Arlo Dilly is a DeafBlind young man who has a secret and a true love. But he lives under strict guardianship with his uncle, a Jehovah's Witness elder. It's not until he enrolls in a writing class, meets a new interpreter Cyrus and befriends Hanne that he begins to discover what living means. Maybe he can live independently and reunite with his true love after all.
This book shares so much information about ASL and what it's like to live as a DeafBlind individual. I gained much more understanding and compassion as I read. I especially liked reading Arlo's chapters in his voice.
The story also addresses emotional abuse, relationships, true friendship, and finding your voice. Each character comes to terms with who they are. I really enjoyed watching them find their truth.
There is tons of visual sexual content - not a fan of that.
We all have value and a purpose. This book reminds me to appreciate everyone and see the good in all people.

# The Sign For Home by author # Blair Fell is one of my favorites for the year so far. It made me laugh and cry. I'm waiting for his next.
Description:
Arlo Dilly is young, handsome and ready to meet the right girl. He also happens to be Deaf blind, a Jehovah's Witness, and under strict guardianship of his controlling uncle....

Huge love for this book! Immediately after finishing I set it aside for a library patron. Thank you to NetGalley for the ecopy.

This was a different type of book that I took a chance on. It’s about a guy with disabilities and his search for love. The characters were interesting. At times the narrative got bogged down, but then corrected itself.
It was an interesting read.

The Sign for Home by Blair Fell is an eye-opening and utterly compelling look into life as a DeafBlind person. This book gives an insider’s perspective of that life while wrapping a brilliant story of human rights, agency, and love around it. The book’s timing couldn’t have better. It was published shortly after the stunning movie CODA (Child of Deaf Adult) came out and won an Academy Award for best movie, plus numerous other awards. Additionally, the brilliant author Sara Nović, released Tru Biz, a book about the deaf community and deaf culture on the same day as The Sign for Home. I couldn’t be happier that books like these, that bring awareness and understanding are becoming mainstream.

Now, back to the book. Arlo is a character you will cheer for, fall in love with and want as your BFF. He’s been dealt a crappy hand in life, which is further complicated by his strict, Jehovah’s Witness practicing preacher of an uncle, who is also his guardian. When Cyril enters his life, as a second interpreter, not a Jehovah’s Witness, Arlo’s life is radically changed. He meets new people, is exposed to new ideas and his college writing professor prompts him to unleash a whole new part of himself.

The story includes a crazy cast of characters that band together for the sake of Arlo and his long-lost girlfriend Shri. This book will give you all the feels, make you want to scream at the system and allow you believe in the goodness of humanity.

This book was eye-opening for me. I see in some other reviews that it's billed as a romance—that wouldn't have been my first classification, but I get it, especially judging by the cover, which reads to me as more of a light-hearted YA. (Full disclosure: I do judge a book by the cover.)

Anyway, while I did have some concerns about certain sensitive topics in the novel (JW religion, treatment of Shri) that might be considered polarizing if depicted unfairly, I loved this story. I find it ironic that people who gave low ratings on this book generally railed against Arlo's POV writing—I found the way the author depicted his perspective illuminating and fresh. The idea that a deaf or deaf-blind person learns English as a second language (after ASL) made the childish writing completely reasonable. The idea that many deaf people have delayed language—as a result of a late diagnosis or the fact that parents don't know how to sign— was both shocking and understandable. Not so sure a community college teacher would be willing to overlook all that in a writing class, but it made for a compelling story.

The characters were endearing and even relatable. While the subject matter was daunting and included quite a bit of cringe-inducing behavior, the author handled these issues with generosity and respect. As I said earlier, I cannot say with any certainty that the deaf-blind or the Jehovah's Witnesses communities were represented fairly here, but I am hoping that the author, editor and publisher did their due diligence. There is nothing better than finishing a book that has a satisfying (ok, completely unrealistic) ending, and feeling that I learned something that might help me be a more empathetic human being.

What made this book so special for me was Arlo's chapter. I loved reading how someone who is deafblind would sound in his head. It was so interesting. Arlo was so sweet and cute and I loved him so much. The thing that made me not like this book as much as I wanted was how long it was. I definitely think it could have been at least 100 pages shorter.

I will be purchasing this for my school library.

This was such a good sty and brought forth many emotions. I laughed and cried I loved the character of Arlo.
Many thanks to Atria and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Wow, I really enjoyed this one - such a unique read. It’s a novel told from two perspectives - Arlo, a 23 year old DeafBlind man, and Cyril, who gets hired to be his secondary interpreter for a community college class and can’t help but get involved in Arlo’s life.

I know some things about regular Deaf life, but I didn’t know anything about the world of the DeafBlind or tactile ASL and found that fascinating and really made me think about what it is like and questions of access and fairness. And I was so mad about how Arlo was treated, not just by the world but by his awful guardian great uncle. And both Arlo and Cyril were just such endearing and sympathetic characters. Even though this might not be considered a page turner in the conventional sense, I truly couldn’t put it down, stayed up way too late reading it and tore through it in around 24 hours.

Arlo is a twenty something man that just wants to live his life and find love. He is DeafBlind and is a Jehovah’s Witness. Currently he is under the strict guardianship of his uncle, so living a “normal” life and finding love is really hard.

Years ago, when Arlo was at boarding school for the Deaf, he found love, but tragedy occurred and their relationship ended.

Now Arlo is taking a college writing class and is assigned a new interpreter. An interpreter that makes Arlo question his uncle’s beliefs and starts to learn the truth about the past.

