There is a lot to learn from this book for any unsuspecting reader. The setup and the different types of characters we encounter give us multiple chances to look into lives that I at least have never had the opportunity to think about previously.
There are three central figures through whom we watch the story evolve. The primary voice is that of the headmistress, February, who is struggling with her mother's illness and the complexities that seem to be creeping into her marriage. To top it all off, children seem to have gone missing from her school, and she has been thrust into public scrutiny right on the heels of being told that they may lose their funding and have to shut down for good.
The school, which is for the deaf, is where they all can be their normal self. They are trained in all the regular subjects using sign language. We will learn, through regular events, the differences that exist there, just like in any language. The children are of varying levels of hearing. Some of them have implants, while others do not. That is another issue that seems to cause division and discussion among everyone.
Charlie has never been allowed to embrace being deaf. She was thrust into living with an implant which did not work for her. As a final resort, her mother finally lets her join the school, and even with a few small bumps, Charlie feels like she has a fresh lease on life. Her rebellious adventures do not completely go away, though.
Austin is from a famous Deaf family. With a father who is hearing and who works as an interpreter, it comes as a shock when his new sibling can hear. He is torn by conflicting emotions as well as his reactions to others' reactions around him!
The way the story was built around the more general facts of the lives of the deaf in a world built for the hearing felt new. I liked the information I got from it and felt that the characters were all quite well fleshed out and had individual growth arcs throughout the book. I was not as wowed by the plot of the story, which is probably why I rated it the way I did. I liked reading the narrative, but I was not invested in the end resolution of the book. I would still recommend this to anyone who is interested in a good book set in a different setting with a lot of emotional conflicts, some of which as resolved towards the end.
I would love to read another book by the author because I found the writing style easy to follow (even with the additional information about the signs, which were a definite bonus).
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

At River Valley School for the Deaf, February works hard to get the best deal for her students. Charlie is a new pupil to the school. Her mother has never really accepted her deafness, refusing to learn to sign & made sure she got a cochlea implant from an early age. Charlie hates it. After she has been asked to leave her High School it is decided that she will attend River Valley. Her father is keen to learn sign language to help her. When she arrives at the school she finds that she is even more isolated- everyone can sign so quickly. Austin- the school's golden boy helps her settle in.

That really gives little idea of how engaging this book was & how it made me think. I have read a couple of books featuring the Deaf community but this made me realise that they are a culture within themselves with their own prejudices & fears that science is trying to make them extinct. It was a book that really made me think, as well as enjoy reading about the characters struggles. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

I came to this very late but I finally read it.
I enjoyed the representation this portrayed and the plethora of emotions the author explores.
There were some heart lifting and some heart wrenching scenes and I became attached to the characters.

This is the first book I have read by Julian Barnes. I found I had to concentrate quite hard when reading it as there was so much philosophy within it so I did take a break in the middle of reading it. I did find myself caught up in the story in the end so I was glad I finished it. I'd recommend it but it's definitely not an easy read.

Being a deaf person myself I was intrigued by this book however found it very hard to read and was not able to finish this unfortunately. Not for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for my copy

Deaf with a capital D.

I try to never give bad reviews. The author has spent hours and weeks writing a book. It was accepted by a publisher and then offered to us to purchase. However, I do have certain requisites that I expect when I start reading; storyline, characters, and the author sticking to the plot, not taking me on a confusing journey through a rabbit hole.

Let’s start with the storyline.

 A lesbian headmistress at a dedicated deaf school ticked the boxes
 A girl with profound hearing loss hates the cochlear implant that her hearing parents insisted she wears.
 Austin, another student becomes this girl’s mentor.
 Mixing with activists
 Taking drugs
 Baby born into a Deaf family and their father thinks she should receive a cochlear implant

All the points that you would think would make up a good storyline. However, the author chose to intersperse the storyline with the history of Deaf Schools, how hearing aids were invented and why deaf people are better off in the Deaf world.

This extra information, although interesting, had no place in the middle of fiction. If the author wanted to educate the public with facts, then she should have authored a separate book.

