i recently read Radio Silence for the first time and if you’ve ever read it, yk that tumblr plays a pretty big role in it and now literally every time i post something on here i feel like Frances Janvier
I just read radio silence a few days ago and have been trying to figure out the feeling it gave me. I knew it was something to do with a story focused on friendship but that wasn’t it. There are lots of amazing stories that focus on friendship and radio sielnce is one of them but radio silence has something else that is unique and I have never read before. I kept describing radio silence as a romance but with friendship. I meant this both in the way that radio silence follows the arc and some of the tropes of a romance (especially at the start) but also because it gave me the feeling of a romance. I have never read a book about friendship that gave me the close to the same feelings as reading a story about a romantic pair. I have never read a story about friendship that felt heartstopping and gave me butterflies in my stomach. Radio silence showing that you can still have that feeling with friendship and not just with romance means so much to me as someone who is ace, that those heartstopping, butterfly moments are not reserved for romantic relationships for alloromantic people, that we can have that too, is frankly groundbreaking. Aled and Frances’ friendship is so beautiful and unique and heartstopping and I can’t stop thinking about it.
Heartstopper Headcanons (mostly Nick and Charlie lol)
Most of the Paris Squad’s families are interlinked. The only one not involved is Darcy’s family because Darcy’s family sucks but it’s okay bc Darcy pretty much lives with Tara anyways.
By this I mean all of the parents, siblings and the squad have each other’s numbers and social medias. They text each other and post happy birthday posts for each other and everything.
There’s a tradition that the first Saturday of every month all of the Paris Squad and their families get together in a park and have a big cookout it’s great.
Sahar’s family does the most bc oh my god is her mum a good cook.
Nick babysits Ollie sometimes. Sometimes it’s with Charlie, sometimes with Tori but sometimes he babysits him by himself.
When he does it’s usually overnight but he just stays in Charlie’s room.
Yes Nick and Charlie have clothes and stuff at each other’s house. Yes that includes toothbrushes and other toiletries.
During uni Charlie gets a key to Nick’s place.
Tao and Nick would go to hell for each other tell me I’m wrong.
Whilst I’m on the topic Nick and Darcy are THE mlm/wlw solidarity. Chaos besties.
Good luck Charlie and Tara ❤️
Elle makes everyone personalised stuff. Phone cases, bags, jeans, etc.
The Paris Squad have a tradition of all working together to decorate their houses which started when they helped Tara repaint her room and it just became a thing that whenever they redecorated it would be a squad bonding exercise until it upgraded to entire houses when they became functioning members of society.
They all visit each other at work. It’s a known thing at their workplaces and is often an inside joke with their colleagues.
Charlie had a gay colleague who was scared of Nick for a while until he realised Nick was a total sweetie.
Tara, Elle, Sahar and Charlie have true crime marathons.
If any of the squad talked to old classmates they frequently had people who admitted to the Paris Squad that they were jealous of how close the group is.
There’s this one cafe that the squad goes to bc it has great milkshakes and still has a jukebox which they hog bc nobody else uses.
They absolutely love it and it’s usually where ppl would find them if they weren’t at each other’s houses.
That reminds me these bitches barge into each other’s rooms all of the time.
But Nick and Charlie are usually at each other’s houses more than anything (typically Nick’s bc they have more privacy)
You can probably see where I’m going with this.
Many occasions one or multiple of the squad has bathed into the room at A Very Bad Time™️
Take for that what you will.
Nick bakes for everyone’s birthdays this includes the squad’s families.
(Again apart from Darcy)
Nick also cuts the squads hair
The squad have a gc dedicated to hating on David.
It’s called ‘David? More like Don’tvid.’
Darcy named it. Nobody understands.
Aled made the icon it’s a screenshot of the ‘this bitch empty yeet’ vine with David’s face edited over the bottle
It’s mostly active when David is visiting, but it’s still used when he isn’t if he calls/texts something. Sometimes they just do it for fun. David became a meme within the gc.
Unfortunately my point about all of the families being in contact applies to David too against both David and the Paris Squad’s will. They tried to avoid it but it became inevitable.
So this led to one incident where Darcy accidentally sent a meme about Darcy to David.
The squad got into a lot of trouble for the group chat, but they just changed the name and Darcy got an earful from Tara about checking who they sent shit to.
One summer for pride Nick dyed his hair an ombré of the bi flag colours with semi-permanent dye which Aled helped with.
Charlie loved it.
Loved. It.
Since we’re talking about Aled I’m going to dump all of my hcs for him and Sahar at once bc I haven’t said many hcs about them yet and I love them.
He makes friendship bracelets for everyone. For pride he made them all with their pride flag colours.
Aled does frequent Twitter threads about music.
He also has a Pinterest board of tattoo ideas for himself and his friends
Aled is usually the DJ in the car
Which Charlie initially protested against bc usually it’s Nick driving since he was the first to drive and it just became normal for Nick to be the one to drive so Charlie always had shotgun
And Charlie firmly believes that shotgun gets to DJ
He quickly gave into his pride bc Aled has the best music taste
Eventually Aled makes a carpool playlist of songs which everyone can contribute to but make no mistake he has the final say in it
Aled gets along really well with Tori and Sahar.
Onto Sahar. Sahar is the mum friend.
She’s also really good at hair and makeup.
Sahar is really close with both the Paris Squad and Sai, Otis and Christian and stays in contact with all of the above during uni.
She plans Nick and Charlie’s wedding.
Out of the group she’s probably closest with Aled and Elle.
i love how heartstopper literally hits like almost every letter in the lgbtqia+ acronym but never feels like diversity for the sake of diversity. the characters are not tokenized, stereotyped, or flattened into a letter. they are an unapologetic, queer, vibrant friend group whose identities and personalities shine.
Frances and Aled from @chronicintrovert ’s radio silence!! I absolutely adore the book and now the giveaway has finally given me the kick jn the arse that i needed to finish the picture i kinda started two years ago lmao
I love how Alice didn’t keep Aled in the show because it wouldn’t have done justice to his character as a whole, but let Isaac read Radio Silence. He was there, just not physically.
Currently reading: I am really loving this book. I have just over a hundred pages left and I am enjoying it as much as I did Solitaire. I definitely think this will be another five star read.
Watching Heartstopper twice in the last week and rereading volumes 1-4 of the novels makes me:
1. Really miss Aled Last
2. Want to reread all of Alice’s books
It’s been four years since I read radio silence and it’s definitely time for a reread !!
“and i’m platonically in love with you.” “that was literally the boy-girl version of ‘no homo’, but i appreciate the sentiment.”
@chronicintrovert just an appreciation post for radio silence, my all time fav book. this book is so personal to me in many ways, thank you so much for writing it <3
I recently reread Radio Silence by Alice Oseman and I was reminded of how much I loved it! Here’s a redraw of this piece from a few years ago of Aled and Frances.