Arlo is such an inspirational character. He’s funny, sweet, and determined, and the book was very educational in regards of the DeafBlind community. It was a beautiful and heartwarming story of Arlo finding both his freedom and love. I also loved Arlo’s interpreter, Cyril, a gay man just wanting the best for Arlo. This was such an eye-opening read in regards to both those who are DeafBlind and Jehovah’s Witnesses. More people need to pick this one up!

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I requested this book since I haven't read any DeafBlind protagonists before and being written by an ASL interpreter himself, this caught my interest.

However, the minute I dove in the story, I was overwhelmed by all the religious discussions in this book. I understood going in that the protagonist is a Jehovah's Witness, but I didn't realize that it would be so heavy with talks of eternal damnation and such if you do this and such. I always keep an open mind when reading, but this was just a bit too much for me. In the end, I ended up DNFing this one.

Still, thank you to Atria Books, NetGalley and the author for the chance to dip into Arlo's story through this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Arlo Dilly is a deafblind Jehovah’s Witness who has gone through a lot in his short life. Just like everyone else, he wants to experience college and fall in love, and he just may get that chance with the help of his new friends.

This coming-of-age story is nothing like I’ve ever read before. It was challenging at times, but after a few chapters I was able to really flow with the author’s writing. The ASL syntax was interesting and made me really stop to think about how communication works for deaf and deafblind people. I appreciate the representation and look forward to reading more books about the deaf community. The book's length was the reason for my rating (3.5).

Thank you to Blair Fell, Atria, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I have such mixed feelings about this story!! On the one hand I loved that the main character Arlo is a deaf man with low vision who relies on a translator but on the other I wasn't a fan of the Jehovah's Witness elements. The story alternates POVs from Arlo to that of his gay translator who finds it increasingly difficult to remain uninvolved in what's going on in Arlo's life and the way he is continually mistreated by those around him.

I thought the author did a really good job showing how challenging the work of a translator can be but also giving great agency to Arlo who is a smart man, despite how he often comes off as someone of lower intelligence because of his communication capabilities. What I didn't love was how long the story dragged on. I felt it was longer than it needed to be and I also wasn't a huge fan of the Jehovah's witness layer to the story - I could have done without that. I do appreciate it that the religion Arlo was raised in played a part in his feelings of self-worth though. Overall definitely worth a read, especially for anyone who enjoyed True Biz by Sara Novic. Much thanks to NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book follows a deafblind person named Arlo who is looking for an interpreter to help him with a writing class he is taking at a community college. We follow both Arlo and his new interpreter Cyril. While in his writing class Arlo starts to re-think his memories and that maybe he wasn't always told the truth about his past. I had a lot of problems with this book and the first one is that the synopsis pitches this as a romance and that Arlo goes on a journey to find his long lost love. Now this is a spoiler but he does not go to find her till 85% into the book. The entire first portion is his daily life and then flashbacks to when he was 17. This book was not a romance but a book on self discovery, knowing this may have helped me have a better frame of mind when I went into it. My other big problem with this is a personal trigger and that is using religion as a weapon and means of control. Arlo is a Jehovah Witness and this is a main part of his story and while that is not my religion I personally struggle with how it is portrayed in this book. I think there are people out there who will love this book and also need it for the representation that is in it. The author's note went into some detail about that and I can appreciate where she was coming from. Again my problems with this book are mine and I hope if this book is something you were looking forward to reading that you still give it a chance. Thank you Atria for my #gifted copy of this book for review.

This was such a heartfelt novel. It provoked many feelings and I really enjoyed it! It was unlike anything else I've read.

When I finished the book, the first thing I thought was please let their be a sequel! I need to know what happens to Arlo Dilly after being so involved in his life. I learned so much about the deafblind community and the role of the interpreter. I know that will change my perspective forever. Arlo, Cyril, Shri, and every character in this book will live with me for a long time. Good job Blair Fell - you created a story that will resonate with everyone who picks up this book.

I have so many feelings about The Sign for Home. I loved every minute of it. And I'll confess that the ending still brings tears of joy and happiness to my eyes when I think about it. This is obviously my top read of 2022 so far!

I really enjoyed some aspects of this book such as the insight into the DeafBlind community and experience and the translation of ESL to written English. I also had never heard of tactical sign language before and I am glad to know of it now.

However, I had an extremely hard time getting into the story because I did not enjoy reading flashbacks to 13 year old boys discovering masturbation. I’m sure the story as a whole is wonderful but I just was not excited to keep picking up this novel. I don’t want to discourage anyone from picking up this book but I personally don’t think I will finish it.

Loved the idea of a DeafBlind/Deaf man teaming up with his interpreters to find the girl he can’t forget. He was also a Jehovah Witness. His mother died when he was a child. Honestly, it was almost too much going on. I felt like I learned about the DeafBlind community but there was so many issues stuffed in there it bogged down the plot a little. There was a whole subplot about homosexuality and it was upsetting to read how Arlo’s guardians were so bigoted they’d rather let him suffer. I felt like there was material here for 10 different books jammed into one.

The Sign for Home by Blair Fell is a novel about Arlo Dilly, a DeafBlind young man who is trying to gain some independence from his strict Jehovah's Witness uncle. When Arlo was a teenager, he was sent away to a boarding school, where he met and fell in love with S. But something terrible happened, and he was taken away from her. Now he is at college, trying to become a better writer and working with a new interpreter named Cyril. Can Cyril help Arlo become more independent? Can Arlo find love again? This story was very heartwarming, and I learned so much about the DeafBlind community and the Jehovah's Witness community. I did find some of the story to be a bit TMI, but overall I really enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.