True Biz

by Sara Nović

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 - 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.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, Audiobook, Disability, Young Adult, Literary Fiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2022

About the author

Sara Nović is author of the novels TRUE BIZ and GIRL AT WAR, as well as the illustrated nonfiction collection AMERICA IS IMMIGRANTS. Both novels won the American Library Association's Alex Award, and True Biz was a Reese's Book Club pick and NYT bestseller.

MOTHER TONGUE, a new memoir hybrid, is out 5 May 2026 and available for pre-order now.

Sara teaches creative writing and deaf studies, and lives in Philly.

[website] https://sara-novic.com
[bsky] novicsara.bsky.social
[insta/threads] photonovic
[newsletter]: buttondown.com/signs+wonders

Reviews

[Jack Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

True Biz is a way of saying "really" or "seriously" in ASL, which is where the novel gets its title.

Unfortunately, it left me thinking "really......?" and "seriously.......?"

We follow the perspectives of two students and the headteacher of a school for the deaf which is sadly closing down, in a novel peppered with insights on deaf culture and the importance of sign language.

While it was a powerful concept and interesting at times, structurally this is a total mess. We jump around timelines and, ironically, the most captivating story is Elliot's... a character who is peripherally mentioned right at the end. The semi-free-indirect-discourse style didn't really work, and all the characters ended up with the same tone of voice, despite some being adults and some being children. I think this would've benefitted from being written in the first person, or by whittling the core character list down from three to two? Overall it's pretty unsatisfying and left me pretty disappointed, wanting more.

2.75 / 5 rounded up

[Celeste Ng]

Partly a tender coming of age story, partly an electrifying tale of political awakening, partly a heartfelt love letter to Deaf culture, TRUE BIZ is a wholly a wonder. Sara Nović examines the ways language can include, exclude, or help forge an identity—as well as what it means to carve out a place for yourself in a world that sees you as other.

[jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

i learned SOOOOO MUCH from this book. definitely one of the most educational stories i have read in awhile and i dont think it would be an over-exaggeration to say this should be required reading.

and this for sure would have been a 5 star read if it was only about charlie and austin and the students at the school. i found february and the adult POVs to pale in comparison to the students, so much so that i started skimming februarys chapters towards the end just so i could quickly get back to the kids. i understand why the adult POVs are included in terms of giving the reader the full picture, but i think the story could have also succeeded without them.

because charlie, austin, and co. do a great job at demonstrating the difficulties that inherently affect the deaf community, but they also are great examples of how those challenges are constantly being overcome. the students’ lives and experiences at school are amazing springboards for discussing language, accessibility, cultural differences, and acceptance.

i 100% fully recommend this book! especially if you ever wanted to learn more about deaf culture and ASL!

↠ 4.5 stars

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

“True Biz” by Sara Novic opened my eyes to the deaf community and their struggles. I did not know how disenfranchised the community is. This is a beautiful story that shows how deaf adolescents struggle with mainstream academia. Most important for me is the information regarding the cochlear implants. The history of that device is frightening.

But I digress. True Biz is an ASL expression meaning “seriously” or “this is important”. Novic includes some ASL diagrams between chapters which I found to be very interesting. She not only tells a story of a teenage girl coping in a hearing world while being deaf, but she is also educating the reader to the rich history of ASL and the deaf culture.

Charlie is a fifteen-year-old girl with a faulty cochlear implant which didn’t work for her. She was mainstreamed into high school after garnering advice from the medical and Academic professionals. Those professionals also discouraged Charlie’s parents to allow her to learn ASL. The professional opinions are that children should be main streamed and taught to read lips. Charlie does not do well in her high school and wanted to go to a deaf school. Her parents are divorced and there is a custody battle. Her mother wants her to stay in the high school thinking Charlie will blend in, and her father wants her to go to the local deaf school. Her father won.

Most of the story involves Charlie’s transition into the deaf school. She does not know any ASL. The headmistress of the deaf school is a CODA, aka child of deaf adults. Thus, she can hear but is fluent in ASL and the culture of the deaf. The chapters are broken up between Charlie’s exploits as she acclimates and February’s (the Headmistress) experiences.

