A highly anticipated read. Sara Novic takes readers on a journey through many different stages in life in the deaf community. She pulls you in and really makes you question how we all do not know even basic ASL as a standard in any country. You follow people who are born deaf, who have parents who are deaf, and families that are proud to be multi generational deaf. Written from various viewpoints this novel is brilliantly done.

True Biz by Sara Nović is fascinating stand out book about the deaf community that incorporates feelings of being different, being included, fighting the system, bettering the system, and normalizing the stigmatism of deafness. This author shows great range in her writing. I loved her last book, Girl at War, which is entirely different than this one.

There was a lot to like about this book, most importantly the awareness it brought to the non-deaf community. Through a well-paced plot and good old-fashioned storytelling, I learned so much about the struggles that this community is faced with. I had no idea about the problems with cochlear implants or the immensely varied instructions parents are given when raising a deaf child. It burned me to the core that parents wouldn’t learn ASL or have it taught to their deaf child. It broke my heart to see that even in a school for the deaf, there is still bullying and cliques. However, by exploring this, Nović shows us how similar we all are and that hearing or not, we all deal with the same nonsense of adolescence.

Because this takes place at a school, I thought the sections the author devoted to teaching the reader some ASL, information about deaf education and other interesting facts were warranted and welcome. With so much going on with the kids, I didn’t feel like the storyline with February and “other woman” was necessary.

When the book ended, I continued to think about the characters and wished them well. There are so many talking points for book clubs – it’ll be a doozy!

Best book I've read this year. A good book makes you feel things. A great book makes you feel things and learn things. With characters that jump off the page, a world I'm immediately immersed in, history and cultural lessons, eye opening information, and flawless writing Tru Biz swept me up tumbled me along and spit me out and I loved every second of it. I keep wanting to pick it up and read it but it's done, there's no more. And yet I can't pick up another book because I'm still in Ohio with these people that feel like my friends now. And I've always been interested, intrigued, with deaf culture but now I feel inspired and called to action and ally-hood (if that's even a word) Five stars and so far the book of the year for me.

Fantastic 5 star read! A heartfelt story with everything- angst, romance, drama, great characters. A captivating look at the deaf community, I was drawn in from page 1. This story taught me and entertained me. I'm so glad this story exists in the world,

This book entertaining, while at the same time informative. I learned a lot about the deaf community that I had not previously known... not only about the controversary surrounding the dictating on how to best communicate, but also about the controversary surrounding cochlear implants. This book challenged me to consider things from a different perspective and opened my eyes to how decisions made by uninformed leaders effect generations within a specific culture.

This took me AGES to read the first half, and then I FLEW through the second half. The set-up was a bit too long and the ending a bit too rushed. That being said, I really enjoyed this book. I learned a lot and appreciated all the different characters’ experience with their own and others’ deafness. It gave me a lot to think about, and will stick with me - as an educator, a parent, and a human - for a good long while. Without reservation I throw my weight behind this recommendation, pacing issues be damned.

I loved this book! I listened to it on audio and read along with the e-book. I really appreciated that the signs were drawn in the book and that the narrator (the author herself I believe) would sign along with the dialogue, which you could hear her hands moving! I liked the different perspectives of Deaf children and hearing adults; this book will certainly expose non-Deaf people to the Deaf community and how important that community it. An excellent book, I'd love to read Novic's other writing.

True Biz was one of my favorite reads in awhile. I devoured this book and loved reading life from a different perspective. I’ve read many, many stories about teenagers in high school, but never one from the deaf community. I also really loved the author’s helpful facts and little tidbits of history interspersed between the chapters of this novel. I learned a lot and also really enjoyed getting to know these characters. I look forward to reading more from this author!!

February is the headmaster of River Valley School for the Deaf. Deaf herself, she has great empathy for the trials her students face. Charlie’s parents are divorced, mainly over their ideas of how her disability should be managed, signing or cochlear implants? She is new to the school after doing poorly in the regular high school. Austin is assigned to help her feel comfortable around River Valley. Elliot is Austin’s roommate, and he has scars of his own. Towards the end of the school year, the three students go missing. They hope to take a stand against the closing of the school.

