Georgia is our main character and I hated her :-) She was actually insufferable and I find it ironic that this book is all about strong friendships when Georgia is such an incredibly awful friend. First off, she is constantly judging Rooney (her uni roommate) for enjoying casual sex and going out a lot which is problematic to begin with. Actually, she judges everyone for having sex and being in relationships. Sure, I can understand that she needs to convey this feeling of being different than what society expects of you, but going around and shaming people for their sex/relationship lives is more than unnecessary. What I had the biggest problem with, however, is the way in which she treated one of her best friends, Jason (mild spoiler coming at ya): she actively uses him to experiment with her own feelings and her sexuality even though she knows full well that he has feelings for her. BIG RED FLAG. But platonic friendships are so important, right???? ha ha. The irony. a b Littleford, Joshua (24 February 2023). "How Loveless by Alice Oseman helped me discover my aromanticism". Gay Times . Retrieved 5 November 2023. At the end of the day, despite knowing how many people saw themselves in this book and the main character's experience, I simply cannot recommend this book whatsoever. A book that shames and invalidates everybody else's experiences to further a main character's journey is just not a good book. Alice Oseman is, if you don’t know, the author of Solitaire and - as of now - Radio Silence. She had her first novel, Solitaire published when she was 19 (“I hate using my age when talking about Solitaire,” she says) and contemporary teen fiction was very much on the rise. Had Solitaire been published a year later it could have been swallowed up in a now-saturated genre but Oseman’s remarkable honesty, engrossing characters and bone-dry humour earned her plenty of fans from the off and marked her as one to watch. Through the characters, the author has done a remarkable job in explaining what asexuality and aromanticism mean and what they represent. I was laughing, crying and cringing (relatable moments, second hand embarassments you know) the whole time I was reading the book!

I even would've found it completely valid to have this portrayed as an experience that is realizing "oh wait, this is not how everybody else feels?" instead of a "finding people you relate to"-experience, but the main character's thoughts towards everybody else were constantly shaming them. It is okay to be sex-repulsed but you can't place that on everyone else when sex is such a natural part of many people's lives and something that they enjoy. In 2018, to celebrate the release of a third young adult novel, I Was Born for This, all of Oseman's published books received new, matching covers. [24] [ non-primary source needed] The re-designed covers were released in May, along with the new book. IPA Reveals Nominations for the 27th Satellite™ Awards". International Press Academy. 8 December 2022 . Retrieved 8 December 2022.

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Bundel, Ani (17 June 2022). "What to Read if You Can't Get Enough of Heartstopper". Paste . Retrieved 5 November 2023. Look at me, the next month I'll turn 23 and I've never kissed anyone. I used to think that THAT fact it was going to be the end of the world, since my friends were having romances at 15/16 y/o, having their first romantic relationship and their first kisses, and even sex. I had a lot of crushes at that age with many people, but I never thought it was important to have a relationship with someone. And that little fact was something to my ex classmates joke about like for 3/4 years. So, you can imagine how bad I felt for it.

As I said, this is not an own voices review so I won't judge the aro/ace representation in here. I know many of my GR friends have loved this book and what it represents. But I'm not going to give a lazily crafted, badly written book a good rating just for the rep. I feel like people tend to hype Alice Oseman up to a point where people don‘t even question what she writes anymore – she is not the all-knowing, perfect LGBTQIA+ YA author that the community makes her out to be, which this book made abundantly clear in my opinion. (This might be a problem with a lot of YA fiction and I'm just over it, we're gonna leave it at that for the moment though). I listened to the audiobook and read along in the ebook, which was such an immersive experience. The audio was great – the narrator captured the tone of voice of the novel very well.Alice Oseman on being aromantic asexual". BBC. Archived from the original on 29 June 2020 . Retrieved 4 June 2022. I ended up loving this book so much and I wasn't expecting to get so attached to the characters by the time I was just into 20 percent of the book.

She never even really apologizes for her actions, which is a recurring theme all throughout this novel. Georgia is basically the reason behind most of her friends' problems and she is never held accountable for it. She is such a horrible friend and they all love her for it, it seems. Not once does she suffer repercussions for the problems that she herself has caused throughout the whole book.This is what it feels like to be *seen* for the first time. Being represented so clearly, so in-depth and as a MAIN CHARACTER!? I'm still reeling. Radio Silence isn’t a dramatic departure tonally or thematically from Solitaire but it’s just as strong. Oseman’s first book was a breathtakingly accurate portrayal of teenage ennui - The Times called it “The Catcher in the Rye for the digital age” - and Radio Silence ventures into darker territory, featuring characters a little older than Solitaire’s protagonists. It is, predictably, a more mature piece of work; a bold, confident and, above all, important book (but not in the way you’d expect) with Oseman’s wit and insight shining throughout. HorseLover3000 (31 March 2016). "Radio Silence by Alice Oseman – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 25 February 2020. {{ cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list ( link) Reading about someone going through the exact same thoughts, worries and confusions as I did was ground breaking to me. I can't thank Alice Oseman enough. I will never forget this book.