Sara Nović

Charlie has been struggling with her cochlear implant her whole life, and she's very behind in school. Now as a high schooler, she finally gets to attend a Deaf school -- but she's behind there, too, because she doesn't know ASL. The school principal, who is hearing but whose mother is Deaf, decides to have Charlie work with Austin, whose family has been Deaf for generations.

I really enjoyed this story with several different perspectives from characters in the Deaf community. The various show more characters' stories are all intertwined in interesting ways and I cared about all of them. I really enjoyed the insights into ASL (we get to learn a little along with Charlie) and some of the spotlights on some hot topics in the Deaf community like cochlear implants and Black ASL that are woven into the story without hitting you over the head. I'll be interested to read what Novic writes next. 4.5 stars. show less

The book starts off with a bang: three students are missing, and no one knows why. Then, we go back six months to when Charlie, a girl who's had cochlear implants and been mainstreamed, starts coming to the Deaf residential school run by February, the hearing child of Deaf adults. February is passionate about her students and the Deaf community, and decides that she's going to have Charlie work with Austin, who as the descendant in a long line of Deaf people has a status akin to royalty and show more will be able to help Charlie catch up on language acquisition as she learns American Sign Language (ASL).

Sara Novic tells her characters' stories in a compelling way while interspersing elements of language and culture. The third-person narrator switches primarily between Charlie, February, and Austin's points of view in chapter headings with a fingerspelled "C," "F" or "A". I usually get distracted by a lack of quotation marks, but both spoken language and ASL are clearly delineated - and brilliantly, the ASL uses the physical space on a page of left, right and middle to show who is signing. A lot of the topics she addresses in the book were ones I recognized from my college days as a Deaf studies major (what a hot topic cochlear implants are in the community, the respect that the Deaf child of Deaf adults gets) and some were new to me (Black ASL). This was a truly fantastic story, and if you have any interest at all in the Deaf community, I highly recommend it. show less

The River Valley School for the Deaf is a safe haven for students and staff alike - but budget cuts in the district are threatening its existence. February, the head of the school, keeps the bad news from her wife, Mel, as she struggles to maintain normalcy and take care of her mother, who has dementia.

Austin Workman, a student whose family has been part of the Deaf community for generations, is surprised when his baby sister, Sky, is born hearing, but when she begins to lose her hearing, show more Austin is shocked when his parents consider a cochlear implant (CI).

Charlie, a new RVSD student, has a CI and it is been a nightmare her whole life. Due to a recent court battle, Charlie has come to RVSD, and her dad is learning ASL with her, but her mom is desperate for Charlie to hear normally.

Austin's roommate Eliot has his own horror story about an attempt to "cure" him of his deafness, with the scar tissue to prove it. So when Austin - whose dad was the translator in the meeting between February and the district superintendent - shares the news of the school closing, Charlie and Eliot both agree that something must be done - and Charlie's old acquaintance Kyle/Slash and his anarchist friends have just what they need to help.

A brilliant, propulsive book with deep characters, an intimate look inside Deaf culture. Each section begins with an ASL letter (A for Austin, F for February, C for Charlie), and small sections between some of the chapters explain more about ASL grammar and syntax.

Quotes

It is so damn depressing, February said as she pushed through the side door. That the biggest dream some people can muster up for their child is "look normal." (19)

Here was the problem with an ASL conversation - it required eye contact and afforded little opportunity to hide one's true feelings. (78)

The importance of Eyeth [as opposed to Earth] in Deaf culture is twofold. First, it highlights the things we value: sign language, communication, accessibility, community. (83)

Then again, maybe standing for something wasn't always a choice. (Austin, 165)

What a cruel disease, [February] thought, to steal from a person all their best moments, and make them relive the worst ones nightly. To force their loved ones to deliver these blows of memory until they, too, were subsumed by the echoing grief. (179)

...who was she now that she wasn't the deaf girl? (Charlie, 186)

The belief that one variant of a language is superior to others is called prescriptivism, and subscribers frequently conflate nonstandard usage with error. (Wikipedia entry on BASL, 271)

Hearing people turned aggressive so quickly, at even a momentary failure to respond....It was hard to imagine what the world might be like if deaf people had as short a fuse about hearing people's inability to sign, their neglect or refusal to caption TV, or, hell, the announcements on the bus. (288)

[February] imagined these moments as force fields, once one was raised it was difficult to return to the place that sat behind it, obliging a person to remain changed and hurtling ever forward. (Before and After, 325)

[February] cannot decide whether the heart's craving for opposites - not only from itself, but from the others it loves - is its greatest strength or biggest failing. (373)

Novic's article on CODA: "Only a multitude of deaf stories can diminish both the pressures and expectations of representation, as well as the dangers misrepresentation can pose. And allowing space for stories created by and centering deaf people is the only way to approach authentic depictions of a multifaceted and truly diverse community." https://slate.com/culture/2022/03/coda-oscars-2022-best-picture-deaf-asl-flaws.h... show less

Being Deaf myself, it‘s not often I get to read an excellent novel with more than one Deaf character, and that is also written by a Deaf person.

Too often, novels with Deaf characters have just one Deaf person, who interacts with hearing persons and the hearing world. This novel brings in several, and each character has their own story and background. Even if Deaf people are part of Deaf culture, they are not a monolith.

The setting is a (fictional, but similar to actual ones) residential show more Deaf school; the high school section. Charlie was implanted as an infant with a cochlear implant but begins attending this school, despite her beginning to learn ASL (American Sign Language). Austin is from what we would call "big Deaf family" -- that is, he is multi-generational Deaf. Why does that matter? Most of the times, Deaf born into Deaf families have immediate access to language and also no stigma/sadness by family members if the person is deaf. There are other Deaf characters, including one who uses a Black American Sign Language dialect (due to the fact that Deaf schools had been racially segregated in the past, and this dialect has passed down through current generations).

There are also hearing characters. Mainly, there's February the principal/headmistress who is a CODA (child of Deaf Adults). CODAs often grow up in both the deaf and the hearing worlds.

Overall, this is a coming-of-age story. There are also sidebars dropped here and there, that prevents True Biz from feeling like there's info-dumping or pounding it in within the story line. These sidebars provides information such as on ASL itself (the most important thing to know is that ASL has its own structure -- it is not word-for-word substitutions for spoken language). ASL even has its own slang terms.

There's also concrete information included in the sidebars on how the hearing have repressed the use of ASL and Deaf culture. I had my hands slapped & forced to sit on them when caught signing in school. That controversy has always been around sadly. I‘m fortunate that my hearing parents & sister learned ASL. My Deaf friends loved them because most of their families didn‘t sign. Language barriers within families recurs often in real life, and this is shown within this novel.

Not every Deaf person‘s experience is exactly the same, but some things we do have in common. Sara succeeds in showing that in this novel.

Thanks Sara Novic for writing this novel. show less