As the novel opens, February is in flux because three of her students are missing, Charlie being one of them. As February arranges a search, Novic shifts the story to Charlie six months earlier. February is arranging to Charlie to start boarding in her school. February’s parts provide the reader with the professional situation occurring right now in the deaf community. Her chapters provide information on America’s outlook on deaf children and the cultural extinction of deaf heritage.

Because Charlie was raised like she was a hearing student, she feels alienated at the deaf school. She cannot sign as fast as the students; she cannot express herself because she doesn’t know the language. Now she’s further alienated from both the hearing and the deaf community. Adding to that frustration, her implant is acting up.

What I learned about the cochlear implants is heart wrenching. The company that made them knew they were faulty, yet surgeons continued to implant them. Some of the problems included electrical shocks, convulsions, and vomiting. And the FDA allowed them to continue to sell the faulty product!

Thank you Sara Novic for illuminating me to the deaf community and culture. I learned so much! Plus, the story is engaging in it’s own right.

5 glowing stars!!!

[Cath Y. (riso.allegro) · Rating 1 out of 5]

A fuck-off message to spoiler police:
Not my problem if you're allergic to spoilers and still choose to seek out and read a detailed one-star review. I don't use spoiler alerts because GR hides the entire review. Read at your own risk and TOO BAD if it upset you. 🙄🙄🙄

REVIEW BEGINS:

I will not mince my words. True Biz is an example of taking an interesting, important, and underrepresented subject and writing a terrible book about it. It is stagnant, disjointed, and melodramatic.

The story is centred around a fictional school for deaf students that is about to be closed down. There are three main characters: the headmistress February, a student called Charlie whose mother does not accept her daughter’s deafness, and another student called Austin who comes from a family with multiple generations of deaf people. There are attempts to depict how deaf youth have no control over their bodies, and how they are frustrated due to language deprivation and continual misunderstanding. Interspersed between the fictional narrative, there are nonfiction snippets about ASL, deaf culture, civil disobedience and anarchism.

This all sounds very good, and that is why I picked up the book. Unfortunately, the premise is far superior to the actual execution.

The characters are completely flat. The fact that every character is deeply flawed is not a problem per se, the problem is that the main characters don’t develop, and the side characters are just token characters. There are lesbians, anarchists, POC, a victim of religious violence, but they are not explored in depth. February’s amnesiac mother and Gabrielle the Mean-Girl-style teenage queen add absolutely nothing to the story. The anarchists are there as fillers. Kayla the roommate is a token black person brought in just to touch on BASL (Black American Sign Language). Elliot, with the sad backstory told in a soppy way, is also abruptly spliced in near the end of the book.

The plot is a melodramatic mess, the story completely lost in the jumble of subplots. The marital trust issues and the lesbian love triangle between February, Mel and Wanda leave a bad taste in the mouth while adding absolutely nothing to the story. Similarly, the adolescent bitch fights and love triangles between Austin-Charlie-Gabrielle and Charlie-Austin-Slash are equally longwinded and pointless. The main plot line — the future of the runaway teenagers and other deaf students after the imminent closure of the school — is left hanging. You don’t know anything more at the end than at the beginning of the book.

Two real life horror stories are woven into the novel (Charlie forced to get implanted again despite getting a brain electrocution due to an implant malfunction; Elliot whose mother turned crazy religious after his father’s death and ganged up with church people to pour hot oil down his ears), but rather than presenting a nuanced exploration of how these traumatic events make the characters feel, Novic only exploits the shock factor, resulting in a narrative that is melodramatic to the point of being bathetic.

The best bits of this book are the nonfiction snippets, which says a lot about its quality as a work of fiction. At that point anyone interested in deaf people would be better off reading a nonfiction book that explains sign language and deaf culture in a more in-depth and systematic manner.

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

well, i caved to peer pressure (read a beloved book very much after everyone else had already read it).

this is my story:

this book is pretty good.

mostly, it is very expert on a topic that is very underdiscussed, and that aspect is very interesting. my sister (the love of my life)'s boyfriend (the love of her life) is a coda, and reading this book helped me learn baseline things in a very entertaining way without having to make either of them Educate Me.

unfortunately, the rest of the book was less impressive: the story felt a bit disjointed and the characters unmemorable.

but this book gave me a lot!

bottom line: more interesting books that teach me things, please. everything else is bonus.

