And perhaps it isn’t, but still, you never allow yourself to be torn away from the center of their world. You become uncomfortable, edgy, almost feeling as if what’s happening between Aldo and Regan is not meant for your eyes. The story feels so personal at times that you’re tempted to look away. There’s also a potency to the author’s language choices that just–lands a punch in the bowels of your soul. I wanted to staunch their pain as much as I hoped to trace it back to its source, but I wound up not being able to do either fully, which hooked me rather than frustrated me. I was taken aback by how quiet yet also how loud things could be in this book, the way the characters’ personhood seemed to wrap around a crowded, restless mind or the corner of scream that would never sound. It’s about the combustible chaos that can erupt between the human mind and the human heart.Īnd, oh, what a messy, destructive process that can be!
I don’t think one can read it without feeling all the ways love can break you down, all the ways it can build you back up. There’s such a gorgeous fragility to this novel. A yearning to be seen, accepted, understood–jagged edges, fractured pieces, closeted demons, and all. There’s a slow and intrinsic unwinding between them. However, it’s framed perfectly in context to who they are at their core as well as in connection to the complex mental disturbances they face. Their love for each other is overwhelming, a bit unhealthy at times. Although that doesn’t change much in the grander scheme of life, which continues to tick on by and rustle the leaves beneath the world’s feet, it changes them beyond measure, and that’s where the beauty lies. Incredibly raw and intense, this is a love story about two people who are on a collision course with time and each other.Īldo and Regan, both mentally unwell, both on a journey of self-discovery, are two lonely, self-destructive souls who become twined together the moment they meet at The Art Institute. Book Review: Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
0 kommentar(er)
