Radio Silence: Review
"Hello..I hope somebody is listening..." Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
Okay, I'm going to be straight with y'all. I didn't think I was going to like this book.
I know, I know, cue the gasps and Kat slowly dying in the background...but hear me out. I've spent the past year working myself up to reading this book. I've heard nothing but insanely good things about it. How this book changes your life, how it's everything you would ever want, how it so perfectly captures the college life...but hearing all of that made me really nervous to pick it up. What if I hated it? I feel like if I did, I would have been fully exiled from the booktube community. It's hard reading such a hyped up book, and not knowing what you'll think of it.
But my hold from my library finally came in, and here I was, Radio Silence waiting to be read on my phone. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting. I don't even know if this book lived up to said expectations. All I know is that I really liked it.
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman follows a girl named Frances, who is obsessed with this podcast called Universe City. No one knows who creates it, as they only go by the name Radio Silence. One day, her fanart of the podcast is noticed by Radio themselves, and she is asked to be the official artist for the podcast. As she accepts this proposal, secrets start coming out of the woodwork one by one, and Frances finds herself in an unlikely friendship, and an even unlikelier job.
Upon first thought, this book really reminded me of Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia. They both deal with the relationship between artists and their fans, and they both have an underlying subplot of learning to accept and live with mental illness. I thought that was very well done, in the little amount of books I have read that have that as a main part of the story. It didn't feel like a plot device to me, which is how is usually feels. It felt natural, never exaggerated or romanticized. I appreciated that.
Okay, let's get into the pros and cons of Radio Silence.
The pros:
1. The representation: Not only was there mental health rep in this book, there was a ton of LGBT+ representation. Frances was bisexual, Aled was asexual (something you hardly ever see in books!), Daniel was gay, Carys was gay, and Aled's persona Radio was androgynous and genderfluid. I also really appreciated that it, again, all felt so normal. I've read a dime a dozen stories where the main character comes out in this big dramatic way, but hardly anyone comes out like that. They usually tell a few people at a time until it's just common knowledge. At least, that was how my own coming out went. I know I can't speak for everyone in the community. It just felt good reading this story where it was common knowledge that Frances was bi, or that Daniel was gay. Even when they didn't explicitly say "Oh, by the way, I'm gay," it was never seen as something shocking or surprising. It was kind of like "Cool, you're gay, do you want some nachos?" (Literally my best friends reaction to my coming out to him. It was pretty funny, I think).
2. The pacing: I read this book in about four hours. I definitely didn't think it was going to be that quick of a read, that's for sure. I read this via e-book, so I couldn't exactly tell where I was in the story, but I could tell that I was flying through it. I was really surprised when I reached the end, like I wasn't expecting it to be over that soon. But the quickness of the read didn't hinder the story at all. In fact, I thought the pacing matched the overall time it took to read extremely well. It's a very fast paced story, everything happening over the course of I think six months. The first half of the book takes place in the summer between school years, and the second half takes place from September to January. You ever have one of those years where you blink and suddenly skip three months? That's kind of how Radio Silence felt, but not in a bad way. It was more like, there was everything happening and nothing happening at the same time.
3. Frances's character arc: Usually I am very critical about the characters of a story. I tend to lean more toward character-driven books than plot-driven, so I want to read about characters that are deep and fleshed out, that feel as human as possible. Frances felt like that to me. Sure, she was a little annoying with her whole "I'm a secret nerd I wear leggings and graphic tees, I'm so special" thing, but I found that I didn't mind as much as I probably would have in another book. Most likely because this was (sadly) exactly how I acted in high school. When I was at school, I was the booksmart cheerleader who spent most of her time in the culinary arts classroom or studying in the library. I wasn't the smartest person in my class by a longshot, but I cared immensely about my grades. But if you managed to have a conversation with me, I would go off on hour-long tangents about Doctor Who or Harry Potter or the politics of ancient Greece (seriously, it was bad. I have an actual problem). Most of my school-only friends would be so surprised if I showed up to school wearing something remotely fandom-related. But as time went on, I found myself getting more and more comfortable with showing all sides of my personality to the world, as did Frances. By the end of the book, she was wearing her leggings and graphic tees pretty much everywhere she went, and she didn't feel self-conscious or ashamed for doing it.
