Radio Silence

okay, i literally don't even know what to say
it was so good????????
like omg???
like, holy shit, frances is just so relatable and amazing and i love her and i love everything and omg it was just so good what the hell!!!
also, side note, alice oseman is twenty five years old and has written like eight books, i am in literal awe, especially if all of them are THIS GOOD??????????
i'm just completely entirely wholeheartedly one hundred percent in love with this and i can't. oh my god i love it so much.
thank you, that's it
x

I'm SCREAMING this reading year is amazing

EDIT: BTW i forgot to say it in my original review but i hc aled as nonbinary that's it that's all i have to say

5 stars (or maybe 4.5 stars) I love the diversity in this novel. We've got a biracial, bisexual female main character and an asexual male main character which is GREAT! I think this is the first book I ever read with an ace (or demisexual, he isn't quite sure) guy. I absolutely love the healthy friendship between Frances and Aled. I got to say their nerdiness is really what got me into the story. I love that they are creating a podcast and are using social media platforms (though, I don't know if this will still be relevant in a few years). The discussion whether or not going to the university is the right choice and learning that there are other options after high school throughout the narrative is brilliant.

This book is not a happy one, but it has some very important messages about friendship, family, the education system, choosing your path in life, the over performative culture etc.
I loved that there was no romance in the center of the story and it also had great representation (gay/bi/demi). Just be careful, because it can be very triggering (suicidal thoughts, depression, mental abuse, family abuse

thank u alex, i owe u my life x

why didn't I read it sooner ? so much time wasted...
no seriously, Alice Oseman is a really incredible author
there's so much topics mentioned (domestic violence, end of friendships, cyber bully***, fear of academic failure...)
it's a YA novel but doesn't feel like it is,

man i've seen this book everywhere and when i started reading it i was like hmmm how good can this actually be??? and the answer is that this book is DEFINITELY worth the hype. the best way i can describe it that its similar to fangirl but with more diverse characters and more intense complicated (but very well done) plot lines. it is SO GOOD. pls read this. one of my new favourites :””))

oh my god....

i have never read an author who understands teenagers like alice oseman

this book is absolutely gorgeously written but it is also definitely a product of it's time lol, there was some serious early/mid-2010 lingo in here but the characters and stories made up for it 10000%

frances and aled are some of the most relatable characters and one of the most beautiful friendships i've seen written in a while. i saw so. much. of my best friend and i in the two of them and it was just incredible.

wow.

“Hello. I hope somebody is listening....”

Recommended to everyone going through admission tests and anxiety about getting into a certain university, or to anyone just trying to find something that makes you happy.

Radio Silence is super-duper cute. Reading this book felt like one long, extended cuddle session with the cutest little puppies ever. Which, by the way, would have been absolutely fantastic IRL if I didn't live with two asthmatic children (AKA my sisters) cries

- The beginning was a little hard to get into. I remember thinking the main character sounded horribly pretentious, but I did warm up to her as the story progressed! She really comes into her own & shatters the whole nerd-girl-“I only care about getting in Columbia” attitude by the end of the book.

- Gaaaah, can I just fangirl about how much I loved the whole Universe City concept? I thought seeing Frances and Aled collaborate in videos was super cool + it actually addressed “fandom” culture & it's effects on their work! (Also, all the social media and pop-culture references were handled in an A++ way. Props to you, Alice Oseman.)

- Frances' and Aled's friendship. Undeniably the best part of the whole book <3 just give them all the love, guys.

- It's refreshingly diverse! Frances is both mixed race AND bisexual, Aled is a demisexual and his best friend (and boyfriend), Daniel, is gay. There's a lot of healthy discussion about gender identity, coming to terms with who you are and how your actions affect your relationships with others, and I found that aspect super interesting!

- Things I thought were cliché: Aled's mom. While I disliked her, I definitely thought that she came off as a bit one-dimensional. She often struck me as one of the evil, cackling villainesses typically featured in Disney movies, which did not help me sympathize with Aled, because I found the whole thing laughable, if not utterly ridiculous.

I thought this story was incredibly engaging and compelling, even reading this as a 30-year-old. These characters had a lot of depth and felt like real, complete people. Ultimately, this is a coming of age story about characters who feel like a path has been traced for them, but they have lost themselves in the process of doing “what's expected from them.” This novel also explores topics like identity, sexuality, and friendship. As a YA novel, I think it is very successful and delivers a powerful message to young people. It made me laugh. It made me cry. And it was definitely a page-turner. Alice doesn't miss, doesn't she?

