Podcasts, Heretics & Runaways – What I Thought #2

How often does it happen that you read a book, overall enjoy it, and yet, don’t have much to say about it? It happens to me pretty often. Every now and then I latch onto a certain theme or topic though, and just have to yap about it, or just point out a book I thought was pretty cool for whatever reason.

So, here we are. This is What I Thought #2 with three new books.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Published: 25th February, 2016
Series: N/A
Rating: 4

Oh, dear… So much crying! Everyone just cried all the time.

The story revolves around Frances who spends most of her time studying and is obsessed with this podcast called Universe City. She makes friends with Aled, the guy across the road, and feels like she can finally be herself with someone. Last time she had a close friend didn’t go so well.

Frances lives with her mum, and their relationship reminded me so much of the Gilmore Girls. I mean, her mum wears a unicorn onesie and binge watches Game of Thrones, she’s supportive of Frances, doesn’t treat sex as taboo at home and openly talks to her daughter about it, and she welcomes Frances’s friends. Aled wants to sleep over? No problem. She shows support toward him as well, when shit hits the fan with his mother.

Aled’s mother on the hand is a proper nasty piece of work. I mean, bitch kills the family dog when her son goes to uni. Who the fuck does that?

Anyway, Aled had a lot of family drama going on and the relationship between Frances and her mother was such a striking contrast to this.

I loved how effortlessly this book lacked romance and instead it focused on friendships and other non-romantic relationships.

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Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry

Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Published: 7th August, 2018
Series: N/A
Rating: 4

Atheist boy is enrolled to a catholic school. What could possibly go wrong?

Michael’s family moves around a lot, so he never really settles anywhere. When he starts at St. Clare’s, he soon makes friends with the other outcasts. Lucy is catholic, but also be an outspoken feminist, Avi is Jewish and gay, Max’s religion is not clear but is into wearing capes against uniform regulations, and Eden is into paganism.

As a fellow atheist, I could relate to Michael a lot. He was often asked what happened to him that turned him into one. It’s funny how a lot of people just assume one becomes an atheist by abandoning whatever religion. Not like, you know, never adopting one. Duh.

Anyway, Michael convinces his new friends to turn Heretics Anonymous from a secret after school club to a rebel group with the intent of exposing all the hypocrisy in their school. Nobody is safe.

I really liked Michael’s humour, and the whole covert operation to take down the establishment.

I didn’t particularly liked Lucy however. Considering she was Michael’s romantic interest quite a lot of the plot revolved around her. You see, she was all for letting people be and accepting them with their different religions, and yet, she seemed to be unable to accept that Michael is an atheist and gifted him a Bible with the “interesting bits” underlined and annotated… Just bloody keep it to yourself, will you?

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Run Away by Harlan Coben

Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Published: 19th March, 2019
Series: N/A
Rating: 4

My first Harlan Coben ever!

Simon is looking for his daughter. She dropped off from uni, addicted to drugs and is shacked up with an abusive boyfriend. What start out as a simple missing person’s case soon turns into a deadly cat and mouse game when said boyfriend turns up dead and all kinds of crazy shit is uncovered.

Simon and his wife Ingrid take it upon themselves to find out just what the hell happened. It doesn’t take long for someone to get hurt and all kinds of shit to go down.

Twists and turns follow, and the action never lets up.

The writing is just brilliant, and all the characters are crafted with a lot of thought and care. Hester Crimstein, a lawyer in her seventies is a hoot! She’s a proper tough cookie, and is a huge fan of s’mores ice creams. I mean, I can certainly relate to that.

There’s a lot of talk about money and how it doesn’t buy happiness, but as Simon put it, if you have enough, it gives you the freedom and better opportunities to solve your problems.

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Have you read any of these? What did you think?

Do you like s’mores ice cream?