I also gather that Sara Novic is a Deaf activist. As a hearing parent of a profoundly deaf son who has had a life-changing cochlear implant, it concerns me that she is part of a group that would prefer children born deaf to be denied the chance to hear. As the years pass so do the improvements to the cochlear implant. My son can hear music, and bird songs, and partake in complicated conversations, all thanks to his cochlear. He too attended a school dedicated to the teaching of deaf children. Is it better than insisting that deaf pupils should go to mainstream schools? My jury is out on this, but I am eternally grateful that we took the leap of faith that a cochlear implant would improve his chances in a world where the deaf are a minority, and where very few people in the hearing world can use sign language.

Rony

Elite Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

True Biz by Sara Novic is a coming of age novel set in a school for deaf students and about experiences in the deaf community.

True Biz opens at the River Valley School for the Deaf, a fictional school representative of the quickly shrinking number of specialist Deaf education providers in the US today - the editor’s note comprises a long list of closed schools. It opens with Charlie, a transfer student with hearing parents who arrives already out of her depth, even on the first day. She was raised without the capital D - Deaf with a D represents a political and cultural identity relating to those who are on the spectrum of deafness, it encompasses much more than the inability to hear. Novic won’t explain this to you; you will garner pieces of the importance of this political identity through Charlie, learning in fits and bursts, just as she does. As the reader you’ll likely feel frustrated, particularly if you aren’t D/deaf, disabled or have connections to a member of the community, but perhaps that is the entire point.

Novic crafts a coming of age narrative with teenage angst, first kisses, school productions and just a touch of good ol’ anarchy. The campus setting could be interpreted as universal, following in the well trodden blueprint for institutional stories, The Secret History, Infinite Jest and the like. But Novic doesn’t want to replicate, she insists this isn’t a story told before and she’s right, because a story of D/deaf teeangers experiencing the trials and tribulations of just being teenagers, a story for D/deaf teenage readers, has not been done before, until Novic had a say.


<cont’d in full on bookish magazine >

True Biz - Sara Novic

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

*4.5 stars on Storygraph*

I was really excited to be given such a great opportunity of having this book as an e-ARC by the publishers. It was a book I started whilst on a long journey and it kept me excited the entire time. It feels great to be able to read a book with unseen representation, and even better when it is written so well!

The character's development throughout the book was gripping and, I thought, amazingly thought out. At times perhaps a little cliche but if it works, it works! I enjoyed all of the character's storylines, which is always impressive, and was always excited to get to the next POV.

I also really enjoyed the extra, non-fiction extracts that were provided within he storyline and found reading up on the history of ASL and its form. Having just started studying BSL, I have found it so interesting learning the differences (and similarities) and this book has inspired me to do much more research on my own.

The only thing that made it hard to read was the format on kindle but that didn't mark down the rating as it still made sense and imagine these things will have been ironed out by the time it was published.

The title of the book ‘True Biz’ is an ASL expression meaning “real talk” “for real” or “seriously”
I found this novel to be such an interesting and informative read. River Valley school for the deaf is a boarding school where we follow the lives of Charlie, a rebellious transfer student, Austin, the golden boy of the school and February, the headmistress. It gives insights into the deaf community and the struggles which are faced daily. What I particularly liked was the extra information given. ALS signs were shown in a diagram form so as a reader it really felt like you were immersed which really enhanced the story, there was often extra info given on any if the topics raised which again helped me really get into the story lines.
I feel the need to comment on the lack of speech marks, I would have preferred them to be there To help the book flow and figure put when one persons speech finished to when the other persons started. The use of italics for when sign language was being used worked well.
I’d give this 3 and a half stars for all the positives of the book and the lovely way in which it was written I found the plot to be a little far fetched at times for my liking and some of content that didn’t seem to go anywhere but it is a book I am glad I have read: I would like to see more from this author.

