Reviews

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

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jojothefool's review against another edition

The audio book is just a little too British for me to understand lol I want to read the physical (or digital) book one day but I just can’t do the audio lmao

mackenzie_parker's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

2.5

hazel_georgene's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition

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2.0

I became interested in Radio Silence based on the Goodreads description which suggests there will be a little mystery woven into a bittersweet exploration of what it means to be yourself.

Instead I got what was on the inside book flap which, if I wasn't reading this for a book club, I wouldn't have read at all. I love YA and it is my primary genre of choice, but I'm not a huge contemporaryYA person. I've been trying to break out of this aversion, but you would be surprised how difficult it is to find a great YA contemporary. I'm not downing the genre, part of it is obviously me - I don't enjoy it on its own already and I'm the one picking the stinkers - but I've been trying for years to get past it and at some point the industry has to take some accountability too. It's only fair.

Back to Radio Silence, the reason I would not have picked this up of my own volition is the synopsis on the flap sounds pretty boring to me.

Ever studious, anxious Frances and soft spoken, sweet Aled are two outsiders that feel no one else understands them. By wild coincidence it turns out that Aled is secretly the creator of Universe City, a free relatively obscure Youtube podcast that Frances is obssessed with. The two strike up an unexpected friendship built on this connection as France becomes the official artist for the show and the two begin to realize how much they have in common. After an incident involving the podcast their friendship is put to the test. There's also this mystery bit about Aled's twin sister Carys who went missing a few years back.

The whole book is essentially a documentation on the life cycle of a friendship. The first half of the book is the getting to know you/honeymoon phase, then the first fight, and the fallout: Can the friendship survive this or will it flame out?

The first half of this book was honestly pretty dull to me. The low stakes made me disinterested. I hate when time passes so fluidly in a book where time is essential to the plot. School was a significant plot point throughout only for weeks to pass in a single sentence chapter to chapter. It also undermined the authenticity of Aled and Frances' connection because of how rushed their moments were. I understand that the point was about finding a person who for whatever reason you click with immediately. It's just the actual clicking part - where we see how in sync they are - felt underdeveloped.

About halfway is when the plot really kicks off. And to its credit I was very invested once the drama started to unfold. At that point I could finally see what all the positive reviews were saying.

There are a lot of things that made me identify with Frances. Her imposter syndrome, her resignation to no one ever seeing the 'real' her, measuring her self worth by results instead of effort, the immediate assumption of all blame in an argument. I found her struggles extremely relatable even so far removed from high school (Frances is in Year 13) because these things don't just go away with age.

When Frances turns 18 she doesn't feel any different and I just felt so sad for not only her, but myself as well because I've felt that way nearly every birthday since then. So much weight is put on becoming an adult. Then when you get there it's like 'wow I made it' kind of excitement but also this weird fear underneath like 'now what?'. I can only speak for the US, but there's a major glorification of college culture here that exacerbates those feelings of inadequacy when someone is not able to fulfill a very specific set of expectations.

I also felt for Aled literally collapsing under the weight of his awful abusive mother. His inability to truly trust anyone due to the years under his mothers' thumb was frustrating yet compelling. Even when he was acting poorly he still held a place in my heart.

All that positivity aside my investment was short lived.

Everything good I discussed only exists in the second half creating this massive tonal shift. It suddenly feels like two different books. There is so little build up to Frances feeling torn about her future. She just.....does? all of sudden which fair enough epiphanies happen. It felt weird though because all of these themes were not interwoven through out. It's foreshadowed a bit with Aled, but there's nothing at all to indicate Frances will eventually also stray from her path so massively.

I actually didn't like it because I thought it was a much better contrast for Frances to be singleminded in her pursuit vs Aled forcing himself through the whole process. Yes, many people are not Uni people and more often than not it's touted as something necessary to achieve a successful life. However, there are plenty of people who are and that's fine too. There are tons of books that do this plot - brainy kid realizes higher education really is nbd, finds themself, changes the entire trajectory of their life accordingly, and I'm kind of over it. I thought this story was going to have a new angle - the deconstruction of Frances' narrow, sheltered mindset.

