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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
This book should be required reading for all. Not only did it open up a whole new world for me as a hearing person, it did so with absolutely stunning prose. Charlie and Austin felt like real people, flesh and bone kids who just want control over their lives and bodies. My heart ached for Charlie and her fight for bodily autonomy from the people who are supposed to love her the most.
There's so much about deaf culture I don't know about. I learned so much. As a well-educated person, I feel like my lack of knowledge of deaf culture is representative of this country's (and the world's, really) failure to treat deaf people as people with their own unique culture. Instead, they're too often treated as people in need of fixing. People that lack. And that's a shame. Deaf history is ignored and NEVER taught in schools. As a result, hearing people such as myself have no idea how to even go about being inclusive in classrooms and workplaces. Another shameful aspect of our failure to teach things that make students "uncomfortable." I would love to teach this novel in a future course. Because it so beautifully establishes a voice for the deaf community.
I listened to this in Audible which was an interesting choice for this particular novel. In the author's note at the beginning, it states that the author wished to add the noises of signing to the audio. So in the background, you can hear noises of lips moving and hands moving. It's incredible.
However, because I listened to this on audiobook, I wasn't able to highlight my favorite passages. I do remember one: when Charlie is ruminating on having sex with her boyfriend/ex Kyle, she thinks about what her mom would think and how women aren't allowed to enjoy sex without being considered whores. Charlie refuses to buy into this "heirloom of guilt." I thought it was a beautifully descriptive phrase. I'm sad it's the only one I can remember.
Anyway, fantastic novel. And one I'm so glad to have read.
There's so much about deaf culture I don't know about. I learned so much. As a well-educated person, I feel like my lack of knowledge of deaf culture is representative of this country's (and the world's, really) failure to treat deaf people as people with their own unique culture. Instead, they're too often treated as people in need of fixing. People that lack. And that's a shame. Deaf history is ignored and NEVER taught in schools. As a result, hearing people such as myself have no idea how to even go about being inclusive in classrooms and workplaces. Another shameful aspect of our failure to teach things that make students "uncomfortable." I would love to teach this novel in a future course. Because it so beautifully establishes a voice for the deaf community.
I listened to this in Audible which was an interesting choice for this particular novel. In the author's note at the beginning, it states that the author wished to add the noises of signing to the audio. So in the background, you can hear noises of lips moving and hands moving. It's incredible.
However, because I listened to this on audiobook, I wasn't able to highlight my favorite passages. I do remember one: when Charlie is ruminating on having sex with her boyfriend/ex Kyle, she thinks about what her mom would think and how women aren't allowed to enjoy sex without being considered whores. Charlie refuses to buy into this "heirloom of guilt." I thought it was a beautifully descriptive phrase. I'm sad it's the only one I can remember.
Anyway, fantastic novel. And one I'm so glad to have read.
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
informative
reflective
emotional
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:
Complicated
I enjoyed this book and the characters! I thought having so many POVs was fun & done well, and I learned a lot about sign language.
TRUE BIZ is mainly centered around a fictional school for deaf students that is about to be closed down and the main POVs of the school's headmistress February, Charlie, a new student whose mother does not accept her deafness, and Austin another student who comes from a multi-generational family of deaf people. It discusses how deaf youth have no control over their bodies, and how they are frustrated due to language deprivation and continual misunderstanding. Interspersed between the fictional narrative, nonfiction insight into ASL, deaf culture, civil disobedience, and a bit of anarchism. A fascinating peek into a thoroughly underrepresented and rarely discussed culture while asking some poignant and complicated questions.
I have always found deaf culture incredibly fascinating, but this made me realize how truly little is commonly known about it. We're often taught that being deaf is unfortunate or something we need to fix, hence the efforts put into stuff like cochlear implants in the effort to preserve as much hearing as possible, when it's rarely that simple. But in a lot of situations being deaf is a whole different world with it's own language. To the point where there's many different types of sign language as well as slang, it was honestly so interesting. I've never thought of the fact that so often children's choices are fully taken away from them and what their parents decide can fully alter or ostracize them from an entire culture they'll inevitably be apart of.