I found True Biz to be both engaging and enlightening. My own experience is with BSL, so I really appreciated the ASL examples and history throughout. I felt they fitted well with the flow of the narrative - always enriching it, rather than detracting from the main story. They also greatly appealed to the linguistics nerd in me.
However, even without these factual interludes, True Biz is a gripping and enjoyable read - I felt fully invested in all of the characters, and sped through the book in less than 48 hours.
4.5 rounded up to 5.

True Biz presents an excellent window into the deaf community. It challenges you to question preconceived notions about accessibility, integration, and assimilation, all while educating and entertaining you. The multiple perspective format works very well - even the differentiation between signed language and English is quite clear. The only frustration I had was the quick glimpses into Wanda, Eliot, and Kayla's interior thoughts felt too short to me - almost a token. I would have rather had their insights all the way through or not at all.

The final list of schools and dates is also a final kick to the gut. As a women's college graduate, cousin to a deaf woman, and former resident of Rochester, I know the value of safe spaces to discover your full potential.

4.5 stars. The token insights into Kayla et al.'s minds really bothered me - it almost made their chapters equivalent to the brief wikipedia entries and textbook lessons (which were great - but shouldn't be on the same level as people's stories)

This is my current favourite read of 2022! I just started a sign language course and I've always been interested in deaf culture and this book just is perfect. We get a look into the deaf culture from different perspectives and get to learn some ASL inbegrepen chapters. Highly reccomend this one!

We meet February, the head teacher of a school for the deaf in a relatively run-down American city, the hearing child of deaf parents and bilingual in English and sign language, and Charlie, a teenager who’s transferred to the school after sinking at a mainstream school, de-languaged by the installation of a cochlear implant that’s never worked properly, without the accompanying high-intensity therapy that’s needed to navigate the world with one, while not having been allowed to learn sign language. Now she and her dad are learning ASL at night school community classes run at the school, while her mother still refuses to learn. Charlie and the other teenagers have the usual preoccupations with classes, lessons, friendships and relationships, all mediated through the various bits of tech that a person with a hearing disability need – from video phones to flashing alarm clocks to new apps.

The school is under threat and February’s relationship with her wife Mel deteriorates as she holds this knowledge to herself. Meanwhile, her mother, who is living with them at the start of the book, is becoming more overwhelmed with dementia: will a care home living with an old deaf friend of hers help? I loved that Feb just happens to be gay, just as Charlie’s roommate Kayla just happens to be Black – although their characteristics do throw up plot points through the book. I particularly appreciated learning about Black ASL and its origins and differences from ASL.

This was not the only learning point. The book is full of sign language lessons and exercises from presumably a textbook they are learning from themselves. I liked the way Charlie’s experience of spoken and signed language is conveyed to us with dashes where she can’t understand a word, and signed communication is written in italics, spoken in plain type. The history of ASL is covered in boxes (I think this book would work better as a physical book than an e-book, actually, in layout terms) and current issues, like the apparent wish to eradicate D/deafness and its culture by implanting all babies or genetically engineering it out of them, and issues there around class and race, are explored through the characters’ lives and experiences.

I wanted this book to end on a more positive note, and was sure it would when a certain plot point happened. However, all is not light and positivity in the D/deaf community as regards culture and education, so this is more realistic. There were lovely points, for example when Charlie finally gets an interpreter in her implant appointments when she can understand enough ASL, and her dodgy high school boyfriend makes an effort to sign and be lip-read and is careful around consent. The different experiences of different kinds of people are explored with care and understanding. The author’s note thanks the Deaf community, of which she is part, and lists real schools that have already closed.

My review out 6 May https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2022/05/06/book-review-sara-novic-true-biz/

Sara Nović is an American author and deaf rights activist. “True biz” is an exclamation/adjective in American Sign Language (ASL) meaning really, seriously, definitely, real talk.

True Biz is set in a deaf school community in the fictional town of Colson, Ohio. February Waters is the committed and empathetic headmistress - she’s the hearing child of deaf parents and fluent in sign language. She lives with her wife Mel and her deaf mother who is slowly deteriorating with dementia.