This book does a great job of allowing the reader to experience the deaf community. We learn about the student's growing up years as they adjust to their deafness. We see how they are treated by those who cannot communicate with them because they do not realize they are deaf and they cannot sign. Throughout the book there are chapters that further explain deafness, signing and cochlear implants. I think good books that highlight disabilities in a positive manner are so important. This book highlights the problems of deafness but also shows how the students suffer the same problems that all teens face. There is a great story that goes along with all the information shared.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for granting me access to this title in turn for an honest review.
True Biz is a book that follows the lives of Charlie, Austin and February as they deal with the threats to their culture and way of life as they know it.
Charlie is a student who is deaf with sn unsuccessful implant that causes her to miss out on language development and sign language as a kid.
Austin is a student whose family is all a part of deaf culture and his school where he is most at home is about to close.
February is the headmistress who can’t accept the fact that these students will miss out on valuable education and language opportunities.
I loved this book and how it shed light on ASL, BASL, and how people of the deaf community communicate. The sign language tips and history helped me learn a lot more about this. As a teacher of special education, I appreciated the sense of inclusivity and the pride in being able to communicate in this way.
If you want a book with tied up storylines, this book is not for you. If you can handle a couple of loose threads at the end of the book, I would definitely encourage this ready.

“True Biz” was absolutely informative for someone like me who had little knowledge of the specifics of the deaf community, the challenges within their schools, and the intersectionality with race. In addition to learning and thinking through some of the ethical and theoretical hearing loss treatments brought up in the book, Novic did a good job creating characters that I was interested in along with their respective stories and struggles. The writing was strong and really had me thinking through some of these ethical dilemmas posed. I enjoyed this one. 4 stars ⭐️. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this copy for review.

An interesting story if you can just focus on the story itself. It’s a bit off putting that between chapters there is pretty much a tutorial on learning sign language which initially begins interesting but then becomes overwhelming. I tended to skip those sections eventually as I was more interested on Charlie and Austin’s story.
At the beginning of the book, February, the headmistress discovers that not two but three kids are missing from a school for the Deaf. Then we are led into the back stories of the three students and February. February was raised as the child of deaf parents but can hear. She struggles with the knowledge of the school closing and how that will affect her life. Austin is the poster child of hearing-impaired royalty at the school. While he could be a day student, his parents always felt that boarding would be more an immersive experience and beneficial experience for him. Because of his heritage and cute looks, he is quite entitled. His roommate is an enigma, rumors abound about him and the school is hopeful that Austin’s good behavior will be influential. But Austin’s perfect world is thrown with the birth of his “hearing” sibling. Then there is Charlie, a transfer student who is quite protected making her rebellious, having never been exposed to other deaf students. Her mother has always tried to make her appear “normal”. Charlie doesn’t know ASL and struggles with her defective hearing implant. What they all have in common is the desire to control their bodies and their future without adults deciding for them.
While the lessons in sign language could be interesting, it becomes more so to travel with Charlie and Austin’s story of first love, rebellion, injustice, and seeking independence to manipulate in a world that is a challenge. However, there were so many storylines that any message became lost and the ending was very bland, no resolution. The reader is left hanging as to how the event of the students missing affected them and the school and the community. I really wanted to like this book because it was so hyped up but I give it just an average read. Well represented and insightful about the hearing impaired but something was missing.

Many thanks to #netgalley #truebiz #saranovic for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Representation: Two deaf MCs, one queer MC, multiple deaf supporting characters (some BIPOC)

**Long review ahead!**

True Biz by Sara Nović. This is a deaf story written by a deaf author, and I was SO excited when this was announced. I was even more excited when I was able to get my hands on an early copy! It’s out now, so you can order it or request it at your local library! I also want to mention that this has already been optioned for a TV adaption and they’re currently in process of finding a cast. Very exciting stuff! For those who may not be familiar with ASL, “true biz” is the English transliteration of a phrase often used in ASL. This phrase can mean several things, like “I’m not kidding you,” “Seriously,” “yes, really!,” and things similar to that.