Okay, now let's do the cons:
1. Aled's character: I'm going to say it right here and now--I hated Aled. He actually reminded me a lot of one of my exes; he was emotionally distant and never really took the blame for something even when it was his fault, and he always blew everything way out of proportion and refused to listen to reason once he made up his mind. Aled was kind of terrible. And he still managed to make everyone else feel bad for standing up for themselves. Now, I totally get he was going through some truly awful stuff, both at home and at school, but that doesn't give you a free-for-all pass to be a complete tool to your friends. Okay, rant over. Basically what I'm trying to say is, Aled was kind of the main antagonist of this story.
2. The pop culture references: If there is one thing you can do to immediately turn me off of a story, it would be to throw in a pop culture reference. It's okay if they're vague, like in The Raven Cycle, or if they're about a fictional show/book/website, like Fangirl or Eliza, but it sets my teeth on edge when I have to read about the main character talking about TV shows or movies. Not only does it date the book, but it also feels like a cop out. I legit almost DNF'ed this book the first time Frances mentioned Game of Thrones. I really cannot stand it. It's one of the main reasons I stopped reading Becky Albertalli, because she would not stop with the pop culture references. It's even worse if they use memes or common catchphrases that were popular in the year it was published. I'm telling you right now, if I ever read a book that has the words lit, dab, or yeet in it, that is the day I die. It's just a cheesy way of trying to increase your word count, and I'm against it. Maybe that's why I prefer fantasy over contemporary.
3. The sense of blame being put on other people: I mentioned this briefly when talking about Aled, but it kills me when someone puts blame on everyone around them for their actions, and refuses to own up to their mistakes. And pretty much everyone in this book did that. Frances did this, Aled and Carys did this, and so did their mother. I'm tempted to give their mother a little slack, because she clearly had something bigger going on with her that was never truly explained, but it still really frustrated me. I just hate when people don't own up to what they've done or what they are doing. I consider myself a very forgiving person, but there's only so many chances I can give a person before I need to cut them out of my life. I feel like if I was in Radio Silence, I wouldn't want any of the characters to be my friends.
All that being said, I still did enjoy this book. My favorite part by far was after the Cambridge interviews, when Frances and Daniel really solidified their friendship. It felt so pure and warm, like getting a hug from an old friend.
My initial star rating was five out of five, but after writing this review and seeing how frustrated I got talking about the cons of this book, I think I might have to dock it a half star. Well...I don't know. I don't think I'll ever want to reread it, but I did enjoy my time experiencing it. I think the five stars will stay.
Until next time!
Okay, I'm going to be straight with y'all. I didn't think I was going to like this book.
I know, I know, cue the gasps and Kat slowly dying in the background...but hear me out. I've spent the past year working myself up to reading this book. I've heard nothing but insanely good things about it. How this book changes your life, how it's everything you would ever want, how it so perfectly captures the college life...but hearing all of that made me really nervous to pick it up. What if I hated it? I feel like if I did, I would have been fully exiled from the booktube community. It's hard reading such a hyped up book, and not knowing what you'll think of it.
But my hold from my library finally came in, and here I was, Radio Silence waiting to be read on my phone. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting. I don't even know if this book lived up to said expectations. All I know is that I really liked it.
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman follows a girl named Frances, who is obsessed with this podcast called Universe City. No one knows who creates it, as they only go by the name Radio Silence. One day, her fanart of the podcast is noticed by Radio themselves, and she is asked to be the official artist for the podcast. As she accepts this proposal, secrets start coming out of the woodwork one by one, and Frances finds herself in an unlikely friendship, and an even unlikelier job.
Upon first thought, this book really reminded me of Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia. They both deal with the relationship between artists and their fans, and they both have an underlying subplot of learning to accept and live with mental illness. I thought that was very well done, in the little amount of books I have read that have that as a main part of the story. It didn't feel like a plot device to me, which is how is usually feels. It felt natural, never exaggerated or romanticized. I appreciated that.
Okay, let's get into the pros and cons of Radio Silence.
The pros:
1. The representation: Not only was there mental health rep in this book, there was a ton of LGBT+ representation. Frances was bisexual, Aled was asexual (something you hardly ever see in books!), Daniel was gay, Carys was gay, and Aled's persona Radio was androgynous and genderfluid. I also really appreciated that it, again, all felt so normal. I've read a dime a dozen stories where the main character comes out in this big dramatic way, but hardly anyone comes out like that. They usually tell a few people at a time until it's just common knowledge. At least, that was how my own coming out went. I know I can't speak for everyone in the community. It just felt good reading this story where it was common knowledge that Frances was bi, or that Daniel was gay. Even when they didn't explicitly say "Oh, by the way, I'm gay," it was never seen as something shocking or surprising. It was kind of like "Cool, you're gay, do you want some nachos?" (Literally my best friends reaction to my coming out to him. It was pretty funny, I think).