Charlie and Austin are two of her pupils and they’re both going through a tough time - Charlie has a troublesome cochlear implant that is impacting her health and quality of life, and Austin’s parents are about to welcome a new baby into the family, disrupting the happy status quo.

It’s a coming of age tale, a story of teenage political awakening and difficult family relationships, interspersed with fascinating factual sections on the history of the deaf community, the origins of ASL and Black ASL and the impact racial segregation had on the deaf community and on sign language. There’s also a dash of anarchocommunism thrown in!

It’s a hugely informative, assured, snappy, heartwarming and thought-provoking book that will give you a fresh perspective on what it means to be deaf and why cochlear implants are not necessarily the silver bullet solution to deafness, and make you reflect on those YouTube videos of babies hearing for the first time. I think teenagers will love it too (some sex and drugs but nothing graphic). A slightly abrupt ending but nonetheless a breath of fresh air, I loved it. 4-4.5/5 ⭐️

*True Biz was published on 21 April 2022 by Little, Brown publishers. I was delighted to read an advance digital copy via @netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.*

Sara Nović's second novel, True Biz, is set in a boarding school for Deaf students in Ohio that comes under threat of closure. Told through the voices of several of the school's students as well as its principal, True Biz sets out to educate its reader, and it succeeds: it's fascinating on the history of ASL, lipreading and cochlear implants as well as shocking on the ways in which Deaf people and Deaf culture have been oppressed over the centuries in the United States. I agree with Alywnne that, at times, this feels very much like a Jodi Picoult book, and this is both its strength and its weakness. I like learning new things via novels, and, unlike Picoult, Nović speaks from a position of experience in relation to her subject-matter, as she herself is Deaf. True Biz has made me realise how ignorant I am about Deaf history and spurred my interest in finding out more about it, which I suspect was its intention. However, the novel also feels simplistic at times, with everything funnelled towards a single (if important) message, which is not really what I think fiction is for.

While I enjoyed Nović's debut, Girl At War, I was frustrated by its structural neatness, which seemed to rob the story of some of its emotion. True Biz definitely doesn't have that problem. It's a messy book, with its multiple narrators and uneven pacing; the middle drags and the ending feels rushed. Again, the choice to frame the story around the disappearance of three students from the school feels like a vain attempt to grab the reader's attention; this isn't a thriller, and that's OK. It could also have cut down its number of narrators. The student narrators - Charlie, Austin, Eliot, Kayla - all feel necessary, and their different angles on Deafness enrich the story. Charlie is the child of hearing parents, while Austin's family have been Deaf for several generations. Eliot's story explores the horrific abuse that some Deaf people suffer, while Kayla introduces us to BASL (Black American Sign Language) and the ways in which it is stigmatised among the Deaf community. However, the sections from February, the school principal, who is a CODA (a hearing child of deaf adults) feel increasingly irrelevant and distracting; I wasn't sure why we needed to hear about her love life or her ailing mother.

I can see why Nović wanted to write this novel, and it's doing important work. However, I really hope she writes another book about Deafness and the Deaf community, because there is clearly so much more here to explore, and potentially with greater nuance. 3.5 stars.

Award-winning author Sara Nović’s second novel’s rooted in her experiences in the Deaf with a capital "D" community. It takes three characters, all connected to a school for the Deaf in a rundown area of Ohio. The central characters are headteacher February who lives with her wife on campus, the hearing child of deaf adults (CODA); Charlie a teenager whose hearing parents have brought her up in seclusion from Deaf culture; and Austin her classmate who comes from a family that has included deaf members for generations. The plot revolves around the conflicts that arise between parents and children, in a system that routinely privileges educational mainstreaming and “assimilation” into hearing society.