True Biz follows three different people that have ties to the deaf community in vastly different ways. Charlie has grown up oral with a cochlear implant, has never met another deaf student until she transfers to River Valley School for the Deaf. Austin comes from generations of deaf people, and his world is shaken when his baby sister is born hearing. February is a CODA, child of deaf adults, and the stressed headmistress of RVSD which is a step away from being closed for good.

Rating: 5/5 I immensely enjoyed this book which is all about the deaf community, and the range that exists—no involvement or knowledge about the deaf community, to growing up in it and coming from generations of deaf people.

That’s the short version of what this book is about and my thoughts, but let’s go more in-depth shall we? There obviously will be spoilers, but I won’t be spoiling everything. I think the best way to do this is by looking at the journeys each character takes, because each journey is more or less about an aspect of the deaf community, and that’s also the best way to discuss how the book explores the deaf community.

Let’s start with Charlie, the deaf girl who grew up oral with an cochlear implant. A quick explanation for those who might not be familiar: oral typically means someone who grew up speaking English only, knows zero ASL or any other form of sign such as SEE (Signed Exact English). Cochlear implants are similar to hearing aids, they’re both tools for deaf people to use with hearing. The major difference is that CIs require a very invasive surgery to implant a part of the machine into the user’s head. They used to leave huge scars across the person’s head, but now they’re barely noticeable and done behind the ear. Back to Charlie, she grew up being the only deaf person in her school and she didn’t meet a single other deaf person until she decided to transfer to RVSD. Growing up, she just accepted this as the way of life, and worked very hard on her speech, taking speech therapy for years, struggling to fit in with her peers as she gets older and starts falling behind in class.

Quick tangent here, this is VERY common with deaf children whose parents decide that they want to raise their child orally. There is an initiative to make sure kids don’t fall behind in their important milestones, called LEAD-K. Unfortunately, they focus only on ages 0-5. Once they’re aged out, the kids are more or less on their own. Schools and parents use the “evidence” that their child is doing just fine in school, and often by age 5, it can seem that way on paper because the kid is showing the same as their peers. However, this tends to drop off at around second grade. That age is where you start to see the flaws in the system, and the deaf kids start to fall very behind their peers. The reason? Up to kindergarten, many of the activities done are group ones, or very easy to mimic. As kids get older, they start being forced to focus on their own work and not allowed to glance over at anyone. This is where deaf kids start becoming behind because the teaching has changed completely, and there’s no way to mimic or look over at others’ work to figure out what to do. I could easily go on a whole rant on how the school system, over and over, fails deaf children and their families. But that’s not for right now. Back to the book.

As Charlie starts to struggle a lot more in her classes, her mother doubles down on speaking only, while her dad and Charlie start to explore ASL and look into transferring to a school where she would have full access to education through sign language. When she transfers, she’s more or less thrown into the deep end with fluent signers when she’s still learning. However, she picks up quickly and starts having a sense of belonging. But she’s also fallen in with the not-most-great people because of conflict she’s experiencing with her parents, mainly her mom. These people call themselves anarchists, have done some breaking in, stealing, and some bomb building. This leads to some wild things which I won’t say here, you have to read the book for yourself!

