Name : Faiza Naura Amalia NIM : 21211144028
Class : B
Title
Radio Silence
Author Alice Oseman
Year and Town of Publication, Publisher
Published in Great Britain by HarperCollins in 2018 (Revised cover version)
Number of Page 410 Pages
Theme
Friendship, identity, diversity
Plot Summary
The story is about Frances, a clever and working-hard girl that everyone knows for being a smart kid in class. She had a rival, Daniel, a head boy that always has good grades like her and they don’t like each other guts. But the real Frances is a fandom freak of a Youtube podcast called Universe City. She likes to draw fanarts of
the Sci-Fi podcast and post them on Twitter. One day, the creator of Universe City followed her on Twitter and send messages, offering her to become the Universe City artist since the creator liked her works. Her life changed when she became the artist of her favorite podcast and turns out the creator was her neighbor that lived across the street, named Aled Last.
They became platonic best friends that have a lot in common. But eventually, their relationship did not last long when Frances made a mistake, some fans of Universe City revealed Aled’s identity. This made him cut ties with Frances and goes to University. After Aled left, Frances stopped listening to Universe City but at some point, she decided to listen again and she begins to worry about Aled since the new episode was a mess. On the Christmas holiday, Frances called Aled again after a few times he ignored her calls and decided to go back home. Aled then found out that his dog, Brian, had died because the dog was old. He was feeling depressed and wanted to go back to Uni.
Frances tried to contact Aled but did not get any reply even so she still listen to Universe City until the last episode dropped but it was only white noise. In Universe City, there was an unknown character called “February Friday” which has not been revealed until the end of the series. Frances was gathering pieces of clues and found out that the character was Carys, Aled’s twin sister that ran away from home. Frances went looking for Carys to help Aled. Frances’ friend, Raine helps her in finding Carys in London. She managed to bring Carys back and Raine drives them to Aled’s University. Aled and Carys had a private talk together after they met each other again.
After a brief of time, Aled decided to remake Universe City.
Characters & Characterization
1. Frances Janvier : she is 17 years old and she is known as a study machine because she always studies and gets good scores, she wanted to go to Cambridge University and take English Literature. Out of School, she is a total fangirl of Universe City. She likes to draw and make fanarts. She has a terrible sense of fashion. She was a lonely girl until she met Aled.
2. Aled Last : A neighbor of Frances, 18 years old. Aled is a quiet and introverted kid, he rarely talks around people and hard to express his feelings.
He is the creator of Universe City. Aled is the same as Frances, always wearing weird clothes.
3. Carys Last : She is the twin sister of Aled, she ran away from home because of her abusive mother. Carys and Frances were once best friends before she disappeared. She was the inspiration for why Aled made Universe City, it was a letter for Carys to come back home. Carys is a bright person, she tends to joke a lot and is a good friend.
4. Raine Sengupta : she is the supporting character in the story, she is the same age as Frances. Raine is one of Frances’ friend at school and the one who also help Frances and Aled. She is an extroverted girl, she enjoys parties a lot and has lower grades than Frances. She can drive a car and likes to give a ride to Frances and Daniel.
5. Daniel Jun : He is 17 years old, a head boy in school. He had a bad relationship with Frances at first. They became close because Daniel is close to Aled. Same as Frances, he is a smart kid at school. He is a bit of an introvert but sometimes he can be annoying. But throughout the story, Daniel is a kind and gentle person.
Setting ( place + time )
The setting place is in the UK, mostly at their school and the neighborhood. The time takes place in 2013 when they still in high school and the story ended in 2014.
Atmosphere
The story is a light-weight story of a teenager’s life, it brings out the ups and downs of being a teen. Throughout the story, the atmosphere is pure happiness, it feels like we can get jealous of the relationship that they have. But there are times when it gets sad and the situation can be related to us.