Radio Silence - Alice Oseman (Review)

Date of Reading: 3/11/2021

Author: Alice Oseman

Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books

Publication Date: February 25, 2016

Rating: 5/5

About the book:

What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong?

Frances has been a study machine with one goal. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside. Then Frances meets Aled, and for the first time, she's unafraid to be herself.

So when the fragile trust between them is broken, Frances is caught between who she was and who she longs to be. Now Frances knows that she has to confront her past. To confess why Carys disappeared…

Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has.

Engaging with themes of identity, diversity and the freedom to choose, Radio Silence is a tour de force by the most exciting writer of her generation.

Review:

        I just sort of want to say something before we continue.

        You probably think that Aled Last and I are going to fall in love or something. Since he is a boy and I am a girl.

        I just wanted to say -

        We don't.

        That's all.

        If you want me to point out the exact place I fell in love with this beautiful, one of a kind story, it is right when I read the above lines. Don't know whether such a thing is possible in our shrewd, deceptive, narrow-minded worlds. I just wish it were real. Oh, I am not talking about the boy-girl platonic friendship (that is not a really rare occurrence anymore). But if your best friend from another gender is also your soul mate, then what will be their position in your life compared to your significant other? Who is going to be the third wheel here? Or will there be one?

        Well, I was glad to see the best friend occupies prime importance here and Frances, you are totally worth it. Even with all the angst and self-doubts, some relationships can change you for the better, it may even help you perceive everything in a new light.

        Alright, I know I am rambling. If they haven't made any sense, then let me enlighten you. This is the story of two friends and the lengths a brave girl goes to preserve the only true friendship she has. Set in a school environment, the novel also issues a severe criticism against our academic practices where grades still rule. Are our students still defined by the credits they score? Even with all the evidence to the contrary, it is such a shame our educational institutions can't stop giving credibility to such lowly measures. Well, change comes from within.

        Meet Frances Janvier. Head girl and a nerd with perfect grades. Her aim - to get into Cambridge, study English lit and get a perfect job. And so far everything is going as planned . . . until she meets Aled Last and his podcast 'Universe City'. A helpless insecure boy and a 'weird' girl with a secret hobby. Isn't this enough intro for you to start delving into this charming story?

        Some books grow beyond descriptions. For me, this is one of them.

Meet the author:

Alice Oseman is an author/illustrator and was born in 1994 in Kent, England. She has written four YA contemporary novels about teenage disasters: SOLITAIRE, RADIO SILENCE, I WAS BORN FOR THIS and LOVELESS. She is also the creator of LGBTQ+ YA romance webcomic HEARTSTOPPER, which is now published in physical form by Hachette Children's Books.

Alice’s first novel SOLITAIRE was published when she was nineteen. Her YA novels have been nominated for the YA Book Prize, the Inky Awards, and the Goodreads Choice Award, and HEARTSTOPPER has been optioned for TV. She can usually be found staring aimlessly at computer screens, questioning the meaninglessness of existence, or doing anything and everything to avoid getting an office job.