It’s like Oseman thinks of the most cliched plot points and then just chooses the opposite. I also feel like every time I read an Oseman book it leaves me untethered. More often than not, her books feature friendships as the main relationship and it's so refreshing and tantalizing to read how these relationships are just as important and all-consuming as a romantic one can be. I love that Oseman doesn’t necessarily focus on romance. That being said, the book is very enjoyable for a multitude of reasons. It makes me wonder if there are other nerdy people out there that like the exact same things and read Radio Silence with glee and delight or if they read the book and are left feeling confused and missing the punchline. It’s like Alice Oseman knows everything I like and makes references to it throughout her novel as if to say Ey? You see this? Cool right? All the inside jokes, all the allusions to different fandoms- Harry Potter, Spirited Away, Back to the Future, the Sims, etc the list is endless. It’s almost like the book was made for me. It’s something in the way Oseman writes, in the way the dialogue is presented and the chapters are broken up.įrankly, this book reminded me of Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl except infinitely less cliched and honestly more enjoyable. This novel inherently came across like reading fanfiction to me for some reason, even though it is very much an original work. It is unabashedly British, a fact that simultaneously amused me and piqued my interest when discussing things like A levels. Other than the social commentary, the book is very fluid and easy-to-read.
Too often I see high school seniors simply going to college because they were told it was “what they were supposed to do.” A plan that many students don’t know about or discover too late. Going to college and university is often shoved down kids’ throats, often to their detriment.Ĭollege isn’t for everyone. As a high school teacher myself, I agreed with a lot of the critiques and social commentary surrounding education. This novel, while definitely focusing on friendship and fandom culture, also has a lot of commentary on the nature of school, the value of grades, and the purpose of higher education. What comes after is a story of loss, misunderstandings, forgiveness, and not giving up, especially as mistakes are made, blame is dished out, and Aled moves away for University, something that he’s always dreamed of and always wanted.right? The two coincidentally collide and as they unravel each other, their two worlds, real and fictional-combine. She even runs her own tumblr blog which is dedicated to Universe City fanart and sketches, one of the only things that brings her true enjoyment in her mostly mundane life.
Or at least, not with the two that I’ve read so far.Īled secretly runs a podcast called Universe City which has been Frances’ secret obsession and only source of happiness from the mountainous piles of homework and school obligations for the last three years. I’ve noticed that with many of Oseman’s books, romance doesn’t seem to the main event. If you think this tale is a romantic one, it’s not. Radio Silence, Oseman’s second novel, largely features the burgeoning friendship between Frances Janvier, quietly nerdy and school-obsessed Head Girl and Aled Last, Head Boy from a neighboring school with a whisper of a voice. Radio Silence didn’t hit me quite as a hard, but I still found it to be a very compelling and relatable read.
That book punched me in the gut in the most hard hitting of ways, painful, but a good painful. The first Alice Oseman book I read was a lovely read by the name of Loveless. It’s a bit of both to be honest, especially considering that she’s twenty-six and has written six novels. I don’t know if I want to be her or if I want to be her best friend.