The approach here reminded me of writers like Jodi Picoult who’ve made a career out of fictionalising ethical and social issues. Here Nović offers an illuminating glimpse of the complexities of Deaf culture, its history, its language and its endangered future. Nović’s story’s interspersed with passages from non-fiction work that builds on aspects of her plot, and, strikingly, excerpts from a manual on American Sign Language (ASL). Although these elements could seem like awkward interruptions, I found they greatly enhanced the impact of the book. The ASL sections were particularly useful as a means of representing the intricacies of language systems developed by Deaf communities. As well as the ways in which these reflect their contexts: in the US for example alongside ASL is Black ASL (BASL), a related language that grew out of the segregation of Black children in a racist environment.

Charlie’s chapters further illustrate ongoing divides between hearing and deaf groupings. Like many deaf children of hearing parents, she has been surgically altered by the addition of a cochlear implant, with an accompanying emphasis on total immersion in a hearing environment meaning that she has never had access to ASL; while being in a non-specialist school means that she has only experienced herself as "broken” in comparison to the hearing children she’s surrounded by. But as one of the children for whom implants have been unsuccessful, she’s effectively brutally isolated. It’s only when she transfers to a school for the Deaf that she gains a peer group and learns about the rich culture she’s been excluded from.

The image that’s commonly associated with deafness in the past is that of Helen Keller triumphantly learning to sign, finally able to connect with her family, but it turns out Charlie’s experience is far more representative of the treatment of the deaf in American history - often having their hands tied behind their backs so they were unable to sign or form connections with other deaf people. All part of a drive, tied to the influential eugenics movement, to force integration and discourage relationships between deaf individuals. Nović convincingly compares these policies to recent instances of the forcible implantation of deaf children on child welfare grounds. Nović’s narrative links Charlie’s experiences to this past, as well as to the rise of the Deaf Civil Rights movement.

Nović’s approach can come across as a little heavy-handed and didactic at times but it’s never less than fascinating particularly for anyone, like me, who has a rudimentary understanding of these issues and this history. Although it’s also true that Charlie’s sections have greater force here than either February’s or Austin’s. This is by no means a slick piece of literary fiction but it’s a significant one, that highlights a multitude of issues and talking points, perhaps why it’s been selected for Reese Witherspoon’s book club and has now been optioned for television. Novic says she wanted people to see and understand the Deaf community, and appreciate the richness, complexity and value of its culture, rather than focus on deafness as a problem to be fixed, and as far as I’m concerned she’s more than successful.
Rating: 3/3.5

Loved this. Insightful and illuminating, and highlights society's built-in discriminations.

I've never read anything like this. Not just about deaf students but showing the reader what, for those of us born hearing, this very different way of experiencing the world might be like.

With a few narratives to follow, students and the Headteacher of a dedicated School for the Deaf show us what a lack of hearing can mean living in a hearing society.

Austin comes from a long line of deaf antecedents, proud of their heritage and fully immersed in a non-hearing world. He is tasked with bringing such immersion to a new student, Charlie, who though a teenager, has never learned ASL (American Sign Language) as her parents wanted her to rely on a Cochlear Implant, leaving her without means of communicating, behind in school and rebellious.

Their Headteacher is February, hearing child of a deaf mother, who lives with her wife and now elderly mother in a house provided by the school. Which she is told is soon to close.

Charlie's story is the one we recognise most closely - frustrated teenager whose parents do 'what they think is best', an adolescent who is learning what she and her body can both do, struggling with self-esteem and confusing emotions and in need of direction and focus. She is our window on ASL, and the book uniquely gives us little lessons in the language which I found fascinating, and in a graphic-less moment, conveyed a sex scene purely in ASL signs with not a word from the bedroom. Applause.

Austin's story gives us the flip side to Charlie's, confident in a hearing world, he knows himself and his abilities, but is pulled up short with the birth of a hearing sister.

And February's story, of a teacher trying desperately to keep her school open, becomes the catalyst for the events occurring in the book, as well as giving the reader a bit of a lesson in Deaf History and why schools for such students should be a necessity.

I did love watching how Charlie developed and 'blossomed' in many ways, and could feel her angst in the face of trying family circumstances. It was good to see a strong and loving father in her life.

Marvellous. A book you don't forget, and one that brings under-represented issues and stories into the public consciousness.