Definitely a book that was more engaging on reread. Like, I didn't understand why Aled was such a jerk at first, but I get it now and I appreciate that all the other characters acknowledge where he's coming from but that what he did was still messed up. Frances is a well written character. I like how she has separate “versions” of herself she presents to other people.
Also this cover is just???? amazing???? the BEST book cover i've ever seen

I LOOOOVE ALICE OSEMAN'S BOOKS!!!! The emphasis she puts on friendship makes me so happy!!

These characters <3 Frances and Aled's friendship <3 Their love for their fictional world <3

This was up there with Solitaire for me as one of Oseman's best works. I found the characters were fully believable and was completely invested in them. It was pretty emotional at times and definitely led to dampening of the eyeballs! Nice to see some familiar faces pop up too

Such a soft book. My heart is full of joy.

Pros:

- Effortlessly diverse: There are bisexual, lesbian, gay, and asexual characters without those labels defining them. The discussions of these were handled so delicately as well. The main character is mixed race which contributes to her life experiences, again, without becoming her only identity. Depression and social anxiety are alluded to very authentically. I know I'm missing more forms of rep in this book, which is incredible to say because I'm usually hard pressed to find even one of these in some books. It was extremely well done, probably one of the best books in this regard. If this were all the book was being rated on, it would absolutely be 5 stars.

- The teenage characters felt very true to life, with the uncertainty of the future, the extreme waves of emotions, the way everything feels so hopeless at times and you feel like an imposter. These characters are trying to find themselves while trying to understand their friends as well.

- Most of the characters are very well developed, with their own motivations and desires that make sense. They were real people, even when they did asshole or selfish things.

- The dialogue was natural and realistic which I feel like is rare in YA.

- Excellent portrayal of academic pressure.

- Frances was able to reevaluate her assumptions of who Raine was and recognized that she was wrong about Raine, finally seeing her as the loyal, trustworthy, and selfless person she is. Loved this so much.

- The depiction of fandoms and internet culture was absolutely spot on. The invasion of privacy “YouTube famous” folks go through, the fan art/shipping/story theories that is constantly discussed and shared, and disgusting comments from internet trolls felt incredibly realistic. Kinda wish it had been explored more though.

- If I was allowed only one word to describe this book, it would 100% be “RELATABLE” (yes, in all caps).

- The authentic Englishness was fantastic. Reminded me of my family and our hometown in England!

Cons:

- Writing style: It was too casual and inconsistent for me. Sometimes it felt like I was supposed to be in Frances's head and other times it was like she was telling me her life story. I'm not one for random run-on sentences either unless the whole book is written in a stream-of-consciousness style. I also felt a disconnect with the more emotional parts of the story because of this.

- Carol Last is a fairly cartoonish antagonist. With how well developed the other characters were, I felt let down by her. She seemed a bit ridiculously villainous, specifically with her Scooby-Doo-esque “not so fast you mangy kids” arrival at Aled's uni. And the dog death... It was unnecessary and the same result could have been accomplished differently (she could have let it run away or dropped it off at a shelter, or the major issue could have been his room and destroying deeply sentimental items).

- Pacing: I think there could have been a little bit more trimming in the first half of the book in particular. More time could have been spent developing the main conflict and resolution. The end was very abrupt.

- The transcript excerpts of Universe City were throwaways for me. This is absolutely a personal preference, as some people will love the fiction-within-fiction aspect. I don't like when I have to reread a book for something to actually make sense.

Random thoughts:

- I loved the platonic male-female friendship, but I wish I hadn't known about it going in. I think I would've cheered more when I read the chapter in which Frances straight up tells the reader they weren't going to get together. As it was, I was like, “Yeah I know.”

- I usually don't care for Contemporary fiction. I find it boring reading about people who could be my neighbors. I find I get that feeling of escapism better from other genres in fantastical worlds or settings. However, I enjoyed this quite a bit.

- I have an issue with how people nowadays, which truthfully Alice Oseman captured perfectly, ending their declarative statements with goddamn question marks (ex: “i have a jumper from the same website?? i'm literally wearing it right now?”). This isn't a critique of Oseman, I just hate it. To those of you who do this, please stop. I'm begging you.

- I feel like I'm too old for this book to really impact me. I've already done the whole “omg what is my future?!” thing, made my mistakes, and learned from them. As many people have said, it would've been better to read it in high school.



[Edited my review after the Papercut Book Club live discussion cause everyone made excellent points that made me think!]

