True Biz

 A family member had spinal meningitis when she was a baby and it left her deaf. She got a cochlear implant and hears well enough to function normally. I mention this because [a:Sara Nović|8288614|Sara Nović|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1643757788p2/8288614.jpg]'s [b:True Biz|58395049|True Biz|Sara Nović|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1642403959l/58395049.SY75.jpg|85399916] is about deaf teenagers and it addresses issues surrounding deafness.
 It's not just about teenagers but enough about them that it could pass as a Young Adult book. It's a sort of cri de coeur about the cultural issues around deafness. But it's not only that; if it were I'd have not liked it much. It seems like every other TV series has deaf characters in them and while I'm all for it, it slows the storytelling to a crawl. They always try to get around it by having someone who's not deaf but can sign say everything out loud, but that always comes off as fake.

 The atmosphere in the dorm the night before Christmas break was charged, holiday giddiness undercut by a run of tension because of what going home meant for so many River Valley students. Kayla, Charlie, and the rest of the girls on the floor spent the evening in and out of the common room, where the dormkeepers had set up stations for them to make gifts to bring to their families—origami ornaments and construction paper cards. Even Kayla seemed eager for the semester's end, but Charlie could not tap into the Christmas spirit. Another holiday to spend sitting at the table, bewildered and bored, trying to lipread her chewing mother. Until now, it hadn't occurred to her to wish for something better.

Novic highlights American Deaf culture in True Biz, primarily following three people: Charlie, a new student at River Valley School for the Deaf (RVSD); February, headmistress of the school; and Austen, a deaf student from a deaf family in the area.

Charlie’s suffered most of her life with a malfunctioning cochlear implant. She hasn’t been afforded an opportunity to learn sign language, and is fairly behind students her age when she transfers to RSVD. February wants the best for her school and students, but seems to be losing the battle against the school district administration. Her marriage seems to be in shambles. Austen’s sister is born hearing, causing a bit of an identity crisis for him.

To me, Charlie and her friends are the most interesting parts of the book, as the book treats her story as a sort of coming-of-age. She undergoes the most growth in the book, whereas other potentially sub-main characters feel, to me, that they’re placed as set pieces for Charlie to interact with.

For example, Charlie’s roommate, Kayla, exists solely to demonstrate the differences between American Sign Language and Black American Sign Language. Once her point is made that racism exists within the Deaf community, how that looks like, and why, she essentially disappears from the story.

I felt that Novic’s primary purpose is to show the challenges that Deaf culture faces by sprinkling in bits of history, instructional sign language, and questions posed to the reader throughout. I don’t feel that Novic’s critique is wrong, but I do feel that it comes away heavy handed. It doesn’t pull any punches for the readers’ sake.

As a story, it doesn’t work for me. I felt that the characters exist solely to channel the author’s views, not to help the reader come to a new, long-lasting epiphany. There isn’t a true resolution; that’s left as an exercise to the reader (literally, Novic ends the book in an afterword that the future for people similar to those in the book depends on the reader).

If you expect your stories to have a resolution, this book isn’t for you. However, if you don’t mind the story missing a resolution, and you’re interested in learning about other cultures through story, this could work for you.

I don't think I've read a book centered in the deaf community before. I wonder if that says more about me or the publishing industry? In any case, I really appreciated that aspect of this book, and – ignorant as I am – I learned a lot about deaf culture, sign language, and the ethics of trying to "fix" hearing impairment.

I think my star rating would be higher if I understood the protagonist a bit better. She seemed like a good kid, but made choices that stressed me out. It almost felt like two novellas were spliced together: one that is a coming of age story set at a deaf school; another that was a much darker "take down Big Pharma" kind of book. Maybe since that's the essence of being a teenager – trying to reconcile disparate emotions and aspects of identity – it will work for most people. I'm just glad to be done with that stage of life, so the chaos feels unnecessary. :)