For ages 14+.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

CODA February Waters is Headmistress at River Valley School for the Deaf in Ohio. She balances caring for her elderly mother and maintaining her marriage with the strains on her school, the constant need to prove its worth and now the threat of its closing.

Charlie is starting the school year at RVSD but she does not sign or even met another deaf person before. She's paired with Austin, the school's golden boy, and the two form a bond as they each learn about the other's view of the world.

I read this because of my interest in the Deaf community as a CODA (so someone active in the community but isn't deaf). It seems fairer to clearly state this heavily informed my opinion. Also, I'm British so use BSL, as opposed to the ASL used throughout the book.

This book feels like an honest portrayal of deafness in the USA, written by someone who clearly understands, has experienced and respects the community. Novic knows the difficulties Deaf people face and shares this knowledge well, spanning the practicalities of sign language, lip-reading and cochlear implants to the history and cultural situation within the country.

Dotted throughout is information about ASL, like how signs work and other elements of sign communication, as well as further context for the topics mentioned. These are interesting but they offer a jarring change of tone, from the upbeat nature of a 'Did You Know?' segment to the next paragraph detailing a dismal character situation. Or their relevance is not immediately clear, such as several pages on Robespierre taken from or formatting like a Wikipedia entry.

I found this to be indicative of the novel. As a non-fiction piece, providing insightful information, it's interesting and a good read. However, as fiction, the plot and general writing style lack enough to propel the reading experience. This is where I'm torn in my judgement- I already knew most of the information included (so didn't need to read it for that) but the inclusion of it is the only thing that kept me reading.

As a novel to learn more of or as a starting point for understanding Deaf culture, this is great. For someone in my position, wishing to read this for entertainment, this was lacking.

I will not mince my words. True Biz is an example of taking an interesting, important, and underrepresented subject and writing a terrible book about it. It is stagnant, disjointed, and melodramatic.

The story is centred around a fictional school for deaf students that is about to be closed down. There are three main characters: the headmistress February, a student called Charlie whose mother does not accept her daughter’s deafness, and another student called Austin who comes from a family with multiple generations of deaf people. There are attempts to depict 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, there are nonfiction snippets about ASL, deaf culture, civil disobedience and anarchism.

This all sounds very good, and that is why I picked up the book. Unfortunately, the premise is far superior to the actual execution.

The characters are completely flat. The fact that every character is deeply flawed is not a problem per se, the problem is that the main characters don’t develop, and the side characters are just token characters. There are lesbians, anarchists, POC, a victim of religious violence, but they are not explored in depth. February’s amnesiac mother and Gabrielle the Mean-Girl-style teenage queen add absolutely nothing to the story. The anarchists are there as fillers. Kayla the roommate is a token black person brought in just to touch on BASL (Black American Sign Language). Elliot, with the sad backstory told in a soppy way, is also abruptly spliced in near the end of the book.

The plot is a melodramatic mess, the story completely lost in the jumble of subplots. The marital trust issues and the lesbian love triangle between February, Mel and Wanda leave a bad taste in the mouth while adding absolutely nothing to the story. Similarly, the adolescent bitch fights and love triangles between Austin-Charlie-Gabrielle and Charlie-Austin-Slash are equally longwinded and pointless. The main plot line — the future of the runaway teenagers and other deaf students after the imminent closure of the school — is left hanging. You don’t know anything more at the end than at the beginning of the book.

Two real life horror stories are woven into the novel (Charlie forced to get implanted again despite getting a brain electrocution due to an implant malfunction; Elliot whose mother turned crazy religious after his father’s death and ganged up with church people to pour hot oil down his ears), but rather than presenting a nuanced exploration of how these traumatic events make the characters feel, Novic only exploits the shock factor, resulting in a narrative that is melodramatic to the point of being bathetic.

The best bits of this book are the nonfiction snippets, which says a lot about its quality as a work of fiction. At that point anyone interested in deaf people would be better off reading a nonfiction book that explains sign language and deaf culture in a more in-depth and systematic manner.