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A review by mxbluet18
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
5.0
This review is going to discuss the novel Radio Silence by the author Alice Oseman. And due to the content of the novel as a whole, I am going to include a trigger warning here for the discussion of potential eating disorders, suicidal thoughts and ideation. There is also a trigger warning for mental health discussions, anxiety, harassment (online and in real life) and death threats, as well as an emotionally abusive parent and animal death.
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"What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong?"
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Radio Silence follows Aled and Frances and they basically make a podcast together, but it's so much more than that. You may think it's a romance since Aled is a boy and Frances is a girl but it's really not. They don't fall in love. It's a story about friendship, about what it's like being a teenager and not knowing what you want from life, with some focus mental health and sexuality.
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My god, this book had so much LGBTQ+ representation in it. There's a demisexual character, a bisexual character, a gay character and a lesbian character, and those are just the ones that were explicitly discussed. The representation for ace spectrum characters is something so rarely found in books so I was very excited and happy when we got the demisexual representation here.
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Unlike many authors who write contemporaries with a focus on teenagers, Alice Oseman understands how to write them realistic and not make their actions appear forced or ingenuine, or make it obvious they were written by an adult. Setting aside the fact that she is an excellent writer and amazing storyteller, she understands teengers so well, probably because she started writing at a very young age.
~
I rarely find characters in a book that are so much like me. I strongly related to Frances and Aled, and loved seeing the interactions between Daniel and Frances, as well as Daniel and Aled. It was also really interesting to see Carys and Frances together because of their history.
Something that I don’t tend to see much of in YA and contemporary novels is the outspoken, assertive female with the timid male counterpart, so the Frances/Aled friendship gave me something really interesting and new. I loved every single character. Aled was my particular favourite, since I feel like I have a similar personality with him and I really connected with him. I saw myself in so many of the situations that he was in. Also let's not forget that he dyes his hair a lot. I love seeing characters who love dyeing their hair as much as I do.
~
I loved seeing how the different relationships developed. It was good to see that we didn't end up having the typical YA romance between Aled and Frances just because he is a boy and she is a girl. It felt so refreshing and different. I also loved that in this book not all the characters needed a relationship or have a love interest by the end of the book for their arcs to feel complete or whole. Most YA contemporaries feel the need to remain in these boundaries, while this novel just does its own thing.
●
"I think everyone's a bit bored with boy-girl romances anyway," he said. "I think the world's had enough of those, to be honest."
I also wrote a more in-depth review of Radio Silence if you wanted to check that out - "https://reeceleeharper.wordpress.com/2022/01/15/i-wonder-if-nobody-is-listening-to-my-voice-am-i-making-any-sound-at-all-a-review-of-alice-osemans-radio-silence/"
~
"What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong?"
●
Radio Silence follows Aled and Frances and they basically make a podcast together, but it's so much more than that. You may think it's a romance since Aled is a boy and Frances is a girl but it's really not. They don't fall in love. It's a story about friendship, about what it's like being a teenager and not knowing what you want from life, with some focus mental health and sexuality.
~
My god, this book had so much LGBTQ+ representation in it. There's a demisexual character, a bisexual character, a gay character and a lesbian character, and those are just the ones that were explicitly discussed. The representation for ace spectrum characters is something so rarely found in books so I was very excited and happy when we got the demisexual representation here.
~
Unlike many authors who write contemporaries with a focus on teenagers, Alice Oseman understands how to write them realistic and not make their actions appear forced or ingenuine, or make it obvious they were written by an adult. Setting aside the fact that she is an excellent writer and amazing storyteller, she understands teengers so well, probably because she started writing at a very young age.
~
I rarely find characters in a book that are so much like me. I strongly related to Frances and Aled, and loved seeing the interactions between Daniel and Frances, as well as Daniel and Aled. It was also really interesting to see Carys and Frances together because of their history.
Something that I don’t tend to see much of in YA and contemporary novels is the outspoken, assertive female with the timid male counterpart, so the Frances/Aled friendship gave me something really interesting and new. I loved every single character. Aled was my particular favourite, since I feel like I have a similar personality with him and I really connected with him. I saw myself in so many of the situations that he was in. Also let's not forget that he dyes his hair a lot. I love seeing characters who love dyeing their hair as much as I do.
~
I loved seeing how the different relationships developed. It was good to see that we didn't end up having the typical YA romance between Aled and Frances just because he is a boy and she is a girl. It felt so refreshing and different. I also loved that in this book not all the characters needed a relationship or have a love interest by the end of the book for their arcs to feel complete or whole. Most YA contemporaries feel the need to remain in these boundaries, while this novel just does its own thing.
●
"I think everyone's a bit bored with boy-girl romances anyway," he said. "I think the world's had enough of those, to be honest."
I also wrote a more in-depth review of Radio Silence if you wanted to check that out - "https://reeceleeharper.wordpress.com/2022/01/15/i-wonder-if-nobody-is-listening-to-my-voice-am-i-making-any-sound-at-all-a-review-of-alice-osemans-radio-silence/"