Summary

The novel begins with a script from episode one of the podcast “Universe City” where the speaker introduces themselves as Radio Silence as they wonder if anyone is listening.

The next scene, “Futures,” shifts to the first-person narrator Francis Janvier and her best friend Carys Last. At the train station, they realize that their school is burning. However, while Carys seems happy, Francis is furious, saying that whoever set the fire is ruining people’s lives by threatening their futures.

“I Was Clever” opens two years later at the beginning of summer term as Francis waits to give her speech as head girl. While she has not prepared anything, Francis is confident in her improvisation skills, and tells herself that she is clever, ambitious, and going to be happy when she attends Cambridge. However, the tone comes off as someone who...