Reviews with content warning for Violence - Radio Silence

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

12 reviews

_tallyw's review

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emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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dprekta's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-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 loved the book. I’m 22 now, but reading this made me feel 18 again. I felt so seen and in many ways, saw myself in Frances - especially her struggle to come in terms with what she liked doing, and realising that what she does at University doesn’t have to determine her life or define herself.

I wish I had picked up this book in college when I was a lost teenager having a really tough time with university, friendships and life in general. Ugh, I wish.

The characters are beautifully written, they are flawed in a very fragile, innocent way like how young adults figuring out life are. Aled and Frances are my favourite characters, I love seeing Reina’s involvement and development in the group’s friendship. It made me so happy that she was Indian!! ❤️ I loved seeing desi people get represented and written so beautifully - and not just using people of color as a plot spice.

In the big scheme of things, we will all be fine. ❤️

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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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icarusandthesun's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

this was one of those books that make you want to get your life together on a random monday afternoon. that make you feel like actually, you can achieve everything you've ever wanted to achieve - at least for a few hours.

this book was exactly what i needed right now.

i read this in two days time. i couldn't put it down, really; i was fueled by the fun story, the short chapters and the general boredom i experience in my day-to-day life.

as someone who's roughly frances' age, thrives off academic validation and is addicted to it like bad drugs, i found the whole academia aspect covered very relatable and ergo also comforting in a way.
truly a nice read.

but i also want to get a little bit into the things i didn't enjoy, because unfortunately the similarities between the characters and me end there.
this book was undoubtedly and so very obviously young adult that some parts of it i just couldn't stand. frances' quirkiness, her constant complains about how 'no one really knows her', the melodramatic way all the characters react to anything happening in their lives, and their childish and uncommunicative behavior - it was a lot.
what i generally dislike about young adult books is that the authors tend to spell everything out for the supposedly young target audience, as was the case here.
most things were super on the nose, sort of cliché and there was a lot of telling instead of showing. whole sentences were sometimes repeated word by word a weird amount of times.
i also had a couple of issues with the story. started strong and stayed strong for a good 3/5 of the book, but ended up getting sillier and sillier as it neared its conclusion.
the climax was disappointing, actually goofy, fairly unrealistic, the characters' motivations utterly incomprehensible. most of the 'plot twists' and revelations were a little predictable as well.

now all of this sounds like i didn't enjoy the book, but i did. i really, really did. i liked the commentary on academia, which i think is still not talked about enough; i liked the dialogue and chemistry between the characters, especially between aled and daniel. at the beginning i didn't like daniel a lot obviously, but he grew to be my favorite character as the story progressed and my hate for aled, his personality and unpredictable character arc developed.
still, their dynamic was one of the things i enjoyed the most. i liked how intertwined their lives seemed to be and the way they communicated.

to sum it up: this one's easy to read, a little silly and frustrating sometimes, but still quick, enjoyable and occasionally really relatable. i know i just gave a hell lot of critique, but believe me, i'm giving this book four stars for a reason. it's got a certain charm to it that i can't quite put my finger on, nor name.
you'll simply have to take my word for it - or don't.

I can take a little beating now and then. I'm a tough one. [...] Even when my bone dust drifts over the City walls, I'll be living and I'll be flying, and I will wave and laugh. (p. 203)

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