Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Radio Silence

I love reading, but I love sleeping more. That said, I started this book at 10 pm, couldn't stop, and finished it at 2:30am.

Thus far, this is the only book I've read in one sitting.

And I'm about to go reread it.

Content Warnings

criticalbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

Content Warnings

yeeperdoodles's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

Content Warnings

beeoe's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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

3.5

First off just to get my shallow critique out the way, i hate the cover of this book. I don't like when books have real people on the cover, it isn’t how i think Francis would look either, but thats neither here nor there. (I do like that she has the septum piercing though). I really enjoyed this story.

I connected alot with Aled, I think his arc was really beautiful and well written. His room was really beautiful and i think i got most choked up when his mum destroyed it. I liked how not everything was explained about Aled and Universe City, and how his crippling anxiety while deescalated is still present at the end. He’s very internally nuanced and i liked figuring him out and relating to his interactions and thoughts.

I thought Francis was a good protagonist, i didn’t really like her as a character though, or atleast not as much as i did Aled. I mean i dont hate her and i like the school Francis vs Francis Francis but i generally found her to just pinball off the people around her, even when she yknow accepts herself as she is. The internet culture stuff i also really loved, i can imagine that con at the end with all the cosplayers and the outpouring of love for Aled&Radio.

My biggest annoyance with this book though is the twist, okay so February is Carys? i cannot be the only person who immediately thought that but then we were told they were “explicitly romantic” and this is never explained later, when the “years and years” thing came up it was so obvious it was her? i think the twist was written badly, even if you chop it up to Francis being inexperienced at romance and so interpreting it wrong that still makes no sense because shes not a child and 16-17 year olds still know what romance is ffs.

I have already recently been questioning wether i want to go to University and i kind of just applied because i didn’t really know what else to do and didn’t want my family to hate me and seeing as yknow the University fear like that is a central theme i really connected with it.

It was a really gripping story too, i couldn’t put it down. Really well written in that way. I didn’t really find it all too emotional though i see why people would, i didn’t cry which isn’t awfully hard for me to do so im not sure. I did like it overall though.

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