3.5

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really thought I would love this book, immersing myself in deaf culture, but I found myself putting it down and not particularly wanting to pick it back up. It was very slow and seemed very YA. The writing was good, the story meh, but the nonfiction deaf culture and sign language education were by far the best parts. The ending was very abrupt (and bizarre) and didn’t resolve any of the issues discussed in the story, it left everyone and everything completely unresolved, which felt hugely disappointing.

[Lisa of Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!

True Biz is an incredibly gripping tale of River Valley, a school for the deaf. Two of the students are featured: Austin Workman and Charlie Serrano.

Austin Workman is a popular student who comes from a supportive deaf family. His mother is expecting a new baby, and he has to navigate how the new baby will change his family dynamic.

Charlie is a new student to River Valley. For years, she has been bounced around her local school district, spending time in special education and dabbling in mainstream. Her mother is focused on how things look, forbidding Charlie from signing, and forcing her into a cochlear implant. How will Charlie fare at River Valley with her limited sign language?

February Waters is the headmistress at River Valley, trying to look after the students while trying to stop the school from closing due to budgetary cuts.

This book came to my attention from Booked for Lunch, my delightful reading group at the Troy Public Library. Visit your local library today!

There is a lot to unpack in this book.

One theme is the idea of River Valley closing. The students will have to return to their home school districts. Through Charlie, we see her moving through her educational system. Because she can only hear about 60% of the words, Charlie doesn’t always know what is going on in the classroom. The teacher assume that she is slow, and she is placed in special education. Eventually, she is put into the mainstream classrooms with little support.

Special education……ugh. I have a very fraught relationship with special ed.

One of my family members has a written expression deficiency. He can’t spell most words even small ones. He is about 5 grade levels behind in spelling. The school at first tried to brush him off entirely by saying that spelling is only one component of writing. Overall, he is a great writer so the school wanted to leave him misspelling most of his words.

Of course, that wasn’t going to happen on my watch. The school agreed to provide spelling instruction on a weekly basis. However, my family member reported that his spelling instructor was literally doing nothing. She was sitting at the back of the class. This couldn’t possibly be true! So I called up the spelling instructor to hear her side of the story. She confirmed that she just sits at the back of the class. When I asked her, “So who is doing the spelling instruction that is legally binding?” She responded that she didn’t know how to teach spelling.

Let’s just say that my lawyer and I had a meeting with the school.

Unfortunately, my family member said that his instructor only works with him. This instructor is assigned to four or five other children while she continues to sit at the back of the class, doing nothing.

The problem with Special Education is that the students are the most vulnerable. They can’t always communicate that their teachers are doing nothing, have given up on them.

But don’t the teachers have to meet certain goals? In theory, yes. But in reality, the teachers are the ones filling out the goal reports (magically they always meet their goals). The teachers can put their hands on the scale. They can prompt the student, even providing answers to write down. The teachers are evaluating themselves.

Also, at least at the Troy School District, special education does not report to the building principle. Special Education reports to the Director of Special Education who sits in a Central Building. In other words, the boss of Special Education is not even in the same building as the Special Education teachers. There is almost no oversight.

The school doesn’t want to pay for specialized, effective services. The first solution seems to be trying to throw technology at a student. Why teach spelling when you can just thrust an iPad into a student’s hands? I have no doubt that a school district would try something similar for a deaf student.

Secondly, the book mentions that deafness can be hereditary, that with genome editing it can be eradicated, there is nothing wrong with being deaf, and there is no need for “designer babies.”

For me, this hits a bit differently as I have two hereditary defects: Celiac Disease and Hyperprolinemia Type II.

When I was 35, I couldn’t walk straight. My left leg would not respond to commands properly and would bolt off to the left. I would constantly walk into walls. I was stumbling and fainting between 15-20 times per day. Head-to-toe, I was covered in rashes. After eating just a little bit of food, I would run for the trash can to be sick.

My heart rate was over 230 beats per minutes. I was setting off all of the alarms in the hospital, and I would wake up to a roomful of medical professionals, waiting with a crash cart, waiting for me to die and shock me back to life.

Would I wish that on anyone? No.

True Biz is the best kind of storytelling. It shows various experiences without preaching. Statistics don’t change hearts and minds. Stories do.

Fascinating read and highly recommend if you enjoy books with a social justice flavor.

Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta

[Jenny Lawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great book. A coming-of-age novel that is also a love letter to deaf culture.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

True Biz means seriously, definitely, real-talk in ASL and this book definitely captures the real talk about being deaf. The story is told from multiple POVs, including the head of school and several students at a boarding school for the deaf. I was engaged from the beginning. This is one of those books that taught me something and made me understand a different group of people while telling a great story. It brings out all sorts of things I was totally unaware of - the history of deaf people and their civil right battles, the problems with cochlear implants, the difference between ASL and BASL, how some parents and schools don’t allow kids to learn ASL in an effort to mainstream them.
I could relate to all three of the main characters. February, the head of the school and a CODA, is dealing with serious budget cuts and her aging mom who has dementia. Charlie is a deaf student. Her hearing mom has never accepted her daughter’s deafness and thought a cochlear implant should solve all problems. Austin is deaf and part of a family that has had multiple generations of deaf people. The contrast between his upbringing and Charlie’s is poignant but even his world is rocked when his parents have a daughter who can hear.
I had mixed feelings about the intermittent chapters that mimicked an ASL lesson, Wikipedia pages, etc. While I liked what I learned from them, I also felt they took me out of the story.
I hadn’t realized that Novic was deaf. But it stands to reason as she is able to convey everything so well.
It did feel a little weird to be listening to a story about the deaf. But the main narrator, Lisa Flanagan, did a superb job.

[Rachel L · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars!

True Biz is told from two perspectives, the first is February, a headmaster of a school for the deaf and a CODA (child of deaf adults). The second is Charlie, a teenage girl born deaf and who has had a malfunctioning cochlear implant for much of her life. Charlie has hearing parents and only in coming to this school for the deaf does she get to learn ASL. February faces the possibility of the entire school closing down, coming to terms with that and also trying to do what’s best for her students. The result, a captivating slice of life story set in the halls of this school.

I really enjoyed this book, so much. It took me a little bit of time in the beginning to get into the pacing of the book, but once I got it I didn’t want to put it down. I thought the author did a great job at developing all her characters and the situations they were in seemed believable. I want to clarify that just because one of the characters is a teen, this does not mean this book is a YA novel, it is very much an adult novel. I thought the book presented the issues of the deaf community in a respectful and empathetic way, and I hope that people who read this book will change their previous (maybe incorrect) perceptions about the deaf community and its nuances for the better.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook….read by Lisa Flanagan, and Lisa Griffith
….10 hours and 23 minutes

“True Biz”…or ‘True Business’ ….is an ASL expression for “sure enough”…..or “no bullshit”.
ASL is an internet abbreviation for age, sex, and location…usually asked as a question in romantic or sexual contacts online. It is also used as Internet slang for the intestify expression “as hell”.

We enter River Valley School for the Deaf with three main characters….February, Charlie, and Austin….and become a part of the deaf community. [sign language, lip reading, disability, and civil rights]…..
Through the storytelling….we become a part of the emotional deaf community as well….
….family life, friendships, first love, disunity, disharmony, quarreling, loss, and a full range of personal and political struggles….

The issues of anarchy, messiness, diversity, injustice, and protests weaved into deaf culture.

I thought this book was really good…..brings important awareness.

To be honest, ‘some’ of the content of the storytelling itself grew tiresome—but the profound
context from which this book is told - is superb.

Years ago, when our now forty year old daughter, was fourteen, she was cast in the leading role of Helen Keller, — a local equity theater company.
She spent several weeks studying at The California school for the Deaf and Blind in Fremot California (founded in 1860). in preparation for the role.
A very sad part of this book was in the Author’s notes.
She listed the many schools for the deaf around the country that closed.
The National Association of the Deaf (NAN) is alarmed by the growing trend among some state governments seeking to cut costs by underfunding and closing schools for the deaf around the country.
I agree with the outrage—
Many Government officials and legistrators do not comply with the Individual Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal law that protects the students who are deaf and hard of hearing receive a free public appropriate public education.

Sara Novic is a deaf rights activist.
I appreciate the exposure and awareness she brings to me and many of us fiction readers….
the importance of the challenges — the blind spots many of us never gave a second thought about.

