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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Re-read.
Rating: 5/5
Pages: 474
Started: 3 September 2023
Finished: 5 September 2023
Summary:
"Hello. I hope somebody is listening..."
Frances is the cleverest student at her school, head girl and destined for Cambridge. But she really doesn't like school-Frances; she prefers to draw and listen to Universe City, a serial podcast about a person trapped in a dystopian college sending out radio broadcasts for help. When Frances accidentally discovers that the Creator of the podcast is her neighbor, and realizes it was him who asked her to begin drawing official art for the podcast, Frances slowly begins to realize what truly matters to her.
Thoughts:
God, this book is brilliant. It's a gentle, queer, Gen-Z Catcher in the Rye, which is a brilliant combination that makes it feel timely, quintessentially teen, and very much like home. Oseman's writing is soft and gentle and poignant, and her platonic relationships are stunning. The only thing I would change about this book is that I would love the transcript of the entire Universe City podcast to be included in the back. It unfortunately does not exist, but the podcast seems so wildly cool that I would do a lot to be able to listen to the whole thing.
Re-reading this nearly two years later was fascinating, because I feel like I've changed so much, and also I agreed with every annotation I made in December 2021 when I read the book twice in one evening, sitting on my bedroom floor. This is such a special book and I am so very glad I've read it.