RADIO SILENCE by Alice Oseman | Book Review

TITLE: Radio Silence AUTHOR: Alice Oseman PUBLICATION YEAR: 2016 GENRE: Young Adult Contemporary + LGBT Fiction PAGE COUNT: 403 FORMAT: Paperback AVAILABLE  AT : amazon

 I came to know about this book through booktube . There was a booktuber who in one of her  videos started crying while talking about it. I was really taken aback by that. It was really heartening to see how a certain book can bring out such overwhelming emotions . I checked out  a few more reviews- all of which were positive  before buying this one. It was unanimously rated as a 5 star book . Obviously my expectations going into this book were super high.

The story is about a girl named Frances who is extremely studious . She calls herself a study machine. Other than academics, the only thing she is obsessed with is a YouTube show UNIVERSE CITY /RADIO SILENCE. Her happiness knew no bounds  when one day, the mystery creator  impressed by her fan art  asked her to create some art content  for the show . Soon she finds out that this creator is none other than a boy named Aled who lives next door. They bond over this show and figure out their true purpose in life through a series of extraordinary  circumstances.

I was surprised by how much I was able to relate to Frances. It took me  back to my school days. Just like her, I was a study machine and found it extremely hard to socialise . Friendship was something I did because I did not want to be left out. The weirdest thing is that when I was looking at some of the reviews , I found out that almost 95% of the reviewers had talked about how they could relate to Frances. I was happy to see that I wasn’t the only one who was having such a hard time in school. Back in the day , I used to be pretty hard on myself  for being such a odd one out. Good to know that there are people out there who are probably like me. LOL..!! 😃

I absolutely adored her as it reminded of a teenage ME. 👀 So there was a relatibility factor which helped me understand her thoughts pretty well. Her mother was absolutely lovely- she is like every teenager’s dream mother. The friendly dynamic between this mother –daughter duo was refreshing. I loved their banter and I was constantly on the look out for those chapters which featured them.

Aled was the other significant character in the story. I am quite conflicted about him. He is shown to be someone who is facing mental ( and in one instance physical ) abuse by his mother. So understably he is going through a lot of stress which  has ultimately turned him into an emotional mess of a person. However , there is a point in the story where I  feel he absolutely disregarded his friendship with Frances and another guy named Daniel . These two people were like his two pillars of strength throughout  his life. He cut off all communications with these two  for silly reasons ( according to me) which  horribly affected their lives. For most parts , I was sad for Frances and Daniel. This leads to me questioning -  To what extent can you excuse ignorance and bad behaviour  of a person who is having a bad time? Can you forgive someone who is constantly mean to you because he/she is probably going through  a rough time?

Apart from these two, there were other characters who also reminded me of people I know. This is the best part about this book. It had characters that felt extremely real. The only character that felt needed a bit of a backstory was Aled’s mother. She was shown to be this crazy maniac who tortures her children for no rhyme or reason.

As far as the plot is concerned, it was alright . For most parts, it was fast paced and I couldn’t help but keep turning the pages . The last 50 pages felt a bit dragged though. I kind of lost interest after the final major climax and the editing part of my brain started to cut out unnecessary sentences/pages to get to the end. This would have been a perfect book if it were atleast 50 pages shorter.
The other thing that I found fascinating  was that although this story is based on the lives of a bunch of teenagers, it  does not have a love story as the main plot. I think  the main theme was friendship , passion and life choices. There is a part in the story which I found really unique – it was when Frances addresses us (the readers) and straight  up says that Aled and her are not going to fall in love or anything. That was really COOL..!!! I loved this platonic relationship .

My review will be incomplete if I don’t mention the  various representations  in the book. It had characters who were bisexual , homosexual and even asexual. This was educational as I had never heard of asexuality in stories before . That’s not all, the characters had  different ethnic backgrounds which was refreshing as well. It beautifully touches upon themes of identity, sexuality  and the freedom to choose.

Contemporary books have always been a  hit or miss for me but this one definitely stood out . It hit all the right notes. While reading it, I found myself  laughing hysterically and then crying in the next chapter and then suddenly  I was filled with rage. A book  that can elicit such wide range of emotions is definitely worth reading.

RATING-🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 ( 4.5/5 )