Radio Silence

by Alice Oseman

Ebook, 2016

Status

Available

Call number

823.92

Series

Alice Osemanverse (Chronologically) (9)

Genres

Publication

HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks (2016), 400 pages

Description

Romance. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML: The second novel by the phenomenally talented Alice Oseman, the author of the million-copy bestselling Heartstopper books�??now a major Netflix series. What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong? Frances has always been a study machine with one goal: elite university. Nothing will stand in her way. Not friends, not a guilty secret�??not even the person she is on the inside. But when Frances meets Aled, the shy genius behind her favorite podcast, she discovers a new freedom. He unlocks the door to Real Frances and for the first time she experiences true friendship, unafraid to be herself. Then the podcast goes viral and the fragile trust between them is broken. Caught between who she was and who she longs to be, Frances's dreams come crashing down. Suffocating with guilt, she knows that she has to confront her past... She has to confess why Carys disappeared... Meanwhile at university, Aled is alone, fighting even darker secrets. It's only by facing up to your fears that you can overcome them. And it's only by being your true self that you can find happiness. Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has. A coming-of-age read that tackles issues of identity, the pressure to succeed, diversity, and freedom to choose, Radio Silence is a tour de force by the most exciting writer of her generation.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member electrascaife

Frances is Head Girl at her school, has the highest grades of her class, and is determined to get into Oxbridge and become successful. At least, that's who she is on the outside. But on the inside she feels much less dull, and much less the nerdy/shy girl. And on the inside she's obsessed with a

youtube show called Universe City, whose creator is a complete mystery to the entire fandom. When she finds out that the creator is actually Aled, the quiet, studious best friend of her frenemy/the Head Boy, they become close friends and start collaborating on the show together. But they both have secrets that they keep not only from the fans but from themselves, and when those secrets come out, their friendship - and Aled's mental health - is at stake.

This clinches it: Alice Oseman is one of my new very favorite authors. This novel was brilliant in so many ways. It's darker than Heartstopper but the characters still make you want to hug them all and be a part of their lives. It also shows gender and sexuality on a broad spectrum and all in a fabulously positive light. It's about friendship and trust and the importance of mental health. Opening one of Oseman's books feels like entering a safe space, and I love her for that.

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LibraryThing member acciohaley

I've been thinking about what I want to say in my review for this book all day and honestly? I stayed up until 5 am this morning finishing this book and I still don't know how to put all my feelings into words. So, I'm just going to say this:

I relate to Frances and Aled a lot and I have so much

love for them and so many feelings about them. When it comes to Aled, I can't relate to his relationship with his mother but I can DEFINITELY relate to his experience with being at university and some of the feelings he had for it, but mostly his reaction to being there. That really cut me deep. When it comes to Frances, my experience with high school and preparing for college was slightly less intense than hers but I still found myself relating to her experience a lot. It also cut me deep.

So, simply saying I enjoyed this doesn't really express my feelings adequately and I'm not sure if I even have the capacity to explain how much this book means to me. What I can say is that this book and it's message is incredibly important to me. Not only that, but I also think high school students about to go off to college and even people currently in college will relate to this book and find at least a small part of themselves in it.

This is a beautiful story about friendship and finding your own path in life even if it differs from the path you were told you needed to take to succeed. It's about the academic pressure teenagers are put through to get into a good college in order to be as successful as possible, even if that means sacrificing their passions and everything that is important to them. It's about diverging from the path paved for you and doing something that truly makes you happy. Not only do I find the themes of this book incredibly important, but Aled and Frances' purely platonic friendship and the intense love they have for each other makes this possibly my favorite friendship I have ever read. Ever.

I'm not even sure what else to say other than I thoroughly enjoyed this and I highly recommend it, especially if you're about to go off to college or are currently in college.

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LibraryThing member ireneattolia

i love the message of this book but not the execution

LibraryThing member forsanolim

Frances has been aiming for years to win a spot at Cambridge, sacrificing much of her personality/desires at school and relegating her hobbies--like drawing fan art for a rather small radio show, Radio Silence, that she's listened to for a couple years--to only within the confines of her own home.

She used to be able to to share pieces of herself with her friend and neighbor Carys, until Carys ran away some time ago. Through a bit of chance, Frances gets to know Carys's brother, Aled, and her story starts to interact with his in unexpected ways.

I loved this. I'd seen mentions of it online and figured that I might as well read it (since it sounded like parts might be really interesting to me), but I wasn't sure what I'd think of it overall. But I really enjoyed it. I thought that the concept, centered around the radio show, was really interesting and unique. The pacing was really good--I was never bored (and I think it helped that the chapters were all extremely short, making for quick reading, though they didn't feel disjointed)--and I found it really striking how much I cared about all of the characters and found myself empathizing with them.