2. The pacing: I read this book in about four hours. I definitely didn't think it was going to be that quick of a read, that's for sure. I read this via e-book, so I couldn't exactly tell where I was in the story, but I could tell that I was flying through it. I was really surprised when I reached the end, like I wasn't expecting it to be over that soon. But the quickness of the read didn't hinder the story at all. In fact, I thought the pacing matched the overall time it took to read extremely well. It's a very fast paced story, everything happening over the course of I think six months. The first half of the book takes place in the summer between school years, and the second half takes place from September to January. You ever have one of those years where you blink and suddenly skip three months? That's kind of how Radio Silence felt, but not in a bad way. It was more like, there was everything happening and nothing happening at the same time.
3. Frances's character arc: Usually I am very critical about the characters of a story. I tend to lean more toward character-driven books than plot-driven, so I want to read about characters that are deep and fleshed out, that feel as human as possible. Frances felt like that to me. Sure, she was a little annoying with her whole "I'm a secret nerd I wear leggings and graphic tees, I'm so special" thing, but I found that I didn't mind as much as I probably would have in another book. Most likely because this was (sadly) exactly how I acted in high school. When I was at school, I was the booksmart cheerleader who spent most of her time in the culinary arts classroom or studying in the library. I wasn't the smartest person in my class by a longshot, but I cared immensely about my grades. But if you managed to have a conversation with me, I would go off on hour-long tangents about Doctor Who or Harry Potter or the politics of ancient Greece (seriously, it was bad. I have an actual problem). Most of my school-only friends would be so surprised if I showed up to school wearing something remotely fandom-related. But as time went on, I found myself getting more and more comfortable with showing all sides of my personality to the world, as did Frances. By the end of the book, she was wearing her leggings and graphic tees pretty much everywhere she went, and she didn't feel self-conscious or ashamed for doing it.
Okay, now let's do the cons:
1. Aled's character: I'm going to say it right here and now--I hated Aled. He actually reminded me a lot of one of my exes; he was emotionally distant and never really took the blame for something even when it was his fault, and he always blew everything way out of proportion and refused to listen to reason once he made up his mind. Aled was kind of terrible. And he still managed to make everyone else feel bad for standing up for themselves. Now, I totally get he was going through some truly awful stuff, both at home and at school, but that doesn't give you a free-for-all pass to be a complete tool to your friends. Okay, rant over. Basically what I'm trying to say is, Aled was kind of the main antagonist of this story.
2. The pop culture references: If there is one thing you can do to immediately turn me off of a story, it would be to throw in a pop culture reference. It's okay if they're vague, like in The Raven Cycle, or if they're about a fictional show/book/website, like Fangirl or Eliza, but it sets my teeth on edge when I have to read about the main character talking about TV shows or movies. Not only does it date the book, but it also feels like a cop out. I legit almost DNF'ed this book the first time Frances mentioned Game of Thrones. I really cannot stand it. It's one of the main reasons I stopped reading Becky Albertalli, because she would not stop with the pop culture references. It's even worse if they use memes or common catchphrases that were popular in the year it was published. I'm telling you right now, if I ever read a book that has the words lit, dab, or yeet in it, that is the day I die. It's just a cheesy way of trying to increase your word count, and I'm against it. Maybe that's why I prefer fantasy over contemporary.
3. The sense of blame being put on other people: I mentioned this briefly when talking about Aled, but it kills me when someone puts blame on everyone around them for their actions, and refuses to own up to their mistakes. And pretty much everyone in this book did that. Frances did this, Aled and Carys did this, and so did their mother. I'm tempted to give their mother a little slack, because she clearly had something bigger going on with her that was never truly explained, but it still really frustrated me. I just hate when people don't own up to what they've done or what they are doing. I consider myself a very forgiving person, but there's only so many chances I can give a person before I need to cut them out of my life. I feel like if I was in Radio Silence, I wouldn't want any of the characters to be my friends.
All that being said, I still did enjoy this book. My favorite part by far was after the Cambridge interviews, when Frances and Daniel really solidified their friendship. It felt so pure and warm, like getting a hug from an old friend.
My initial star rating was five out of five, but after writing this review and seeing how frustrated I got talking about the cons of this book, I think I might have to dock it a half star. Well...I don't know. I don't think I'll ever want to reread it, but I did enjoy my time experiencing it. I think the five stars will stay.
Until next time!
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