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. For both of them, life is a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability, until six conversations with a stranger form the variable that glitches the entire simulation. 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. When you read a book and have stood in the same places as the character it feels surreal.

Alone with You in the Ether: A Love Story Kindle Edition Alone with You in the Ether: A Love Story Kindle Edition

I wish all the metaphors from the first half could’ve actually meant something in the end, spoiler alert! They didn’t.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 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 normal 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. 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 enjoyed reading the slower parts of the book because it really emphasised how one partner in the relationship was fast paced and the other was wanting to move slower and needed more structure but was feeling like he was spiralling, the foreshadowing was cool!

Alone with You in the Ether - Macmillan Alone with You in the Ether - Macmillan

i really enjoyed the philosophical discussions within the book. they were quite interesting and thought provoking, as well as endearing. i found myself looking forward to hearing their thoughts on different theories and ideas and learning something new. 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. 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 meAldo was thinking about quantum groups. Specifically, hexagons. It was Aldo’s firm belief that the hexagon was the most significant form in nature, not purely because of his fondness for the Apis—commonly known as the honeybee—but not entirely unrelated. Many people were typically unaware of how many kinds of bees there were. The bumblebee was slow and stupid enough to be petted, which was sort of sweet, though not quite as interesting. Delivery with Standard Australia Post usually happens within 2-10 business days from time of dispatch. Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery and due to various reasons, the delivery may take longer than the original estimated timeframe. 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. Lethally smart. Filled with a cast of brilliantly realized characters, each entangled with one another in torturously delicious ways, The Atlas Six will grip you by the throat and refuse to let go. Olivie Blake is a mind-blowing talent.” — Chloe Gong, author of New York Times bestselling These Violent Delights 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.

Alone With You in the Ether - AbeBooks Alone With You in the Ether - AbeBooks

Mm.” Masso already knew that, but the asking was another ritual. “What are you thinking about today?” struggling with mental health issues myself i really related to some of the aspects that regan dealt with in this book, it really felt like i was understood. i really liked the sciencey part of the book too, made me feel super smart even though i know nothing about quantum physics or the concept of time travelling. 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. 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.Aldo’s mother, a lively Dominican girl too young for motherhood and too beautiful to stay long in one place, had never been very present. If she had ever asked anything from the universe, Aldo imagined she’d probably gotten what she wished. Aldo, who was called less frequently by his surname, Damiani, and even less commonly by his birth name, Rinaldo, had rolled a joint five minutes prior to his episode of silent meditation. He was twirling it between his fingers, staring into nothing.

Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake (Paperback, 2020) Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake (Paperback, 2020)

The day before was nothing special. It was special only because of how unspecial it was, or perhaps by how unspecial it would very soon become. Things were always stranger in retrospect, which was a funny little consequence of time. 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.” 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. Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery - the approximate delivery time is usually between 1-2 business days. Two unusual people find intellectual and emotional stimulation with each other, shaking up their stagnant lives.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. 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. For Regan, life is a finish line of mutually assured disappointment. Her method of coping with the dreariness of existence is to project herself into imagined multipotency, spinning new threads of destiny with every impulsive decision she makes. For Aldo, life is a plague of constancy--a structure of rules and formulas that keep him going, without which the entire frame of his existence would collapse. 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.”