Radio Silence Review

 TW: Mentioning of toxic relations, cyberbullying, underage drinking, and mild discussions of sex

Man, I have some really mixed feelings about this one.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman is a YA contemporary book about Frances Janvier. It is her last year of high school and she is aiming to go to Cambridge University. She doesn't seem to care about anything else except being top of the class and Universe City, a podcast series. Frances considers herself a shy geeky girl and doesn't let anyone see the real her at school. As a result, she has a lot of "fake" friends. As in friends who only like her studious side. One day the creator of Universe City reaches out to her on social media and asks her to do official art for the podcast after seeing her fanart of the series on Tumblr. At first she is reluctant, but then she eventually finds out the creator of Universe City is a student at her school, a guy named Aled Last (if you read Heartstopper, this is the same guy!). They become really good friends, bonding and working on Universe City, and then other things they have in common. But then their friendship is put to the test...

There is a lot happening in this book but I will end it there before it gets more spoilery. 

To be honest, the premise of the book was nice, and I loved the underlying themes it had (some nice messages about found family and how you are never alone in this world), but there was so much else happening in this book that did not sit well with me. The story, at least for me, was a lot more triggering than I thought it would be. Some of the things that made me uncomfortable about it include: toxic friendships, toxic relationships, toxic parents, toxic internet culture, underage drinking, and some mild discussions on sex, just to name a few. Well, it mostly gets better towards the end and some of the characters, including our MC, have good character development, but it's a lot to sit through. 

Also, although it is common for contemporary novels, I felt there was an excessive amount of pop culture references, and some of them really haven't aged well. 

Well, if you're wondering what rating I gave it, I gave it 3.5 stars. In my opinion, I think Alice Oseman's pre-Heartstopper stuff isn't that good, quality-wise. She's still one of my favorite authors and I will gladly reading anything new she puts out, Heartstopper or not, but I was not impressed by most of her backlog (I DNF'd I Was Born for This and you might remember I gave Nick and Charlie 3 stars [review here], and then there's this book), and I will not be reading Solitaire or This Winter.  But these are just my opinions! 

I should also mention this book had a lot of representation in it, which is a positive. Frances is biracial (half-black and half white) and bi, her friend Raine is Indian, another character named Daniel is Korean and gay, and Aled is demisexual. 

Also, in case you're wondering I did love Loveless as much as I love Heartstopper. You can check out their respective reviews here and here. 

Do you have a least favorite book by your favorite author(s)?