Let’s talk about Austin, the Deaf boy from a Deaf family. He’s the “golden boy” at the deaf school, viewed as nearly royalty because his mother is deaf, and his grandparents are both deaf. His dad is hearing and an interpreter, so everyone in his family signs. Austin’s gone to RVSD his whole life, so he’s never had a life where language deprivation was an experience he went through, though he did hear stories from all his classmates. Life’s good—he has a baby sister on the way, there’s an interesting new student at RVSD and the headmistress asked him to show her around. Charlie and Austin get off to an awkward start because Charlie hasn’t really picked up sign yet, and Austin is fully fluent. Over time, they build a good relationship and even flirt a little. His baby sister is born, everyone’s excited and thrilled. Then the nurse comes back and says that she passed the hearing test. Austin and his mom are disappointed, but he catches his father reacting oddly. As they take the baby home, he notices his dad singing, talking, and being very close to her. Austin accuses him of wanting a hearing baby, and they get into a big fight over that. Culturally, Deaf people are often going to want their children to be Deaf like them, because you me deaf same. There are people out there who say that’s child abuse, but that’s literally what a lot of parents dream of, having a child that’s just like them. I’d flip that on its head and say that not making sure your child has full language access is borderline abuse. I’m not saying that sign is the only option, I’m just saying that it should be one of many options. I’m going to leave Austin here, and move onto February.

February is the headmistress in charge of River Valley School for the Deaf, and she’s a CODA. It’s short for Child of a Deaf Adult, and it’s a way of identifying those who are very much a part of the deaf community, due to being raised by deaf parents, but aren’t deaf themself. CODAs have a very strong cultural identity of their own, separate from deaf people. I also want to clarify something, CODAs are hearing. If you’re deaf and you have deaf parents, there’s no separate signifier for that. You’re simply one of the lucky few who come from deaf families. At the start of this story, February is feeling good about the new school year, looking forward to what the future will bring her students. She gets called in for a meeting with the superintendent, and she’s told in no certain terms that RVSD will be closing at the end of the academic year. February is stunned and tries to argue, but is shut down in every direction. She’s left with wondering what to do, and she’s struggling with this while not telling her wife and dealing with her deaf mother who has dementia. February starts to drown while juggling her regular duties, covering for a teacher who’s absent, her mother’s declining health, and sitting on top of a ticking bomb of information. There’s conflict with her wife over some previous indiscretions, and guilt about not sharing the school closing with her. I want to share here one of the truly best quotes from this book (of which there are many!): “…if hearing people ever studied the power and speed of the Deaf rumor mill, they might think twice about classifying deafness as a ‘communication disorder.’” There are already rumors of the school’s closing circulating, and when it’s finally confirmed through an announcement, outrage spreads through the community, but there isn’t much to be done at that point. February goes through a constant battle of caring for her students but trying to not care too much, lest she gets hurt herself.

There’s a lot that happened that I haven’t even touched on, but I’m okay with that. This book should be read to get the full impact of everything that weaves together into one big beautiful story about our complex deaf community. It’s impossible to cover every aspect of it in one single book, but this book is a great step in the right direction of shining a light on parts of our community that doesn’t often get seen. I don’t really know how to best wrap up this review, other than saying read this if you have the chance. I truly, truly enjoyed this book and probably will re-read it multiple times in the future.

What can I say about this amazing book? I knew nothing of deaf culture and I learned so much from reading it. But more than that, I fell in love with the characters and felt pulled into their world. There are so many ways a book about deaf culture could have gone, but I loved the delicate balance that Sara Novic struck between the two worlds. I love reading about family drama and how the life choices of our parents can have a ripple effect on us and our own children.

Novic carefully crafted a multi-pov story that helped keep the reader turning pages. I truly was engaged the whole time. I do wish there was a little more to the ending, because it felt a bit untidy, but sometimes it helps us readers to put more thought into the story.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes learning about other cultures.

I was excited about this one because it was about Deaf culture but I couldn’t give over the writing style and lack of quotation marks. It made the book difficult and obtuse to read. I felt like it was repetitive and slow in many parts. I liked the idea but the book was flat for me.

True biz (adj/exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk

I really enjoyed this novel, mostly for what I learned about the deaf community, its successes and its battles.

The first time I discovered the beauty of ASL was in college watching a family in a restaurant signing, later I saw the National Theater of the Deaf perform Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales on PBS. Then there was Children of a Lesser God.

