Review: Radio Silence

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got myself to think this book had autistic rep, but - correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't really mention that on the page. Oh well, even if not, I headcanon Aled as autistic anyway. And hey, Radio Silence is damn good about not skimping on the rep of any kind, particularly given that it's narrated by a girl who's bisexual (💗💜💙 FTW!) and biracial (English and Ethiopian, specifically), the male lead is demisexual and in an m/m relationship, his sister is gay herself, his boyfriend is Korean, our leading lady's friend is Indian...I could go on.

I'm giving this, my first Alice Oseman book, five stars for rep and also for feels. Seriously, she's that good an author in both respects, just like Adam Silvera or Shaun David Hutchinson. The feels are particularly strong with this one - a lot of humor, but also a lot of heartache poured out through Universe City and its in-universe fandom, and also the pain of teenagers struggling to balance their lives with their education.

I also have to provide a very strong trigger warning for parental abuse. There are quite a few scenes of Aled's mum being just plain awful, refusing to accept his agency as a man and invading his personal space as well. There's one scene in particular that, no shit, brought me to tears. Though I haven't experienced such abuse myself, I can very easily see myself having suffered it in a universe maybe half a remove from ours, if not a full one. I'm not going to explain exactly how close to home this hit for me, but if you know me well enough, you probably understand anyway.

This book, I'm not kidding, will wreck your heart if you read it and that's a promise. I'll leave you with the same GIF I add to every review I write for Adam Silvera's books.



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