But on top of the rich history, I think it informed the story really well and I absolutely adored these characters. They all have completely different perspectives and stories, despite most being deaf, and prove that it's wrong to lump all deaf people into one monolith of being, it's not that easy. I also enjoyed that February's perspective was of a CODA (child of deaf adults) so we were able to get that perspective as well, as it's very much still part of this world. My issue though was how everything was wrapped up, meaning to say nothing was. I felt everything was ramping up for this crescendo only for the book to just end with every single plot thread left open with zero resolution or catharsis, I was gobsmacked. Now, this could be the point, meaning that there's just no real solution to these problems or at least no one has come to a consensus on it. Which fair enough, I can see that for some of the overarching problems, but these characters deserved more and it kind of left me annoyed. But yes, I still would overall recommend this, but just know it's not a very satisfying ending.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
I really liked this book which only annoys me more that it was left with such a whomp whomp ending. Truly nothing was resolved. We don't know if there's anything that can be done to save the deaf school and if not, what's going to happen to these kids? Will February's marriage even survive all this craziness? What's going to happen to Austin and Charlie when they're shoved back into regular schooling, if that is unfortunately their fate, especially Austin who's never been in general public school and has very little experience with hearing people who don't sign/isn't a good lipreader. Will Charlie be able to put her foot down and stop her mother from implanting a new cochlear implant on the other side of her head? Will her mother ever understand or even TRY with Charlie? What about Charlie and Austin's budding relationship now that they'll most likely be separated? What's going to happen to Austin's little sister, Skye? Will his parents decide to implant her with a CI? Will it even work? What was the fallout of Slash and his other weird druggie friends blowing up that one place? Like I'm literally not kidding when I'm telling you that NONE of these questions were answered despite being large plot points, it was so baffling and frustrating because I really liked these characters. I also just felt it was building to this dread with Charlie continually hanging around with Slash and his loser friends and then getting Austin involved, I was so stressed that something bad was going to happen to them, but then nothing. Like literally if HALF of. my questions were answered I feel like this would've been more successful. I just don't know why it was left so open, it was just such a strange choice.
But other than that I did really enjoy this, especially Austin and Charlie. I thought their relationship was TOO cute and I was shipping them so hardcore from the moment they met. They had such a sweet dynamic and I thought it was so lovely for her to be with not only another deaf person, but someone so lovely and darling as Austin, it was so cute. I really adored their super different perspectives. Like Charlie was implanted with a CI so young that the tech wasn't even that great hence why it never fully worked for her and then ended up being so bad it electrocuted her, which is insane. But the fact that they pushed her into regular schooling and didn't let her learn sign for so long is almost cruel, it would literally be like going to a school of a different language and truly never fully catching on, that is so ostracizing and horrible. Especially proven when she's immediately so much better in school once she moves to the deaf one. And then Austen, on the opposite spectrum, has basically grown up in deaf royalty with a long lineage of deaf people, aside from his father who's hearing, but obviously fluent in ASL. When the at first believe his little sister is hearing, it's kind of gut wrenching how excited his father is. I do understand, it's inherently special to have that relationship with someone, but then he kind of acts like a child when they quickly discover she's hard of hearing and they debate implanting her. I hate that the reason they consider it is 'to give her the most opportunities' even if that does make sense. I appreciate that Charlie is able to impart it's not always that simple. But the difference between Skye and Charlie would be very stark in my opinion. Even if they do implant her and it works, she would still learn ASL with their parents and Austin, so she would really just get the chance to straddle both worlds and basically be bilingual, which is honestly really cool. But I'm unsurprised at what a crazy tricky dilemma this is because it could be seen as them choosing not to raise her fully deaf unlike so many in their family, but of course it's not that simple.
Charlie's mother was also such a piece of work. The fact she blatantly refuses to learn ASL for her daughter and believes that she's making her 'look bad' when she's just trying to fight for her on choices, body, and comprehension was insane. Like literally her mother didn't want to tell the grandmother they'd moved Charlie into a deaf school because she's 'so judgmental' but even she was ecstatic that Charlie was finally getting the help she needed and not hiding this very real fact about who she was. It was baffling that throughout this book her mother doesn't change or grow at all. Like I get that you never expected your kid to be deaf, but it happened, move the fuck on and do what you can to help her, like wtf?! Even more horrifying was when we got the backstory of Austin's roommate Elliott. He's the quiet, loner, older boy with a lot of random scars that we find out it's because he got into a bad car accident with his parents that ended up killing his father, but his dad's last words were some babbling about angels. So his mother turned HARDCORE to religion, to the point of joining this crazy cult that decides it can 'fix' Elliott's deafness by pouring hot oil onto him and scarring him, like what the actual fuck?! I can't even imagine, that poor boy.
February's plot was probably the least interesting, especially because I couldn't quite understand where her arc was taking us, not that it really mattered since nothing was resolved. But she started off with such a sad plot knowing no matter what she did the school was closing, but she refuses to keep this fact from her wife who's also a lawyer and may have been able to look into something or try to help, but at the very least deserved to know since they live right off campus so when the school is closed they'll be forced to move. But instead she keeps reaching out to a woman she has previously cheated on her wife with and opening up to her instead. She sadly loses her deaf mother in the book, so a large part of her connection to the deaf community since she and her wife are actually hearing, so it may be why she's so drawn to Wendy, the one she cheated with, as she's also deaf. But it's hard for me to really root for a cheater, even if it's just emotionally in this case, and while she's good at her job and I liked seeing her with the kids, again it didn't feel like it went anywhere or what the purpose was. Especially with it culminating with her saving Austin and Charlie from putting themselves in danger with that potential bombing, but just let Slash and the others go through with it, it was just so weird.