For a year or so, I've been enjoying Nicky Elliot's videos "Signing to the Oldies" which are delightful. This month, I happened on True Biz. Behind the Green Door. The ASL is so smooth and I love the old songs that Nicky chooses.

This month, I happened on True Biz. I learned much more about the history and evolution of sign language and its variations while reading True Biz as I followed the teachers and students at the fictional River Valley School for the Deaf. I expect this renewed interest in ASL and the deaf community will result in one of the wandering literary itineraries I love.

I already wanted to see Coda, but now...even more so.

NetGalley/Random House

Fiction. April 5, 2022. Print length: 386 pages.

True Biz is an absolute masterpiece! We need more Deaf literature. So so great. Will read Sara Novic's other work now.

I loved this book! True Biz from Sara Novic was a welcome addition to my appreciation for coming of age and boarding school stories, with a wonderful and important focus on deaf youth. I am grateful to Random House Ballantine for supporting this book and the visibility it provides; thank you for the review copy! I have loved many stories over time about high school youth and their identities (Prep, A Separate Peace, Up the Down Staircase, Aristotle and Dante, You Should See me in a Crown, I Kissed Shara Wheeler, The Hate U Give, Searching for Alaska).

I thought that this book provided a very real examination of to my universal themes on adolescence, which is important to highlight as even disabled/other abled youth still experience typical developmental changes related to identity, sexual awakening, and self understanding during adolescence. There is a tenderness to how the story unfolds as well as a well developed examination of the intersection of deafness and political awakening. Mx. Novic's book is a celebration of the highs and lows of adolescence while standing out from similar books due to the focus on the deaf community. The book also honors that high school youth are not children but are moving instead away from childhood and into a greater awareness of the complexities of, and problems with, the adult world. At the same time, I was reminded that at times adolescents are also simply trying to figure out their lives and who they are and that this time, even if hard, is so necessary to identity and self understanding.

I look forward to more from Sara Novic and highly recommend this for many book clubs as I think the focus on the deaf community is important and valuable as are the general timeless coming of age themes.

True biz (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk

TRUE BIZ is such a cool book, with a lot of heart. A story centered around the fictional River Valley School for the Deaf is interspersed with lessons about A.S.L., deaf history, and deaf culture.

Perspective trades between several characters, most often between headmistress February, new transfer student Charlie, and popular student Austin. February is a child of deaf adults; she's hearing but signs fluently, and clearly cares deeply about her students. Charlie was never taught A.S.L. and has a faulty cochlear implant. Austin comes from a generational deaf family and, comfortable with both the school and A.S.L., is appointed to be Charlie's guide. Lending suspense to what might otherwise be a coming of age tale is underlying concern (dread?) that the school may be forced to close.

I suspect this novel will work well for those who enjoy stories set at boarding schools; I also think it'll be a hit with those who appreciate fiction's ability to inspire empathy and educate. I found the ending left something to be desired and would have liked more character development, but I still recommend TRUE BIZ, especially if you're open to learning more about deaf culture.


Review will be shared on instagram (@Christine_QueenofBooks) and Goodreads the week of April 25. Links will be added to this review when they are available. Thank you!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for the copy of True Biz. I don’t know why I am drawn to stories set in schools, but I’m glad I found this one. I loved reading this book and I learned so much. The story unfolded slowly allowing me to learn more about the characters. The characters were the main focus and I loved the characters! Charlie and Austin were learning to navigate growing up. They were so different but faced the same obstacles teens face: parents, peers, emotions, while dealing with the hearing world and all that entails. I loved how February really cared about the kids in her school. The glimpses into her personal life helped point out the difference between hearing and being deaf. The writing drew me in from the first sentence and never let up. Adding in deaf history, sign language 'demonstrations’ and information was fascinating to me and made the book feel so personal and opened my eyes to many things that had never occurred to me. If you want a book with memorable, likable characters that you really care about and a leisurely storyline that you can immerse yourself into, this is the book for you!