Book Review: True Biz

Synopsis (taken from Goodreads):

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.

True Biz: 3.5/5 stars

Genre: Contemporary fiction/drama

Pages: 386

Published: 2022

I read this book because I saw it all over Bookstagram and it had an interesting plot. I feel like the synopsis was a tad misleading – the storyline was a bit all over the place and hard to follow at times, and the ending was a little underwhelming and abrupt. It’s very character-driven (which is not a bad thing at all!) but not what I was expecting from the description.

I really enjoyed the characters and the different POV between the kids and adults. But what makes TRUE BIZ stand out for me is the exploration of deaf culture, ASL, and language barriers. I loved learning about deaf culture as someone who, admittedly, didn’t know much before reading this book.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes a school/campus setting that explores a topic not written about enough in novels.