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LibraryThing member sennebec

One of the mysteries of reading is getting hooked by a book, but being unable to explain why. This is a perfect example. I devoured it, but couldn't put my finger on exactly why. Let's just say it's very seductive with intriguing characters.

LibraryThing member OphelieDepoortere

I have no words... or maybe just a few

This was absolutely wonderful.

I wish I read a book like this when I was a YA myself (I am currently 30+). I highly recommend this, both for the writing as for the narration. I don't want to say something about the story, you can read that in the blurb.

Acually, don't read the blurb, just read the book.

I do want to say specificly, that the narration was spot on (obviously I listened to the audioversion of this book). I have added Aysha Kala to my list of favourite narrators and will listen to more of her performances. Probably starting with another Alice Oseman book.

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LibraryThing member reader1009

teen fic with LGBTQA interest (dealing with YouTube/podcast fame, societal pressures to do well in school and go to University, plus a toxically abusive mom, set in Britain).
clever characters with snappy dialogue and problems that feel all too true and real. Frances (who happens to be half-black)

is incidentally bisexual--Aled's fictional podcast identity is agender and has various anxieties. A story to make your heart ache in an asexual, aromantic way.

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LibraryThing member fred_mouse

Oseman does a great job of writing believable but flawed young adults, and the stress associated with the transition from high school to 'the rest of your life', with or without parental pressure. I greatly appreciated that while there is a parent whose parenting style made me go argh, it was not

the the viewpoint character's (Frances) parent -- we got to see a slightly odd but working parent/child relationship from the inside, as Frances and their parent interact throughout the story.

The framing narrative of the storytelling podcast, along with the far too believable online fan interaction gives a much needed break at times. Because there are some very stressful moments in the story, not least related to exam stress, exam results, university entrance and acceptances.

Although there is a romantic relationship that is core to the story, this is not a romance, but a story of multiple friendships. Of growing up and changing and working out what is important.

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LibraryThing member tuusannuuska

4,6 stars

Damn. This book would have been a great read in my first year after high school, but to be honest, this really worked well still in my early thirties. Sometimes figuring out what you want from life is simply a bitch of a thing.

I also really liked the writing and the characters, but

especially the friendships. Particularly Frances' and Aled's, because I'm a sucker for platonic love. I also really loved how supportive Frances's Mom is.

Alice Oseman is definitely an author to keep an eye on. One of the few YA author's I've read that write in an ageless way, where the author doesn't feel like having teenagers as your main demographic means you have to make things overly melodramatic and simplified.

I highly recommend this one, especially if you're at all feeling a little lost with your place in life.

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LibraryThing member quondame

Frances maintains a studious, earnestly dull outward life, but privately creates fan art for a podcast called Universe City, whose narrator is Radio Silence. Late in her next to last term she meets Aled, the twin of her disappeared train ride crush of a couple years earlier, and learns he is the

Creator of Universe City. Spending the summer immersed in their shared creativity is the best time Frances has ever had, but when Aled's authorship is revealed everything falls apart. Friendship, love, creativity, and the obsessive self centered interpretation of everything by teens is well handled, though Frances' mixture of competence, drive, and ineptness is rather muddled given her loving and rock solid relationship with her mother no hint of real need.

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LibraryThing member Tom_Wright

I'm not sure if I should have read the previous books in the series or not... I listened to this because it happened to be in my wife and my shared account. Weird book.

LibraryThing member villemezbrown

This book starts with a coincidence so huge and dumb that it annoyed the hell out of me and cast a pall over the rest of the book. I just couldn't let it go, no matter how charming the mopey teens were with their fretting about defining themselves and their futures.

It didn't help that the story was

way too long for how little actually happens. I can sometimes let that go with Alice Oseman books -- and definitely for her graphic novels -- but not always, and not here.

And the story-within-a-story is downright irritating, better left to the reader's imagination than spelled out and coming off as rather ludicrous.

Fortunately, this is one of Oseman's earliest books, and she's only gotten better since.

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LibraryThing member BarnesBookshelf

I really liked a lot of things about this book. I love that there is a completely platonic relationship between a boy and a girl. I love the diversity of the characters. I love the compelling narrative and the mystery behind the Last family. I've been following Oseman's webcomic Heartstopper for a

few years now, so I knew I would love her writing. It was also fun to see some cameos from certain characters show up briefly. I'm really looking forward to reading more of Oseman's novels.

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