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A review by rainbowbookworm
The Sign for Home by Blair Fell
4.0
This was not what I was expecting. I thought it would be a cute love story about a DeafBlind young man trying to reconnect with a lost love. Instead it is a tale of religious zealots controlling a disabled young man's access to the outside world.
When Arlo signs up to take classes at a community college he is assigned a new ASL interpreter. Though Cyril doesn't have much experience with tactile ASL, he takes the job and is immediately appalled by Arlo's how little agency Arlo has. At first Cyril chalks it up to Molly, Arlo's almost lifelong ASL interpreter, but it soon become clear that Brother Birch, Arlo's guardian is the one controlling Molly's strings.
Meanwhile, Arlo is a very passive young man. He was raised Jehovah's Witness and is looking forward to a missionary trip to Latin America. As the book progresses, you see how the belief in an Old Testament God, the one who delights in punishing sinners, has affected Arlo to the point of living a life of acquiescence. However, a writing class opens Arlo's eyes to a world beyond that he has known. That class, its professor, and Cyril will start to chip away at the cocoon Brother Birth tried to keep Arlo in.
You see, there is an event that is hinted at throughout the book. An event that happened when Arlo was younger. Something he is not supposed to talk about... until he does. It is when he opens up to the new people in his life that Arlo begins to seek out answers to questions that had plagued him for years. When he finds out that what he thought had been the aftermath of that traumatic event wasn't the truth, Arlo is desperate to reach out and make amends.
By this point Cyril knows that his bond with Arlo is more personal than professional and Cyril--along with other allies--goes after Arlo to help the young man set things right.
When Arlo signs up to take classes at a community college he is assigned a new ASL interpreter. Though Cyril doesn't have much experience with tactile ASL, he takes the job and is immediately appalled by Arlo's how little agency Arlo has. At first Cyril chalks it up to Molly, Arlo's almost lifelong ASL interpreter, but it soon become clear that Brother Birch, Arlo's guardian is the one controlling Molly's strings.
Meanwhile, Arlo is a very passive young man. He was raised Jehovah's Witness and is looking forward to a missionary trip to Latin America. As the book progresses, you see how the belief in an Old Testament God, the one who delights in punishing sinners, has affected Arlo to the point of living a life of acquiescence. However, a writing class opens Arlo's eyes to a world beyond that he has known. That class, its professor, and Cyril will start to chip away at the cocoon Brother Birth tried to keep Arlo in.
You see, there is an event that is hinted at throughout the book. An event that happened when Arlo was younger. Something he is not supposed to talk about... until he does. It is when he opens up to the new people in his life that Arlo begins to seek out answers to questions that had plagued him for years. When he finds out that what he thought had been the aftermath of that traumatic event wasn't the truth, Arlo is desperate to reach out and make amends.
By this point Cyril knows that his bond with Arlo is more personal than professional and Cyril--along with other allies--goes after Arlo to help the young man set things right.