I'd like to thank Simon & Schuster for sending me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! 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. For some reason, she believed him. She was sure that he had all the information: perhaps his wife had had enough of his meanness; perhaps she had a lover; maybe she didn’t like the fact that he was the kind of man who cared about fashion. Vivian believed that he understood the facts, but that, still, he didn’t know.

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.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. You started out writing and directing films. What made you decide to go to graduate school and switch to writing short stories and novels? Do you ever see yourself returning to screenwriting and/or directing? The literal definition of high school is jumping through arbitrary hoops. Grades and tests and placement exams. Numbers that will mean absolutely nothing in a year. But the University of Southern California has been my dream since freshman year, when I built my first computer. Since I fell in love with computers and coding and video games like my favorite MMORPG, Realm of the Ravager. USC has one of the—if not the—best computer science programs in the world for video games. They even offer a BS in Computer Science Games. Why would I go anywhere else? Where’s your wife?” she said, imagining that the man had forbidden his wife to come this time, that he had decided that her presence was what stood in the way of their getting a child. My dentist keeps warning me about bruxism, but I grind my molars anyway. For the last three years, I’ve had one goal: getting into the University of Southern California. Until last month, I was intent on laser-focusing on my fall grades, playing video games in my spare time, and senioritis-ing my way to graduation once that acceptance pinged my inbox. Then Dad lost his job.

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster.i can’t even put into words how much i not only loved this book but connected to it. olivie puts into words the thoughts and feelings i feel that i myself can’t find the words for. how tf can someone write something so captivating?!?

There was a right answer to this question and many, many wrong ones. This question, much like quantum groups, did not get any easier the more times Aldo was asked. The more times he ran the scenarios, in fact, the more the variables changed. How was he feeling? He had been bad before. He would be bad again. It would cycle and fluctuate the same way the weather would. It would rain in two weeks, he thought. Some people don’t test well,” the man said. “Is that it?” His voice was louder, as if he were seated again.In] Alone With You, Marisa Silver explores the impact of collateral damage, whether sustained in war or life - brisk and keenly observed - Silver's characters manage somehow to emerge as credible realists, unafraid of the rigors of making do. Even in the darkest moments, their stories are illuminating as they find the courage to face who they are. Where do I even start?? The mental health representation and genuineness and realistic nature of this book is top tier. This book felt like a hug and fresh air to me. I really enjoyed how Amelia Diane Coombs portrayed the main characters, in particular Eloise, her mental health battle and her coping mechanisms. I felt Eloise in my bones. I relate to the struggle so much and just seeing her growth throughout the book was amazing. Coombs portrayed the story in such a way that it felt as if I was talking to Eloise and hearing the story from her myself. It was beautifully written. Alone With you is a jewel. Actually a cache of many gems, each one complete and powerful in both the feelings that they evoke and the eloquent way in which they unfold. ... this collection of tales is about ordinary, down to earth people, trying to make sense out of life's messiness. We easily identify with them and see ourselves, our own lives played out in the defining moments of their journeys. We ache for them and with them, for their dilemmas, their hardships and their sorrows. Yet even as they falter and stumble, they determinedly move forward with quiet strength and grace, not a whiner in the lot... continued Yes, something like that.” There was never an easy way to explain what he was working on. It was nice of his father to ask, but they both knew that anything Aldo had to say was mostly lost on him. “Everything okay, Dad?” The book has many different types of mother-daughter relationships. Do you have a close relationship with your mother? What led you to dedicate this book to her?

Because we have agreed, collectively, that to proceed without knowledge or understanding is a stupid kind of bravery, an impulsive kind of blindness, but that to be alone without wonder or curiosity is to chip away any possible value we might discover in existing.” I spent the first 60% or so MARVELING at the FANTASTIC writing. I don’t want to make light of that. I was moved. The building tension was so good. We were careening towards disaster and I knew it would hurt and I couldn’t wait. I kept imagining that my review would just be one word— Ow.— next to a 5 star rating. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind. Why does Candy take a special, almost mothering, interest in El Lobo in “The Visitor”? Does she react to him because he refuses to interact with her, simply wanting what she can’t have, or is it more than that?Marisa Silver dazzled and inspired readers with her critically acclaimed The God of War (a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist), praised by Richard Russo as “a novel of great metaphorical depth and beauty.” In this elegant, finely wrought new collection, Alone With You, Silver has created eight indelible stories that mine the complexities of modern relationships and the unexpected ways love manifests itself. Her brilliantly etched characters confront life’s abrupt and unsettling changes with fear, courage, humor, and overwhelming grace.