Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

True Biz by Sara Nović

63 reviews

signeskov's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

A super insightful and important coming-of-age novel that presents an intimate and diverse experience(s) of deafness within the walls of an imaginary school for the deaf in southern Ohio. For those of us who have only ever been part of the hearing world, the novel provides a multitude of nuances of what being deaf has meant in North America then, now - and how the community risks further erosion in the future due to new technologies and unequal power relations between the hearing and deaf worlds. A nice read for anyone craving a coming-of-age teenage story with a twist of anarchy and who wants to learn something new.

Also: make sure to read this in a print format! The book includes many wonderful illustrations of ASL that you can practice and learn from as you read. I imagine this works for a much better reading experience in a print than audio book format.

(NB: I chose this book originally as part of the 2023 StoryGraph genre challenge to read a novel with disability rep - though, as it is also apparent from the book, deafness may or may not be a disability depending on the deaf individual you ask and their own lived experience. For now, though, given the thorough injustices experienced by deaf children and adults alike in societies still structured around the presumption of hearing, I believe this novel still qualifies as a relevant selection for the challenge)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Hate crime, Racism, Terminal illness, Dementia, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

madelinedalton's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I loved how this novel explored the characters of Charlie and Austin, and their relationship with one another. The thing that will stick with me most is Charlie's journey from being forced to assimilate into hearing culture to gaining language at RVSD and embracing her deafness.

Some criticisms:

February and Mel. I don't feel like either of them developed as characters at all. They were so bad at communicating, and the ending was so rushed that we never got to see them make up or grow from their conflict. 

Speaking of the ending, it was SO rushed. We needed at least 20 more pages to wrap all that up. The novel opens with Charlie, Elliot, and Austin disappearing, so I was expecting a major pay-off by the time we circled back to that action. Instead, it felt rushed and un-earned.

Charlie's involvement with the anarchists, and the anarchy plot line in general, didn't jive with me. It felt like Charlie was living two separate lives--normal kid with a lot of issues who is trying to find her way in the world vs. rebel child. Austin's willingness to go along with all of it also felt very uncharacteristic. I understand that Charlie needed some sort of outlet for rebellion, but based on how her character was portrayed, I'd expect it to be more tame than cooking literal bombs and planning to blow up Edge Bionics. That just seems too far for both her and Austin. 

Finally, I didn't love the chapters that came from the perspectives of peripheral characters (Kayla, Wanda, Charlie's mom, Elliot, etc). It took me out of the story. I would have preferred that the narration stayed with our three main perspectives and that we were given more of the peripheral characters' perspectives via those chapters. Another cool option would have been to give those characters stronger narrative roles and more chapters, creating a true ensemble cast. For example, Kayla's chapter about racism and BASL was fascinating and educational, but we never circled back to it, and I was really disappointed. I would have loved a subplot about racism that ran through the novel as a whole rather than a couple random chapters. Wanda's chapter felt un-earned because the February/Mel conflict was never resolved.

 

Overall, I think all hearing people should read this to learn more about Deaf culture and support Deaf authors. The book is not without its writing flaws, though. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content

marissab's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cursing, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, and Classism

liesbethvv's review against another edition

challenging informative mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I am very grateful for this book. It’s eye-opening and very informative. Although the informational bits interrupted the pace a bit, I didn’t really mind. It felt true to form to feel like an outsider for once, having to learn things to fully understand the setting and characters. As we are fed little bits of the characters’ struggles in their different parts of the Deaf community, we are immersed in a different world, that should very much be more intertwined with ours. Thanks to Sara, I’m now much more aware of the struggles and possible solutions that could be put in place for everyone’s sake, not just the hearing world’s. Also curious to read more of Sara’s work. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Gun violence, Racism, Vomit, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

kaitlinlovesbooks's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Torture, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Minor: Toxic relationship and Vomit

oliverreeds's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

fuckin excellent. just some of the kids behavior is a little like huh?

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

augustar14's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

A wonderful dive into Deaf culture and life at a Deaf residential school. The cast of characters is diverse and well developed, each with their own experience of and relationship with their community, culture, and ability (or inability) to assimilate into the hearing world.  I found the perspective of the main character stepping into the Deaf world for the first time to be a great way to transition the reader into a culture they may know little about.  The interludes between chapters that provided more information about ASL were the perfect level for beginners. I especially appreciated, as one listening to this as an audio book (ironic, I know, but it's the most accessible way for me to read lately), the added noise of hands signing when the text was meant to be signed ASL as opposed to spoken English. It would not have been the same experience otherwise. 
Highly recommend this book both to those who have experience with Deaf culture, and those who have none at all.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Dementia

Audism

rachbake's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

kaitlinnoodles's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Blood, Dementia, Religious bigotry, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Abandonment, and Classism

eicart_reads's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Torture, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Dementia, Religious bigotry, and Car accident

Additional content warning that is difficult to classify: This contains a scene of the attempt to "heal" a deaf person by a faith healing at a conservative, evangelical church. It includes a brief but intense description of

forcibly holding the person down while they beg for help, to be released. They do not want to be healed, and they are injured during this torturous attempt.