A review by finesilkflower
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

My impression from the writing style of this book is that Alice Oseman was pretty close to the age of her characters (late teens/early 20s) when she wrote it. This is not a criticism. There is a genuineness to the teenage experience that you can't fake; this absolutely captures what I remember being the intense yearning of being 18, as well as the anxiety of high school seniorhood. I find it strangely charming how characters are blasé about big things (like their school burning down) but small things take on immense significance (an offhand comment, a Tumblr post, a character owning a particular jacket.) Narrator Frances has a true-to-live teenagerish way of being extremely blunt about certain home truths, while still being naive in many ways. 

The book takes place in a particular moment in time, circa 2013, and centers around the intensity of online fandom, juxtaposed with the intensity of new IRL friendship. I'm only ten years older than these characters but I feel like a totally different generation in terms of my technology use and pop culture references. The class of '13 may find this extremely nostalgic. 

<b>Queer Content:</b> Note that this is a friendship story rather than a romance. Most of the main characters are some flavor of queer. Some of them read to me as trans, but they don't come out specifically as trans during the course of the story (which tbh is also realistic to me). 
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