True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history finals, and have politicians, doctors, and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they'll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who's never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school's golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the headmistress, who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both. As a series of crises both personal and political threaten to unravel each of them, Charlie, Austin, and February find their lives inextricable from one another's—and changed forever.
This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and relatable, this is an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community and a universal celebration of human connection.
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First line:
February Waters was nine years old when she—in the middle of math class, in front of everyone—stabbed herself in the ear with a number two Ticonderoga.
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Source:
Source:
audiobook from Libby
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Publisher:
Publisher:
Random House Audio
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Rating:
4.5 Signs out of 5
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Of course, after loving Girl at War, I had to jump straight into Sara's other fiction novel, True Biz. There's something ironic about listening to a book that centers around Deaf culture and the Deaf experience, but this was a fantastic audiobook. Lisa Flanagan narration is great and the audio is supplemented by Sara herself signing during conversations that are in ASL and that audio is added behind the narration of the conversation. This added such an interesting component to the experience.
I loved having so many different perspectives, from February, the headmaster at River Valley School for the Deaf and a CODA, to Charlie, a deaf teenager with a cochlear implant who is learning ASL for the first time at RVSD, to Austin, a Deaf teenager who is from a family of Deaf individuals, plus a handful of other perspectives.
The intermissions, narrated by Kaleo Griffith, were also really interesting inserts and very informative. They added context to the story which was very helpful!
I highly recommend this book to readers of all interests!
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