‘It felt like two different parts of my brain trying to fall in love in my soul.’
Today is my turn on the book tour for Alone With You in the Ether.
Charlotte Regan and Aldo Damiani. She is an art graduate trying to find her way as an artist (even though she doesn’t call herself one) while undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy due to her bipolar disorder and counterfeit. He is a doctoral student in math who hates teaching love bees and thinks in patterns, and definitely not an extrovert. They met in the armoury of the Art Institute, Chicago. And that’s the exact time when we found ourselves in their ether. Looking at them through the mirror of their own intrusive thoughts.
To be honest, after reading the first few pages and getting to know the main characters a little bit, I felt like they were both a part of me. Call it however you want, but these two and their seemingly two different worlds are happily coexisting inside me since I know myself. I always found it hard to comprehend how people were so easily either team science or team art when for me these two were always entwined like the thoughts of these young lovers on these pages. So, naturally, I was very interested in this book and it did not disappoint.
It is a love story. It is also an honest one. It has enough fairy tale elements to lure you in (if you are into these kinds of things) but it also has enough horror in it to sprinkle the words: ‘real life’ in your face when you think you have lost the plot like Alice did in Wonderland. It is also a sensual book so just get ready for a few interesting scenes in your mind’s cinema. I loved the way Olivie wrote about Charlotte, I loved her inner monologues. Especially the ones with her mother. I’m trying not to give too much away from this book, but definitely one of the main things that kept my eyes glued to the text was the way her brain worked and how it was portrayed through her words. Complicated, intrusive behaviours that are already hard to go through or support for that matter. Mental health issues are not easy subjects to grasp let alone write about them. So my absolute respect goes out to the author. Very touching and inspiring work. I loved it more than I thought. And I’m absolutely in for her other books as well which I need to get to. I already have Atlas Six so I have no excuse not to jump into it at some point.
On a personal note: Thank you so much to the publisher, Pan Macmillan and Black Crow PR for my gorgeous copy of Alone With You in the Ether. It always means the world to me when authors/publishers send their physical copies in exchange for an honest review. You get to feel appreciated and I think this means a lot in this critical and a bit cold world right now.
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