Alone With You in the Ether

2 ⭐️

This was - without a doubt - the MOST pretentious book I've ever read. And I ate that sh*t up in the first half.

I love the premise of meeting a stranger over six conversations, of healing yourself by learning who you are through the context of falling in love.

But then, you get to the last half of the book. In my opinion, it feels toxic, unhealthy, codependent, and gratuitous. It's giving tumblr, pick me energy, with Regan and Aldo acting as if they are the only two people of substance or value or original thought. It's a sex-capade of co-dependence and I got mega ick (think: Megan fox and whatever his name is)

This is also a character driven book, focused on the relationship over a typical plot. The issue with character driven books is that you have to be interested in the characters to make the “slice of life” storytelling worth it. I didn't relate to Regan, and I do not believe that you have to feel connected to a character to enjoy or derive value from a story (that is a dangerous thing to think). But I do think you have to be curious about their story, and I found her to be a frustrating character to read as I don't agree with her poor choices and how they are romanticized.

The author (sort of) addresses this in the acknowledgments, but I don't love the messaging that medication and therapy were obstacles to her finding love. The implication that she could only love Aldo, and that he could finally love her, once she stopped taking her pills and ignoring her the phone calls/therapy appointments of her court-issued psychiatrist felt like a dangerous narrative to tell.

This book got glowing reviews and emotional recommendations, but didn't land for me. The prose is nice, but if English is not your first language, good luck. You have to wade through parts of it and I found myself reading out loud just to understand what was being said and which characters were speaking.

I was expecting a book about flawed humans falling in love despite their imperfections, but I got a pretentious, unhealthy depiction of an obsessive relationship.