Alone - bookrastinating.com

288 pages

English language

Published April 6, 2019 by Bella Books, Incorporated.

ISBN:: 978-1-64247-047-5

Half a million dollars will be Celeste Thorne’s reward for spending four years of her life in total isolation. No faces. No voices. No way to leave. Since Celeste has never really worried about being alone, the generous paycheck she’ll receive for her participation in the solitary psychological experiment seems like easy money. When she finds an injured hiker in the woods bordering her living compound, her strictly governed world is thrown into disarray. But even as she struggles with the morality of breaking the rules of the experiment, Celeste can’t deny her growing attraction to the kind and enigmatic Olivia Soldano. Still, how much can you really trust a stranger? And how much can you trust yourself when you know all the faces you’ve seen and voices you’ve heard for the past three years have only been your imagination? But what’s real? Celeste’s reality may lie somewhere between the …

Half a million dollars will be Celeste Thorne’s reward for spending four years of her life in total isolation. No faces. No voices. No way to leave. Since Celeste has never really worried about being alone, the generous paycheck she’ll receive for her participation in the solitary psychological experiment seems like easy money. When she finds an injured hiker in the woods bordering her living compound, her strictly governed world is thrown into disarray. But even as she struggles with the morality of breaking the rules of the experiment, Celeste can’t deny her growing attraction to the kind and enigmatic Olivia Soldano. Still, how much can you really trust a stranger? And how much can you trust yourself when you know all the faces you’ve seen and voices you’ve heard for the past three years have only been your imagination? But what’s real? Celeste’s reality may lie somewhere between the absolute truth and a carefully constructed deception.

1 edition

shippychaos reviewed Alone by E. J. Noyes

Review of 'Alone' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Simply masterful writing. I love to read about characters who are usually straight laced or uptight even, who then absolutely lose their self control (in Olivia’s case... some of her ethics?) and act like an impetuous fool because they WANT someone so badly.

This book had me totally wrecked when it ended, and I couldn’t get myself interested in anything else for about a week until I finally gave up trying and just restarted Alone again.

I was worried this book would ruin me for everything else, but then I discovered another Noyes book— Turbulence (highly recommend as a follow-up to this as it’s sweeter/breezier but still incredibly written) and I was able to finally resume regular human life again.