Radio Silence

Hello. I hope somebody is listening.

Be prepared for a crazy amount of quotes.

So, I didn’t expect to finish the last 300 pages of this book last night. But I did. I also didn’t expect to be completely drowned in this story. It took my feet and pulled and kept on pulling. A day later and I’ve yet to reach the bottom. That is how much it stayed with me. I’m beginning feel bad for people who haven’t read this yet.

I don’t even know where to start. *deep breath* Okay…

So, this is one of those books that I completely thought was different than it turned out to be. But it was a good surprise. Like Christmas morning and when you find a dollar in your pants pocket. The characters drive this story along. Oh, did I add that all of the main characters are queer? Not only that but there is so much diversity I almost ran outside and screamed for an AMEN.

There were so many geek references in this book. Game of Thrones. Scott Pilgrim. SPIRITED AWAY. On top of some pretty awesome music selections. I feel like I need to be best friends with the author. Like now.

The themes in this story include depression, sexual confusion, online bullying, and abuse but on top of that, you have friendships that wild horses could not pull apart, platonic love, long lost love, typical teenage problems like school and whether to check your Tumbler or not which made it so relatable. And even though Frances’ mother was awesome, not all of the parentals figures were so understanding. Which is something a lot of teenagers can relate to for sure.

I stopped speaking. There was no point trying to argue. There was no way she was going to even attempt to listen to me.
They never do, do they? They never even try to listen to you.

I almost forgot to talk about the individual protagonists as a whole. So, there’s Frances, and she’s obsessed with a podcast called University City which is about a person stuck in a monster-ridden city set in the future. She meets Aled, who happens ot be the creator of the podcast. Cool? Yep. Only he doesn’t want the world to know that. He is a very private with some heavy family drama.

…it felt like we were friends. Friends who barely knew anything about each other except the other’s most private secret.

It’s a slow burn friendship and THANK THE SKIES, there is no romantic love between them. They have a beautiful, soul-mate type connection that feels so real and it makes me yearn for something like that.

And Im platonically in love with you.
That was literally the boy-girl version of no homo, but I appreciate the sentiment.

Without giving too much away, Aled’s podcast and his persona, Radio Silence hit me in the feels. When it all comes together, and we realize who he’s speaking to and how deep his agony goes, it just ripped out my heart.

I wonder – if nobody is listening to my voice, am I even making any sound at all?”

Sometimes, I think we all feel that way, and Radio’s pain is our pain. This book was written for you and for me.

“Sometimes I was hit with the weight of things I didn’t know…”

TW: Death of an animal, parental abuse, suicide ideation, depression, discussion of mental illness

This is about a girl named Frances Janvier. She is a book worm, and is devout in her studies like her whole life relied on good grades. She isn’t close to her school friends because she is too busy with school and only spends time with here and there. But she has a secret life that she burrows into. She draw for her favorite Youtube podcast, Universe City (with the creator of the podcast a mystery). This secret life is where she can truly be herself and explore an area outside of school. One night at a pub, she runs into a drunk Aled Last who admits to her that he is the creator of Universe City. Frances takes Aled back to her house so he can sleep off his drunken state. The next day she reminds him of his confession and from here a platonic friendship bloom.

This book is really hyped, so what’s the deal?

This a completely platonic friendship between a boy and girl, which is something you don’t get a ton of in books. Usually there is a romance that blossoms between two main characters. But not here. Partly due to their feelings for one another, partly due to the LGBTQ2+ rep in this. Frances is in love with Aled’s sister has been for a long time. Aled is in love with his friend, Daniel. Also Aled is Demisexual (not sexually attracted to people until after he forms emotional attachments). Now the next thing about this book is it is very diverse. Frances is biracial (Ethiopean and British) and Daniel is South Korean Immigrant as an example. There is diversity rep in more of the side characters. So many things about this book make it different and expansive.

This book also focuses on Youtube channel growth and the internet fame that comes with this. Also, it highlighted the Trolls you can come into contact with.

This book is very tender and beautiful and I really enjoyed it. The platonic relationship of Aled and Francis was so beautiful. It endured from a distance and was loving up close. No matter how long they spent away from each other they were still both able to come back to this safe and close relationship like they had never spent any time away at all. I think this book does so much to highlight how important these enduring and safe relationships are. We see so many books where distance and life aren’t as much a factor as they were in this book. I feel like this book gave us a very realistic relationship that dosen’t delude us into thinking all beautiful relationships exists in a constant state of close proximity. We can be distant and still love and be loved by people. We carry the ones we love with us everywhere so no time actually passes for us that we are without them in spirit. For me, the relationship was just as important as the life that happens in between it. I

I think another thing to note about this is how a relationship like this can change you and how having this kind of support can get you through so many hardships. You can be better for having relationship like this in your life.