Yeah the anarchist/fight the power plot felt like such a huge red flag to me that again, no resolution. Slash is not an all bad dude, he's honestly really sweet to Charlie other than giving her drugs while she's underage and continually sleeping with her (though I guess he's not THAT much older than her even if it feels icky since he's at least graduated if not more). But the plot was ramping up making me feel really worried where it was going, especially since the book began with kids being in danger and not knowing what happened, but no, nothing really. Just strange.
But it did bring up some interesting things about the deaf culture that I'm personally ignorant about. Other than their lack of control that I should've realized, but also the existence of black ASL, which makes complete sense as plenty of black hearing people have a full dictionary of slang that I'm sure I don't fully know, unless it's been appropriated into our culture. Same with the way signing works and the civil disobedience deaf people have had to do to make any kind of headway, which of course is still so limited. I think it's so important that this knowledge is more widely spread and that ASL is more frequently taught too, I'm honestly super interested to learn it myself, I think it'd be such a cool language to know, even if slightly.
It's by far not a perfect book, but I still enjoyed it for the most part, even if the ending did leave something to be desired.
I have always found deaf culture incredibly fascinating, but this made me realize how truly little is commonly known about it. We're often taught that being deaf is unfortunate or something we need to fix, hence the efforts put into stuff like cochlear implants in the effort to preserve as much hearing as possible, when it's rarely that simple. But in a lot of situations being deaf is a whole different world with it's own language. To the point where there's many different types of sign language as well as slang, it was honestly so interesting. I've never thought of the fact that so often children's choices are fully taken away from them and what their parents decide can fully alter or ostracize them from an entire culture they'll inevitably be apart of.
But on top of the rich history, I think it informed the story really well and I absolutely adored these characters. They all have completely different perspectives and stories, despite most being deaf, and prove that it's wrong to lump all deaf people into one monolith of being, it's not that easy. I also enjoyed that February's perspective was of a CODA (child of deaf adults) so we were able to get that perspective as well, as it's very much still part of this world. My issue though was how everything was wrapped up, meaning to say nothing was. I felt everything was ramping up for this crescendo only for the book to just end with every single plot thread left open with zero resolution or catharsis, I was gobsmacked. Now, this could be the point, meaning that there's just no real solution to these problems or at least no one has come to a consensus on it. Which fair enough, I can see that for some of the overarching problems, but these characters deserved more and it kind of left me annoyed. But yes, I still would overall recommend this, but just know it's not a very satisfying ending.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
I really liked this book which only annoys me more that it was left with such a whomp whomp ending. Truly nothing was resolved. We don't know if there's anything that can be done to save the deaf school and if not, what's going to happen to these kids? Will February's marriage even survive all this craziness? What's going to happen to Austin and Charlie when they're shoved back into regular schooling, if that is unfortunately their fate, especially Austin who's never been in general public school and has very little experience with hearing people who don't sign/isn't a good lipreader. Will Charlie be able to put her foot down and stop her mother from implanting a new cochlear implant on the other side of her head? Will her mother ever understand or even TRY with Charlie? What about Charlie and Austin's budding relationship now that they'll most likely be separated? What's going to happen to Austin's little sister, Skye? Will his parents decide to implant her with a CI? Will it even work? What was the fallout of Slash and his other weird druggie friends blowing up that one place? Like I'm literally not kidding when I'm telling you that NONE of these questions were answered despite being large plot points, it was so baffling and frustrating because I really liked these characters. I also just felt it was building to this dread with Charlie continually hanging around with Slash and his loser friends and then getting Austin involved, I was so stressed that something bad was going to happen to them, but then nothing. Like literally if HALF of. my questions were answered I feel like this would've been more successful. I just don't know why it was left so open, it was just such a strange choice.
