love was sincerely beautiful to behold. I will wish for years that I could go back and experience this story anew over and over. Blake is amazing with characters, so having her write a love story is something that feels extraordinarily right. We can see the growth of both Regan and Aldo, both towards each other and as individuals. This is two people who sincerely bring out the best in each other.

Normally, I find Blake’s work a little hard to follow based on the first two Atlas books; that was still the case in the beginning of Ether. That is no longer the case by the end. I feel like I understand the author and the writing style so much better now.

I wish Ether took off before Atlas. While Atlas left me lost in a mental sense, Ether has left me lost in an emotional sense; Ether has left me reaching for the high that I got off my first read. If I could choose to read any books for the first time again, it would be these: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Seas by Erin Morgenstern, and Alone with You in the Ether by Olivia Blake.

Blake has turned my world view upside down. I don’t think I’ve ever related to a pair of main characters more either.

Blake’s style is nonlinear even from paragraph to paragraph, but the narrative and poetic style of story telling give even the most seemingly mundane love stories a sense of whimsy.

Ether is a love story, and I loved it.

🍄This was a strange one! I’m glad I got this in an audiobook because I’m not sure if I would have finished it if I had to read it. The book bounces between points of view quickly and even in audiobook it was sometimes hard to understand who was speaking/thinking. The narration goes from first person to third person and back again in one single chapter making it hard to keep up sometimes.

🍄The book follows Regan and Aldo two incredibly flawed and troubled people. We dive deep into Regan’s depression and mania and Aldo’s brilliant mind and antisocial personality. To say this book is intense wouldn’t cover it. Both Regan and Aldo are intense characters that have a hard time coping with people and emotions. When these two characters strike up a relationship it is interesting and it develops slowly but they build an intimate relationship filled with hope.

🍄Alone with You in the Ether deals with the hardships of mental health and how that affects the people that suffer with it. It explores how difficult it is to be understood and loved when you suffer with a mental health disorder. We get to see these two characters fall in love and how petrified they are of losing one another. Afraid of rejection. Afraid of being left behind. Afraid of not being enough. But we also get to see how Regan and Aldo evolve because they have one another. This is a love story of two imperfect people that accept one another just as they are.

🍄I recommend the audiobook since I believe that made it easier to follow the narration and get the most out of the story.

I... did not like this book. I get why other people DO like it, and I also understand why the characters resonate with other people as well. But I could not find anything in me to like Reagan or Aldo. This book just felt way too pretentious (like all of Blake's other novels that I've read) and I found myself struggling to get through the entire thing (although listening to an audiobook definitely helped me finish it).

To be quite honest, this book was on a 1-star for me, but Blake's Author's Note is what bumped it up an entire extra star because it felt more beautiful and relatable to hear about her own struggles with mental health and bipolar disorder than it was to hear her write about it through Reagan's perspective.

I won't recommend that you do or don't read this book, as I think it will have a different effect on everyone who reads it. But if you don't like books that feel as though they're written in prose to ONLY be pretentious... this is not for you.

I really wanted to enjoy reading this book but the pace of it was way too slow for my taste. I struggled to finish reading as I didn’t want to pick it up to keep going. I kept having to reread parts as it just was not sticking in my brain. In the beginning of the book, the prose writing style and completely changes in the second half. This was a very character driven novel with many broken, unlikable characters. The story line jumped around too much, and I got lost in who’s point of view I was in at that moment. There was no actual plot. I kept thinking something would happen, but nothing. Although, reading a story based in Chicago when I was there is always fun. In general, I was bored and don’t think this author is for me.

Blake's romance is told in voices that I've not encountered before. Our two main characters are atypical/neurodivergent, smart, sarcastic, awkward, cold, cunning, and yet so utterly normal.

Their meeting is by chance, and the development and evolution of their relationship through an agreed number of conversations is so raw that it becomes a deep-seated desire for them both to see where it leads. The conversations that they have are in no way simple and their inclination to challenge and experience the other's worldview is sumptuous.

I love that as they get to know each other through sharing, questioning, and observing, the changes that envelope them both, as contrary as they may be to the ritual of their day-to-day, lead Aldo and Regan to reevaluate how they interact and move through spaces.

Blake has used some aspects of her experience living with mental health to evince these two characters with different personalities and social presence falling in love and contemplating their fallacies and strengths. It was refreshing to read them and experience their insecurities and raw emotions. The familial dynamics were also appreciated and helped in the molding of our main characters.

What an interesting book. I’ve never read a book that was told this way. If you want a traditional telling, this is not your book. Looking for an unusual narration style? Try this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC of this novel in exchange for a review. This novel will be released on November 29th, 2022.

“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.”

Thank you Olivie Black, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for this audiobook arc in exchange for my honest review. This audiobook will be available 11/29/22.

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 facts will still be true. But this is not a story about endings. For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. For Aldo, the world feels disturbingly chaotic. For Regan and Aldo, life has 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?

I do not have the words to describe how phenomenal of a writer Olivie Blake is, but with each book she continues to stun me with her words! “Alone With You In The Ether” is a beautifully written story about what it’s like to live with a mental health illness and learn to be able to find balance in your life while navigating between the thoughts in your mind and reality. Both of the characters have to learn to trust their thoughts and learn to face the different parts of themselves that they are afraid to share with others. This audiobook has a full cast, which I personally always enjoy. The initial start of this audiobook was slightly confusing, but by the end it makes sense. So if you start the audiobook and are initially confused, stick with it. It is intentional and it will start to make more sense as the story progresses. The narrators were perfect and really brought the story to life for this audiobook. I rated “Alone With You In The Ether” 5 ⭐️’s.

This is an absolutely gorgeous love story between 2 people with deep issues. Regan, a bi-polar socialite with a criminal record, and Aldo, a genius mathematician who has zero social skills and manages his destructive thoughts w/ compulsive calculations regarding time travel. And sometimes bees. A chance meeting in the art museum brings these two people together and six conversations later, they cannot be apart. But can it work?
I have not read anything else by Olivie Blake, but I will now. This was absolutely wonderful and I finished it in a day. The audio is spectacular; there are different narrators for Regan, Aldo and their inner thoughts. It was a very cool way to listen to this delightful novel.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for this audio file.*

This is probably one of those books you either "get" or you don't. I thought I'd be in the know, but I'm not. It was interesting and the narration was very pleasant.

It's one of those artsy things that people will discuss for years to come. A new classic. It kind of reminded me of if Colleen Hoover and Alison Espach decided to write a version of the movie A Lot Like Love together. That's a compliment.

It was really well-written so I'm judging it based off that, not on a niche that I just don't get. It's still a really good book.

Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake is a fervent love story of Aldo and Regan, who both struggle to cope with self-sabotage and the influx of negative thoughts and imagery of life. Their relationship, much like their lives, is obsessive, compulsive, idiosyncratic, and emotional.

This is a beautiful, intimate story that makes you feel as if you are living inside the minds of Aldo and Regan; listening to them dissect every interaction, emotion, and thought. It is not your typical relationship and I love that it explores the very raw reality of mood disorders and mental illness.

This was narrated primarily by Robb Moreira and Sura Siu, both of whom were well suited for their roles. Their tonality and timbre were perfection and kept you hanging on Blake's every word until the very end.