“Write me a tragedy, Lev Fedorov,” she whispered to him. “Write me a litany of sins. Write me a plague of devastation. Write me lonely, write me wanting, write me shattered and fearful and lost. Then write me finding myself in your arms, if only for a night, and then write it again. Write it over and over, Lev, until we both know the pages by heart. Isn’t that a story, too?” she asked him softly.”
For everyone who saw me complaining about not being able to get into this one, I extend my apologies because I'm about to tell you all to go and read it. As I work my way through Olivie Blake's works, I am becoming more and more familiar with her exquisite use of language. This, for me, did not top Alone With You In The Ether, but it certainly came close in parts.
Since this falls under a Romeo and Juliet retelling, I was convinced I knew how it was going to play out, but at every deft turn Blake managed to completely surprise me until I was so scared for the lives of all the characters that I couldn't stop reading.
I will admit I was intimidated by the sheer number of characters in the front, reminiscent (to me, at least) to the mammoth list in the opening pages of War and Peace, but in the end each character was so unique that there was no issue with remembering who was who.
There is one particular character in this book, known as The Bridge, who particularly amused me - he felt comedically out of place at points with his dry wit and hidden depths. I didn't even realise he was going to be such a key player until about half-way through where he just did not stop showing up.
I don't actually own any copies of Blake's books yet, they've all been library editions, so perhaps this is my sign to finally start looking for some of my own.