But other than that I did really enjoy this, especially Austin and Charlie. I thought their relationship was TOO cute and I was shipping them so hardcore from the moment they met. They had such a sweet dynamic and I thought it was so lovely for her to be with not only another deaf person, but someone so lovely and darling as Austin, it was so cute. I really adored their super different perspectives. Like Charlie was implanted with a CI so young that the tech wasn't even that great hence why it never fully worked for her and then ended up being so bad it electrocuted her, which is insane. But the fact that they pushed her into regular schooling and didn't let her learn sign for so long is almost cruel, it would literally be like going to a school of a different language and truly never fully catching on, that is so ostracizing and horrible. Especially proven when she's immediately so much better in school once she moves to the deaf one. And then Austen, on the opposite spectrum, has basically grown up in deaf royalty with a long lineage of deaf people, aside from his father who's hearing, but obviously fluent in ASL. When the at first believe his little sister is hearing, it's kind of gut wrenching how excited his father is. I do understand, it's inherently special to have that relationship with someone, but then he kind of acts like a child when they quickly discover she's hard of hearing and they debate implanting her. I hate that the reason they consider it is 'to give her the most opportunities' even if that does make sense. I appreciate that Charlie is able to impart it's not always that simple. But the difference between Skye and Charlie would be very stark in my opinion. Even if they do implant her and it works, she would still learn ASL with their parents and Austin, so she would really just get the chance to straddle both worlds and basically be bilingual, which is honestly really cool. But I'm unsurprised at what a crazy tricky dilemma this is because it could be seen as them choosing not to raise her fully deaf unlike so many in their family, but of course it's not that simple.
Charlie's mother was also such a piece of work. The fact she blatantly refuses to learn ASL for her daughter and believes that she's making her 'look bad' when she's just trying to fight for her on choices, body, and comprehension was insane. Like literally her mother didn't want to tell the grandmother they'd moved Charlie into a deaf school because she's 'so judgmental' but even she was ecstatic that Charlie was finally getting the help she needed and not hiding this very real fact about who she was. It was baffling that throughout this book her mother doesn't change or grow at all. Like I get that you never expected your kid to be deaf, but it happened, move the fuck on and do what you can to help her, like wtf?! Even more horrifying was when we got the backstory of Austin's roommate Elliott. He's the quiet, loner, older boy with a lot of random scars that we find out it's because he got into a bad car accident with his parents that ended up killing his father, but his dad's last words were some babbling about angels. So his mother turned HARDCORE to religion, to the point of joining this crazy cult that decides it can 'fix' Elliott's deafness by pouring hot oil onto him and scarring him, like what the actual fuck?! I can't even imagine, that poor boy.
February's plot was probably the least interesting, especially because I couldn't quite understand where her arc was taking us, not that it really mattered since nothing was resolved. But she started off with such a sad plot knowing no matter what she did the school was closing, but she refuses to keep this fact from her wife who's also a lawyer and may have been able to look into something or try to help, but at the very least deserved to know since they live right off campus so when the school is closed they'll be forced to move. But instead she keeps reaching out to a woman she has previously cheated on her wife with and opening up to her instead. She sadly loses her deaf mother in the book, so a large part of her connection to the deaf community since she and her wife are actually hearing, so it may be why she's so drawn to Wendy, the one she cheated with, as she's also deaf. But it's hard for me to really root for a cheater, even if it's just emotionally in this case, and while she's good at her job and I liked seeing her with the kids, again it didn't feel like it went anywhere or what the purpose was. Especially with it culminating with her saving Austin and Charlie from putting themselves in danger with that potential bombing, but just let Slash and the others go through with it, it was just so weird.
Yeah the anarchist/fight the power plot felt like such a huge red flag to me that again, no resolution. Slash is not an all bad dude, he's honestly really sweet to Charlie other than giving her drugs while she's underage and continually sleeping with her (though I guess he's not THAT much older than her even if it feels icky since he's at least graduated if not more). But the plot was ramping up making me feel really worried where it was going, especially since the book began with kids being in danger and not knowing what happened, but no, nothing really. Just strange.
But it did bring up some interesting things about the deaf culture that I'm personally ignorant about. Other than their lack of control that I should've realized, but also the existence of black ASL, which makes complete sense as plenty of black hearing people have a full dictionary of slang that I'm sure I don't fully know, unless it's been appropriated into our culture. Same with the way signing works and the civil disobedience deaf people have had to do to make any kind of headway, which of course is still so limited. I think it's so important that this knowledge is more widely spread and that ASL is more frequently taught too, I'm honestly super interested to learn it myself, I think it'd be such a cool language to know, even if slightly.
It's by far not a perfect book, but I still enjoyed it for the most part, even if the ending did leave something to be desired.
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I reeeeally liked this book. Opened my eyes in many ways and really loved learning bits and pieces about ASL and history along the way. Characters were really lovable was totally rooting for them. (They all have heartbreaking stories as well and wow I'm thankful Novic brought those stories to light) Only 4 stars because the hook at the beginning of the book was good but the ending was so abrupt and left so much unsettled. But everyone should read!!!
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
fast-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:
Complicated
Loved this—learned a lot about the Deaf community and ASL. Really great characters intermingled throughout the book.