Radio silence by alice oseman
Specifically, the fact that the relationship doesn’t turn romantic.
I want to talk a little bit about the relationship between Frances and Aled, because it was one of the driving forces of the novel and one of my favorite things about it. And his character growth throughout was incredible to watch. Figuring him out was one of the joys of this novel. He contradicts himself – he can be both selfish and kind, both closed off and affectionate. Aled is such a fascinating and complex character. Like her, he feels alone in a lot of ways, like he can’t show parts of himself to the rest of the world, like he doesn’t have anyone to rely on. Um, okay, long personal rant over, let’s talk about some of the other characters.Īled Last is the shy, brilliant, anxious creator of Universe City, Frances’ favorite podcast. There’s something so powerful about seeing a character that you relate to on such a deeply personal level, which makes everything that Frances goes through feel so much more important. My attitude has always been “work hard now and it’ll all pay off and someday you’ll get to enjoy it,” but eventually the someday is going to be now and I’m going to have to figure out who I am outside of school and grades and classes, just like Frances.Īnd through this all, she feels like there’s this other side of her that nobody sees – the side that’s obsessed with an obscure little podcast and basically has zero chill. That was me in high school, and to an extent it’s me now in college. At one point she says something about how she doesn’t think she’s good at anything except school and. She’s so focused on studying and doing well in school that she often doesn’t let herself enjoy anything else, and she places much of her self-worth on her grades and test scores. really didn’t expect to relate so hard to Frances. At school, she’s head girl and always the top of her class, but at home she wears weirdly patterned leggings and draws fanart for her favorite podcast, Universe City. As such, she feels like she has two different selves that nobody really knows.
“That was literally the boy-girl version of ‘no-homo,’ but I appreciate the sentiment.”įrances Janvier , the main character and narrator, is a seventeen year old bisexual, biracial, British-Ethiopian study machine who has spent much of her life aiming for the goal of going to Cambridge. So this review is going to get a little gushy and emotional. I think I went through every emotion that a human being can in the span of 400 pages, and if there was a rating higher than five stars, I would give it without hesitation. It was the book I needed when I was in high school, and it’s exactly the book I need now in college. This felt like exactly the book that I needed in my life. What was I doing in all that time that was more important than this book? Which means I’ve spend two years – TWO YEARS – just going around, living my life, while this books exists in the world and I wasn’t reading it. So this book has been out for a little over two years now. Will they have the courage to show everyone who they really are? Or will they be met with radio silence? In a world determined to shut them up, knock them down, and set them on a cookie cutter life path, Frances and Aled struggle to find their voices over the course of one life-changing year. You probably think that they are going to fall in love or something. And it’s only by being your true self that you can find happiness.įrances is going to need every bit of courage she has.Ī YA 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.Frances Janvier spends most of her time studying.Įveryone knows Aled Last as that quiet boy who gets straight As. It’s only by facing up to your fears that you can overcome them. Meanwhile at uni, Aled is alone, fighting even darker secrets. She has to confess why Carys disappeared. Suffocating with guilt, she knows that she has to confront her past. Then the podcast goes viral and the fragile trust between them is broken.Ĭaught between who she was and who she longs to be, Frances’ dreams come crashing down. He unlocks the door to Real Frances and for the first time she experiences true friendship, unafraid to be herself. Nothing will stand in her way not friends, not a guilty secret - not even the person she is on the inside.īut when Frances meets Aled, the shy genius behind her favourite podcast, she discovers a new freedom. What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong?įrances has always been a study machine with one goal, elite university.