Radio Silence – Alice Oseman

Radio Silence is one book that I am absolutely glad I stumbled upon. It is led in the first person POV of a girl named Frances Janvier who, despite being a smart, academically involved student, wants to pursue a field in art and she doesn’t care about going to university. She’s also very obsessed with a science fiction podcast called Universe City, and coincidentally becomes very close friends with the creator himself, Aled Last, a shy guy who Frances never talked to often.

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This story really built up wonderfully as 2 people who had never interacted much became very close friends in the span of a few weeks. I especially liked how Frances was really cool and weird when she wasn’t with her friends, and how Aled was actually really funny and he loved strange things. I think they could be themselves when they were in each other’s presence and I loved that element of the story. It gave me a feeling that I really wanted a friend who I could be weird and crazy with, and how someone could be weird and fun with me. I know, it’s crazy. In a way, I’m basically spilling my small, subtle secrets and revealing them to people I might not even know (you readers and writers).

This book has such strong themes of friendship, and it really makes it more realistic because Aled and Frances’ friendship isn’t perfect, which obviously made it more relatable, and I loved their differences and similarities even though they had multiple rocky moments. I think that’s the truth about friendships; you really can’t force it to work well, and there are some things that would probably be better private. I noticed that best friends in the media are portrayed as flawless, perfect people who understand each other every single time. They never fight or get into misunderstandings. In this book despite them being close friends, their relationship is not perfect and things still go wrong.

Frances

I relate to Frances in the way that there was an undenyingly unifying effect in the everyday struggles that Frances went through. I don’t even know how it was possible to do so, but when she felt that she made people think that she’s stronger and better than she actually is, and trying to conceal how she really is even when she’s with her friends, because she fears that they would leave her due to her true self. She struggled with trying desperately to impressing everyone, because she didn’t want to be known as a person who was even a sliver less than perfect. She constantly was reminded that there was really no such thing as living in the moment; the ‘now’ doesn’t even exist because she was constantly being roughly pushed into the future.

Channeling through Frances’ point of view, the book explains that the potential of almost anything exists somewhere inside everyone. Why would anyone live in such a restrictive, constraining existence when anything would be possible at all? That was the reason that I loved the theme of this book- you don’t have to impress everyone just to have social acceptance everywhere. Life in the eyes of anyone is all about themselves and who they’ll be after what their deeds do, or how much they did so far in life. Everything gets so much better, and more realistic, when Frances finally realized that no one was actually worth impressing, because everyone is experiencing the same feelings, stuck in such a broken, feeble sense, and how all of the struggles, doubts, choices, and the people themselves all matter and are completely valid to life. 

Aled

GOD, I can’t even begin to explain how amazing Aled is. He’s just one of those genuinely kind people that I would love to be friends with, not just because he’s kind, but also because of him being himself whenever he works on his podcast. I’d love to have him as a companion, because I would probably listen to all of his stories and feelings spilling out of him like a waterfall, and honestly, just BEING near such an artistic soul would be so enlightening, and I would enjoy the experience with every ounce of my body.

Aled Last was also the beautiful mastermind behind the outstandingly popular Universe City Podcast, which had, unsurprisingly gained a myriad of fans. Somehow I had a feeling that Frances was also boosting his popularity, because of her drawings and her Tumblr account which also gained a ton of followers. But enough about Frances ~shoves Frances backstage with a flourish~. 

These are Aled Last’s paragraphs, and he will be in the spotlight for now ~pushes Aled into the spotlight~.

Throughout this book, we follow Aled’s story and how vital he is to the things he cares about, and despite the amount of hate he gets, he never stopped doing what he loved the most, which was making his podcast. Aled also struggled with depression in its extremities, and figuring out the difference and the concept of accepting how his friends want to help him, and not think how he’s blackmailing them into being kind or feeling bad about him.

Aled’s arc was also mostly centered around his verbal abuse, and I FELT THE OVERWHELMING VOID OF A NEED to envelop him in trillions of soft, soft blankets. Also, there were times that I had to physically put a distance between the book and I because the pain was just unbearable (I definitely didn’t throw it against the wall though, nope, not at all). It really opened my eyes to see how much this book accurately captured the struggles of having abusive parents, and not only did Aled grow up measuring his strength by how much pain he could handle, he started to believe that abuse and neglection should be coexisting with love and care. And that’s why I absolutely hate his parents.

The #1 Platonic Soulmate Award goes to…

Aled and Frances. They get the #1 Platonic Soulmate Award! ~celebration commences~

But what’s the reason? Why didn’t someone else get the award, and did Aled and Frances really deserve it? Yes. Yes, they did.

I find the concept of platonically involved soulmates absolutely perfect. Finding someone who you feel complete with without having a worry to lose them with love and messy romance plots is one of the most amazing relationships that I could’ve ever thought of, because they’ll be the best friend forever. 

But now I kind of wish I had a platonic soulmate…

I love how this book completely un-romanticized the idea that romantic love is like the ultimate checkpoint of all forms of love, that romantic love would be the only thing that would transform you into your best self, because that isn’t true for most cases. Radio Silence promoted friendship as the most empowering and free love, that a romantic partner doesn’t have to be the only one who brings out the best of you, but also maybe your weirdly amazing best friend, or your siblings, or anyone else that you have a special bond with, and I think that’s beautiful (sorry for the highly cliche tumblr reply…)

Radio Silence is a book that really highlighted how someone else could be controlling a person’s life, with or without knowing about the consequences that would occur as soon as one string snaps. I think that it is absolutely fine to not know what you want to do or who you are, but you ~points at reader~ have to live the life you want, not a controlled life picked by someone else. The society that you are in, your parents, and every other adult or important figure in your life can have expectations that can make you feel like the entire universe is balanced on your back, and it can be truly, very heavy. I still feel the same way sometimes, but this is a review to make you, my good reader, feel lighter. Flipping and reading all of the way to the last page of this book will make you feel lighter than ever before. Radio Silence soothed the aching wounds that I thought stopped time before today.

Radio Silence depicts friendships so realistically. The beautiful and light, happy parts against the ugly and dark, sad parts. Along with slivers that were as comfortable as one of those velveteen chairs I see at HomeGoods, and selfish, selfless parts that kind of reminded me of factions in Divergent. When I went deeper into the book, it was so relatable, because I had a friend who was once as close to me as Frances and Aled’s friendship was. But my friendship was taken for granted, and I wish that I had been a better friend to that someone.

This book shines a blindingly white spotlight on how toxic and cruel the internet, fandoms, and human beings can be. The things people say to others, especially if it’s someone they idolize, don’t even stop to think again how there is another human being with feelings on the other side who is reading and taking in all of the hurtful words that you say to them. I could write a whole dang review on this fragment of R.S. alone. But, because this is a book review, I will encourage you to read this masterpiece of a book that explains it better than I could ever.

Radio Silence is the best contemporary book that I have ever read, and I didn’t feel the exact same as I did before I started the book. It was, and will be a book that I will forever hold a safe place in my heart for, because books like these… you can’t find them everywhere.

Thank you for reading the review for this wonderful book! I love you all for doing so, and I hope that you read the book Radio Silence with as much enthusiasm as I did.