Hello. I hope somebody is listening.

What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong?

Frances has been a study machine with one goal. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside. Then Frances meets Aled, and for the first time she's unafraid to be herself.

So when the fragile trust between them is broken, Frances is caught between who she was and who she longs to be. Now Frances knows that she has to confront her past. To confess why Carys disappeared…Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has.

I’m sending out this call via radio signal – long out-dated, I know, but perhaps one of the few methods of communication the City has forgotten to monitor – in a dark and desperate cry for help.

Things in Universe City are not what they seem.

I cannot tell you who I am. Please call me... please just call me Radio. Radio Silence. I am, after all, only a voice on a radio, and there may not be anyone listening.

This was a completely judge-a-book-by-its-cover decision. I'd gotten to the airport for my flight way too early and needed some time to kill. What better place than a bookstore? The cover caught my eye (and I just found out that this edition was actually illustrated by the author??? SO COOL.) and this has honestly been one of my best decisions.

Either way, we are going to bring beautiful things into the universe.

What the book description doesn't tell you is that a science fiction podcast, called Universe City, factors heavily as a backdrop to tie everything together. Similar to Welcome to Nightvale, it's a quirky alternative universe type of podcast. Random snippets are littered throughout the whole book and I. AM. HERE. FOR. THIS. PODCAST. WHY. AREN'T. YOU. REAL???

I was going to be happy. Wasn’t I? I was. Uni, job, money, happiness. That’s what you do. That’s the formula. Everyone knows that. I knew that.

Outside of the podcast, the book addresses some pretty heavy topics: societal pressures, parental expectations, mental illness, internet toxicity, fandoms, and most especially...academic expectations. We live in a world where our society puts so much pressure on kids to go to college. It tackles the very real toxic thinking of: if you don't excel at academics you will not excel in life; or: if you do excel at academics, it should be your whole world—constantly striving for bigger and better—just because you're good at it.

I wish I could be as subtle and beautiful. All I knew how to do is scream.

This book takes all these incredibly heavy things and creates something beautiful out of them. Radio Silence is a love letter for living your life for you. It's about becoming who you want to be, even if you don’t know who that person is yet. It's about mental illness and toxic relationships and healthy relationships and art and happiness and acceptance. As another reviewer put it so well: "Because school isn’t for everyone, and college isn’t for everyone, but validity and acceptance are for everyone." I want you to read that again: "Validity and acceptance are for everyone."

I'd listen to you for hours.

Cry with Aled. Explore with Frances. Love Raine and Carys and, yes, even Daniel. Praise Lana (Frances' mom). Hate Carol (Aled's mom).

I wonder—if nobody is listening to my voice, am I making any sound at all?

Above all...give yourself grace, love, and tune into University City in Radio Silence because you need this book in your life.