This also lent a very realistic voice to academic pressure in school and how it is stressed in school that you will never be anything without a college degree. This make school into a urgent life or death experience that is abundant in stress and pressure in excellence. This is so realistic to students who are about to graduate.

There was really so many things to love about this book and I definitely think it was worth all the hype.

I love Alice Oseman’s previous book Solitaire and I love Radio Silence just as much. One thing I love about Oseman’s books is how realistic her teenage characters are. It’s refreshing to read a book about teenagers where they actually sound and act like teenagers. (It helps that she is only a few years older than her characters.) I also love the diversity in this book in terms of both race and sexuality. It is something that is very much needed in books for all ages.

One of my favorite things in this book is the friendship between Frances and Aled. They are both so sweet and wonderful and their friendship was great. I loved how it helped both characters grow. I especially loved their text conversations, they always made me smile.

I didn’t expect to love the side characters as much as I did. I also didn’t expect to hate a character as much as I did. Every character is three-dimensional and so interesting to read about. It’s hard not to care for them (except for the one).

I appreciate how Oseman included an emotionally abusive relationship in this book. In other books I’ve read that mentioned abuse it was almost always physical abuse. Emotional abuse can be just as damaging so it’s good it’s talked about with the same level of seriousness.

I did have one problem with the book and that is that the beginning is a bit slow. The chapters throughout the book were short so that made it easier to keep reading, but I felt like it took a bit to get the story really moving. However, once the story gets going I couldn’t put it down.

Overall, Radio Silence is a wonderful story full of laughs, heartbreak, and beautiful friendship. I can’t wait to read it again.

First of all can I just say that this book is one of my top 10 of all time!

From the off I was hooked. By the style of writing, the characters, the story & most of all because this was relatable to me beyond belief!

I went into this book not knowing anything about it apart from people were raving about it. I can now see why. It is the perfect coming of age book for me. Covering many topics such as bullying, identity crisises & sexuality to name a few. As someone who was bullied for many years at high school I really identified with this part of the story & found my self shedding a tear many a time. Not just with the bullying either it opened my eyes to the many other problems young people go through in their teenage years.

Not don’t get me wrong the book is not all doom & gloom I also found myself shedding a few tears of joy as well. Sometimes not even at the book, like when I was reading in my bed & looked up to find my babys night light still shining it’s star on my bedroom ceiling I found it rather fitting as would recommend reading the full book in this setting. I also loved the way the friendships rocked & rolled through out the story, very realistic & relatable.

Basically all I can say about this book is that I love it, I love the characters & think that everyone should read it! Really cannot fault it at all!

P.s sorry the review is so vague I really don’t want to give away any spoilers.

Boy oh boy. This was, without a shadow of a doubt, my favourite read of the month so far. Maybe even the year so far. I’m actually shocked at the fact that I haven’t read any of Oseman’s books up until now, because SO many people recommended them to me (particularly this one). I had really good vibes about it too! I raced through this book pretty quickly as a result, and I must say that I was a little sad that it ended.

There was so much awesome in this book. The diverse cast list, the relateable teenage characters, the setting (my home county, Kent of all places! I’ve never read a book set there!), the plot, and especially the writing. Oseman is a real talent, and ‘Solitaire’ is going on my list straight away! Characters are her biggest skill, she writes such good, unique ones! I loved the relationships: a platonic friendship between a guy and a girl with no romantic interest, a gay relationship that felt REAL and not like it had been edged in to tick a box, a YA parent that was supportive and nurturing, a YA parent that was the very opposite. I loved the themes it covered too, a deep look at exams and the education system, the value of University, fandoms and ‘nerdiness’. It perfectly highlighted the kind of stress teens go through and how adult figures (teachers, parents, etc.) can really help or make things a LOT worse.

I genuinely can’t think of anything that I didn’t enjoy about this story, though I have to say that the main ‘villain’ as it were felt a little on the ridiculous, exaggerated side of things. Nevertheless, it made for intense reading and spiced things up nicely. Frances was a great MC and ethnically diverse, I totally figured out who February Friday was but I was still excited about the big reveal, I loved watching Aled’s relationship with Daniel too. Raine and Carys were great characters too and it was wonderful to see normal teenagers interacting on a level that I understood and could relate to. Bravo Miss Oseman!

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member