Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Radio Silence

easily the best alice oseman novel. the platonic connection between frances and aled was so refreshing and lovely to read, i really believed they were meant to be connected and be in each other's lives. all the relationships in this book were beautiful, and aled and carys's bond really stood out to me. even though we didn't see them interact much,

the twist of carys being february friday and the whole universe city podcast being a message to her was so touching and lovely.

my only real complaint is that carol and her actions felt cartoonish at times, especially at the end of the book. i don't want to trivialize the way she abused her children of course, but she felt more like a mustache twirling villain than an abusive mother trying to regain control. it took me out of the story a bit.

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fanboyriot's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

🎙️ Podcast

💻 Fandom Dorks

🤝 Wholesome Friendship

Radio Silence was such an amazing read. I seriously love this book so much. The way Alice Oseman can write platonic love gets me every time, the friendship between Frances and Aled was so wholesome and meaningful.

The plot to this was a bit darker than I was expecting but it was addicting to read. I will say though the timeline near Alex’s birthday got a bit confusing to me.

The characters all had their own problems and no matter how “perfect” people thought they were it wasn’t as it seemed. The loneliness, the stress of trying to figure out their future despite top grades Frances and Aled weren’t as perfect as they appeared. This book was funny, depressing, wholesome, and, lonely somehow all at the same time. And it was absolutely lovely.

I’d also like to say how iconic Frances’ mom was, absolutely loved her and her unicorn onesie.

Release Date: 23, April 2019

POV: First Person

Rep: Bisexual (MC), Demisexual (SC), Gay (SC), Depression, Burn Out, Anxiety, University Stress, LGBTQIA+ characters, BIOPIC characters

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shadereads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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emmacaron's review

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emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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panic_at_the_bookshelf's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I am a big fan of how this book focussed on friendships. The bit of romance that occured was only a side-story. The characters felt so real, because they had such natural reactions and each one of them had realistic strengths and flaws.

I think Alice Oseman showed us another perspective on friendships, romance, family/parents and university. Romance isn't the most important thing in life, at least not to everybody out there. Friendships are amazing but they face struggles as well. Parents don't always know what's best for you and definitely don't always do what is best for you. This story showed how parents can be pretty toxic too, however there weren't a lot of explicit scenes making this book a bit easier to get through without making it seem less important to do something about an abusive connection you have.

The only thing I struggled with were the sometimes chaotics timeskips. Sometimes I wasn't fully sure what exactly was happening and where which character was, making the story a bit messy to follow here and there.

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lilshelly's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Sobbing. This book was everything. Alice Oseman continues to impress me with just how real the characters are.

This story encapsulates so many difficult things so very well. The discussions of mental illness and abuse were crafted so well. It was all so real that it genuinely took me time to read and process. I know the academia themes are prevalent in Alice's books, but the way they're discussed is phenomenal. This extravagant pressure to be clever and get degrees is so ingrained in modern society. I'm happy that the issues with that are being discussed in YA lit.

We all just want someone to hear us.

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olliee's review

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This may be my favorite book of all time. The characters were amazing, they were so developed and thought out SO WELL.. it’s hard to think they aren’t real people. I’ve never felt so many emotions reading.. it could have me go from angry, to sobbing my eyes out and unable to catch my breath, to absolutely grinning ear to ear- so hard I thought my cheeks would crack. There’s so much about Aled that I relate to.. and I loved Radio Silence so much.: it was so interesting and beautiful. Please check triggers before reading though.. I won’t lie- there was some very VERY heavy topics.. and some well described topics of depression and mentions of suicide, child abuse etc… but this is definitely a book that will forever stick with me, and I’m so glad I stumbled upon it. This may be one of my top favorite books of all time.

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navayiota's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Read it in two sittings.. Started it on a sleepless night and finished it not even 24 hours later. I don't often get to read such easy books. Stories that practically read themselves to you. Always nice to find a new favourite. I related to all of the characters so much, and although I got a bit angry at them for making such stupid decisions, I still love them. This is the kind of book you annotate and gift to your favourite Tumblr mutual. I might do that, actually.

I got trans girl vibes from Aled from the beginning, so I was sad when I realised it wasn't the case. All queerness is welcome though, and I'm glad to see asexual (specifically demi) representation!

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