A review by jill
Love for a Deaf Rebel by Derrick King

4.0

This book, set in Vancouver in the early 80's, follows the relationship between author/narrator Derrick and Pearl, the "deaf rebel" of the title, a woman he falls in love with and will later marry. While Derrick begins to pick up on oddities in Pearl's behavior, he doesn't connect them to a mental illness, and only discovers much later that she has schizophrenia.

I appreciated Derrick's honesty; he walks the reader through his relationship as though we're right there with him. I only wish the publisher hadn't chosen to put Schizophrenia in the title. I think the book would have been more effective if the reader went along Derrick's journey in a state of ignorance, much as he did, so that we, too, could be surprised by the mystery of Pearl's increasingly irrational/paranoid behavior. Still, I felt sad for both Derrick and Pearl and moved by their story.

Thanks to Netgalley and Provenance Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.