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A review by ellemaddy
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
5.0
This, simply put, is an amazing read.
I’ve heard people raved about it in the past so I had high expectations. And if you see my rating (5/5 baby) then you can see that it was met.
This book feels a lot like a time machine and it transported me back into the year 2012. An absolute blast from the past for millennials.
I grew up within fandom culture OK, back in the day when I was actually on (shudder) tumblr dot com, being in several different fandoms during college days, and the pop culture ref that were mentioned here were so 2012-2013 and it makes a lot of sense, Alice Oseman is around my age too so we’re basically internet’s children before tiktok was a thing and before kids were eating soaps for a meme.
And here’s the thing, I’m turning 25 this year but I still worry about my life and the future, okay. I thought i would’ve had everything figured out by now, but apparently not. All the questions I had when I was 16 are still not answered, my anxiety about my future is still a thing that’s going on, but you know what’s different, though? When you’re 25, no one expects you to do a goddamn thing, okay? It’s like the in between period of university and “settling down”, you can do whatever the fuck you want, the pressure is just not there as much as it was when I was 16, at least that’s what I feel. And even if it’s there, I don’t give a fuck anymore! Lmao. The time for caring about societal’s pressure is done! Over with!
So reading this book reminded me a lot of how I felt when I was a teenager, the rage and the depression and the teenage angst over fucking college? Fucking homeworks??? Those were valid as fuck!!! Adults really expect teenagers in their 17/18s to know what they want to study for the next 4 years in uni? To already know what line of work of they want to pursue? To have perfect grades, have social life, be a good kid and not make too much trouble to boot? It’s crazy, it’s absolutely insane. When you’re 18 you just don’t know anything about yourself and maybe you think you do, but later on you’d realize how stupid you were for even thinking it. As a person who was a teenager once, not too long ago, I still remember the insane pressure I felt to have things figured out fast, quickly! Because time waits for no one, because you have to decide fast! Because if you even so much try to pause or take a break then you’ll be missing out, there’s always the fear of being called a failure, a slacker, etc. But i’ve been lucky enough to have my parents supporting my stupid ass decisions regarding my education when I was a teenager, some people aren’t as lucky (if you don’t know, I didn’t finish high school due to /stress/) and straight out went to college to study graphic design (which might be a mistake, IDK, it’s been a few years and I haven’t decided which one it is, yet.)
With all that oversharing being said, I feel like this book is perfect for teenagers, although I don’t know how teenagers are like nowadays, but if I read this when I was 16, I’d be able to relate so much to it, even maybe feel comforted and feeling like hey my dumbass isn’t alone! My feelings are valid? I’m actually not just a stupid, lazy, person just because I get tired from school and having to do homework everyday and just simply not being able to excel at school no matter what???
Heck, even now, I still find this relatable as hell.
Also, as an asexual??? To find out that Aled is also an asexual king???? We love it here!!! !!!! We. LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. it. here!!!
And how cliche, how unexpected (not) that he ends up being this massive youtuber, that is so on brand mid 90s kids who just hate academia life / 9 to 5 desk job!!!
I’ve heard people raved about it in the past so I had high expectations. And if you see my rating (5/5 baby) then you can see that it was met.
This book feels a lot like a time machine and it transported me back into the year 2012. An absolute blast from the past for millennials.
I grew up within fandom culture OK, back in the day when I was actually on (shudder) tumblr dot com, being in several different fandoms during college days, and the pop culture ref that were mentioned here were so 2012-2013 and it makes a lot of sense, Alice Oseman is around my age too so we’re basically internet’s children before tiktok was a thing and before kids were eating soaps for a meme.
And here’s the thing, I’m turning 25 this year but I still worry about my life and the future, okay. I thought i would’ve had everything figured out by now, but apparently not. All the questions I had when I was 16 are still not answered, my anxiety about my future is still a thing that’s going on, but you know what’s different, though? When you’re 25, no one expects you to do a goddamn thing, okay? It’s like the in between period of university and “settling down”, you can do whatever the fuck you want, the pressure is just not there as much as it was when I was 16, at least that’s what I feel. And even if it’s there, I don’t give a fuck anymore! Lmao. The time for caring about societal’s pressure is done! Over with!
So reading this book reminded me a lot of how I felt when I was a teenager, the rage and the depression and the teenage angst over fucking college? Fucking homeworks??? Those were valid as fuck!!! Adults really expect teenagers in their 17/18s to know what they want to study for the next 4 years in uni? To already know what line of work of they want to pursue? To have perfect grades, have social life, be a good kid and not make too much trouble to boot? It’s crazy, it’s absolutely insane. When you’re 18 you just don’t know anything about yourself and maybe you think you do, but later on you’d realize how stupid you were for even thinking it. As a person who was a teenager once, not too long ago, I still remember the insane pressure I felt to have things figured out fast, quickly! Because time waits for no one, because you have to decide fast! Because if you even so much try to pause or take a break then you’ll be missing out, there’s always the fear of being called a failure, a slacker, etc. But i’ve been lucky enough to have my parents supporting my stupid ass decisions regarding my education when I was a teenager, some people aren’t as lucky (if you don’t know, I didn’t finish high school due to /stress/) and straight out went to college to study graphic design (which might be a mistake, IDK, it’s been a few years and I haven’t decided which one it is, yet.)
With all that oversharing being said, I feel like this book is perfect for teenagers, although I don’t know how teenagers are like nowadays, but if I read this when I was 16, I’d be able to relate so much to it, even maybe feel comforted and feeling like hey my dumbass isn’t alone! My feelings are valid? I’m actually not just a stupid, lazy, person just because I get tired from school and having to do homework everyday and just simply not being able to excel at school no matter what???
Heck, even now, I still find this relatable as hell.
Also, as an asexual??? To find out that Aled is also an asexual king???? We love it here!!! !!!! We. LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. it. here!!!
And how cliche, how unexpected (not) that he ends up being this massive youtuber, that is so on brand mid 90s kids who just hate academia life / 9 to 5 desk job!!!