Genre: Contemporary
Book Type: Audio
Author: Sara Novic
Narrator: Lisa Flanagan & Kaleo Griffith
Pages / Length: 400 pages / 10 hours and 23 minutes
Publisher: Random House (April 5, 2022) / Random House Audio
Book Description:
True biz (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk
True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history finals, and have politicians, doctors, and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they’ll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who’s never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school’s golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the hearing headmistress, a CODA (child of deaf adult(s)) who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both. As a series of crises both personal and political threaten to unravel each of them, Charlie, Austin, and February find their lives inextricable from one another—and changed forever.
This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and relatable, this is an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community and a universal celebration of human connection.
Thoughts: While this was a great audio read, it was one that would have been better to physically read due to the sign language that was in the book (yes - there is irony in that statement). I found this book to be very eye-opening and bring about a lot of awareness for a topic I hadn't looked at through the lens this book provides. This book made me want to learn more about the deaf culture, and I was very thankful for the different perspective this provided. I was surprised that the "solution" (as a hearing person) is to have an implant, and I was thankful for the viewpoint on why that isn't the best solution.
Although I wasn't happy with the ending of the book, and wish there was more wrapped up with the book, this was very good and included a lot of history, as well as ASL within the book, which really added to the book. This was a very worthwhile read and recommend this one.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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