For example, Frances takes a ridiculously long time to recognize or acknowledge Aled clearly lives in an abusive household. Even when she does it's still kind of like she thinks his Mum treats him poorly, nothing else. It's like her brain can't wrap her head around it being actual abuse. That part is understandable thought not excusable. Some people have such charmed lives that they literally cannot comprehend someone's parents not loving them or viewing them primarily as extensions of themselves rather than individuals. The kind of people who would tell Matilda 'I know they didn't always treat you right as a kid, but they're still your parents!' about the Wormwoods.

Frances isn't quite that bad. She never thinks or tells Aled this. However, her line of thinking follows the same tract to the point that it's annoying she's being so oblivious about the whole thing. This even plays into how she hurt Carys. She's got a self centered, privileged streak a mile long. I thought this book would have been a lot better if it examined that aspect more.

Instead this is largely left unchecked in Frances which I find remiss seeing as she deeply hurt a good friend in the past - a fact she internalizes greatly - because of it.

Following the 'betrayal' all that great tension is dropped fast. The book once more becomes long ruminations on what Frances might want out of life while time marches swiftly on in the background. Then the last quarter is this totally underwhelming rushed conclusion to the 'mystery' that lasts .2 seconds. It was enough to make me drop a star due to how ridiculously easy the whole thing was compared to how much whinging Frances made me go through to get to this point. Like seriously 400 pages about how horribly Frances screwed up rectified with 1 and a half conversations.

Notice I haven't mentioned Aled much. Well that's because he barely is in a majority of the book. His character is pushed out after the 'betrayal'. It makes some sense at first because they did have a big fight. Except without any other info from the character his arc felt forgotten. Because of how rapid the progression of the friendship was in the first place by the latter half of the novel he came off as merely a plot device rather than the platonic soulmate he's meant to be. Aled accuses Frances of being obsessed with him and I actually saw some validity in that statement which was definitely not the authors' intention.

What else am I supposed to think when the other half of the duo is like a brick wall? Yes, I know that Aled's reserved personality is on purpose - Aled is trapped in a cycle of self-doubt reinforced by his mothers abuse so he finds it difficult to reach out - but I wish that Oseman had made this a dual pov book. The insight into his thought process earlier on was sorely needed to make him feel more fleshed out. As it stands, it really did feel obsessive on Frances' part knowing how much she cared while Aled remained nebulous 90% of the book.

Going back to what I said before about the ending being easy. I liked that this book addressed how ridiculous it is to pressure teenagers to make adult choices while treating them like children. But, it didn't explore anything more than the surface. Like I know that that's nonsense, now what else? You might not have to decide your entire life, but you still need some kind of plan or interest. Whether that be working or an internship or taking classes casually in order to see what you are interested in.

By the end my empathy tank was nearing empty. Frances in particular was grating because she literally decided what she wanted to do after 3 seconds of deliberation despite Oseman not setting the groundwork for it.

The writing of the characters' resolutions came off as so out of touch. The stress of it all was abandoned in favor of a tidy bow wish fulfillment ending. And because of how fast it all concluded it adversely affected my perception of the events. Oseman unintentionally made the whole thing feel overblown and overdramatic. Emotional abuse is very difficult to parse in comparison to physical abuse. Yet, I didn't get the full scope of the pain inflicted on Aled or Carys because of how little Frances seemed to know about either of them. Again, these characters were supposed to be best friends yet the whole relationship both times centered around Frances' desires. The twins felt like little more than outlets for her interest. There simply was too much of Frances or at the very least not enough interaction with other characters.

The supporting cast feels equally as shallow as Aled. It's Frances above all else, Aled way down at the bottom, with the rest one top of the other even further below that.

All this talk about how these people care about Aled at the end and none of them are even allowed to talk to him at the climax. All the juicy conversations are left up to Frances. Surprise, surprise.

To summarize my main gripe is that this book stopped being realistic. It started off one way only to veer wildly off course. It didn't do the proper leg work to earn its story beats or social commentary. This is the equivalent of a cheesy teen movie as a book. It's not awful, more okay than anything, but I wish it could have followed through on its concept because I think the subject matter is very much worth shining a light on.