Tudo o que envolva a Alice Oseman eu amo, acho que isso é bastante claro (este ano acabei todos os livros que ela ja escreveu, falta me só a mini Party Girls ((((que quero MUITO ler)))) ) mas este livro está além de tudo o que já li.
A representatividade que, ao contrario de heartstopper ser uma cena grande que motiva os personagens na historia, nao é falada de forma muito certa até um determinado ponto, e quando isso acontece, é de uma forma que me fez ficar muito feliz com a minha identidade e conseguir ver me no Aled, na Francis, no Daniel e os restantes.
Todas as metaforas que envolvem o Universe City que mais tarde descobrimos e entendemos, toda a exposição que pode existir quando algo é bom e com sucesso e a forma como as pessoas lidam, tudo isso acaba num livro que se tornou, juntamente com Solitario, o meu preferido da autora. Não consigo parar de falar dele e tudo o que o envolva é simplesmente genial.

rating- 4/5buddy read with pratha < 3 book trigger warnings: depression, anxiety, emotional abuse, animal cruelty(review might contain minor spoilers)!“I wonder- if nobody is listening to my voice, am I making any sound at all?”― Alice Oseman, Radio Silencesometimes it takes me a while to really understand how much i like a book. this is one of those books. i bumped this up on my tbr so I could do a buddy read. (never done one before and loved it. absolutely recommend). Going into the book, I expected a thriller (just me?) with plot twists and surprises. There were surprises for sure, but the book was far from a thriller with out of the world plot twists. Ironically, realism was one of the things that stood out to me in this book. The author was able to portray themes of teenage emotions, depression, anxiety and academic pressure in an extremely genuine manner (probably the best i've seen in any book). I loved how different this book was from anything else i've ever read. A podcast based sci-fi show? diversity and representation that didn't seem forced? layered characters with unstructured thoughts and real emotions who don't have everything figured out? also wait for it: platonic male and female relationships. it had it all.Honestly though, this is something i have to say: if you relate with everything Frances and Aled had to go through, i'm sorry. i'm sorry that the education system has brainwashed you into believing your grades define you, and low grades would mean you're destined for failure. that is absolutely not true. grades are just letters at the end of the day, and that's about it. it's upsetting how grade oriented our learning is. I'm indian, so throughout the years i have been judged only on the basis of my grades, so much so, that i didn't really see how it affected me. Like Frances, i put all my energy into just proving my academic potential and later struggling to meet those high expectations i set for myself. Needless to say, this book resonated with me. It truly makes you feel like somebody's listening:) “I got four A grades [...] I expected to be happy about it. I expected to be jumping up and down and crying from joy.But I didn't feel any of that. It just wasn't disappointment.”“It must be useful to be smart,” she said and then laughed weakly. She glanced down and suddenly looked very sad. “I'm like, constantly scared I'm going to be a homeless or something. I wish our whole lives didn't have to depend on our grades.”The only reason it was a 4 star read for me was because of the simplicity of the plot (but looking back i think this adds to the realism aspect of the book)In my opinion, [b:Radio Silence 25322449 Radio Silence Alice Oseman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1448470869l/25322449.SY75.jpg 45055773] is one of the most realistic and authentic contemporary books i've read. I couldn't put it down and was constantly thinking about the characters, who are again extremely well written. I would recommend this to anybody who has struggled or is struggling with anxiety and academic pressure (which, let's face it, is pretty much every teenager ever.)edit: also found out that this existed, months after reading the book and now i like it even more:- https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRHhZ2y6V9ygqpZpCByznhvnVCrPMJ8Aq

I love this book beyond words. Definitely recommend it!
Edit: about to re-read this to hopefully get me out of my reading slump!

this book felt like a little piece of treasure that one hadn't found before. i loved the concept and the way it was executed was wonderful. i loved the emphasis on platonic love and how relatable school was here. i just couldnt put the book down .. it drew me into another world for a moment and .. wow. im still reeling from how good this book was. if you read this, definitely put background music on..

“Hello, I hope somebody is listening ...”

4'5*
i just,,,, i just finished it, i read it in a day, and i don't think i can make any sense right now cause im so emotional. i loved it so much, its so unique and deep and different, I've never read anything like this before. usually im not into contemporary stories but this was captivating and relatable. im so thankful a book like this exists, one that speaks about healthy f/m friendships!! we need more of that. i just wish i had found this book earlier and not now that im on my last year of college. beautiful.

Impressed by the quality of this book. Coming from Heartstopper I was pleasantly surprised to see that Alice Oseman is talented not only at drawing, but writing as well. Found the writing style to be impressive, in the sense of relatable and deep

I feel like this book is quite good at nailing the anxieties and fumblings of being a teenager, especially when you don't fit quite into what boxes the world defaults to.