Personally… I think sign language should be the second most important language taught around the world. It’s a beautiful language—lovely as can be.
People, like my husband who live with tinnitus—who can’t be in a crowd with a lot of chatter going on — would love to go to a busy bar and or restaurant where only sign language was allowed.
Can you imagine?
No speaking voices allowed in this venue!
Just imagine the peaceful respect and beautiful surroundings!

4 strong stars

[Sarah-Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find myself wanting to pick up several cases of Sara Novic's True Biz, so that I can keep them in the trunk of my car and shove them at all my favorite readers. This book needs to be read. It needs to be read now.

Novic's novel follows a year in the life of teenagers at a residential school for the deaf and the headmistress of that school. Before I address the book itself, I want to say something about my contact with/knowledge of the deaf community. I'll try to keep my explanation brief because the book is really what matters, but what the reviewer does and doesn't know can also be important.

In my years teaching university-level writing, I've worked with five deaf students. Years ago after working with the first, I thought to myself "I'd better go learn ASL (American Sign Language)" with absolutely no sense of how arrogant that idea was. I'm good with languages and usually learn the necessities for basic social interactions pretty quickly—so why not?

Here's why not. Because a) ASL is a language with an absolutely unique grammatical structure that my romance-language learning self was completely unprepared for and b) ASL, like any language, isn't just a communication system—it's the lynch pin of an entire community—and really learning ASL requires integrating one's self into the culture of that community as fully as possible. I learned that signing ASL was not something I could even begin to accomplish with a few semesters of community college classes. And I learned how absolutely remarkable were both my students who were determined to function in two vastly different languages and cultures and the translators working with them.

True Biz opens up the linguistic and cultural complexity of the deaf world—and its complicated, often tense relationship with the speaking world. The characters reflect a number of the experiential strands lived by members of the deaf community.

February, the school's headmistress, is the hearing daughter of deaf parents, who is fully fluent in both spoken English and ASL. As a child, she found navigating between the noisy world of public school and the lively, but silent world of her parents painful both physically and emotionally.

Charlie, the deaf daughter of hearing parents and one of the school's newest students, had a cochlear implant as a toddler, but the hearing-world functionality her doctors promised never emerged. Instead, she's been spending years of her life being prohibited from learning ASL and fighting the discomfort and distraction of the implant while relying on lip reading that leaves her guessing about what those around her are saying. She perceives her parents' efforts to keep her in the hearing world as a demonstration of shame they feel as a result of her deafness.

Austin is "third generation deaf" (my tern). His mother and her parents are deaf; his father is an ASL interpreter who functions comfortably in both deaf and hearing communities. When his younger sister is born and turns out to be hearing, every member of his family worries about the impact this difference will have on the family's bonds. In particular, Austin is shaken by the ways his sister's arrival may change his relationship with his father.

There's a moment of tension in the novel when students clash over the use of ASL and BASL (Black American Sign Language). Historically, so many U.S. schools, including schools for the deaf, were segregated that the Black and white deaf communities have diverged lingusitically. And as is the case with "standard" versus vernacular English, one dialect is often seen as superior to others.

Novic makes an absolutely brilliant move in structuring her novel, regularly inserting excerpts from texts on signing ASL and Wikipedia articles related to deaf history and culture. The characters speak for themselves, but readers are given a bit of a formal structure within which they can perceive those characters.

The plotting in True Biz, which I've been carefully tiptoeing around in hopes of avoiding spoilers, is rich, complicated by issues like educational funding, concerns about the "ebbing" (again, my term) of deaf culture, and anarchism. Every character is living a driven life, one that is based on resistance to the status quo.

At any rate, as I said in my introduction, True Biz is a book that needs to be read—now. Novic has powerful stories to tell and a great deal to teach hearing readers. I may not buy entire cases of True Biz, but I will almost certainly be buying multiple copies of this title to share with others.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

[Rachel Hanes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel so bad for this rating, as I really wanted to love this book and I had extremely high expectations for it.
This was Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club pick for April 22’, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I do not know much about the deaf community, and I was hoping that True Biz would help me understand what they go through and what it is like.

Unfortunately this book seems to be written for teenagers (maybe if it was labeled as a YA book, my expectations may have been different going into it). And while I did learn quite a bit about sign language and the different forms of it, the storyline itself was trying to be too political to get any real understanding or even compassion for any of the characters and what life with a hearing disability is like. Like I said, I feel like a heartless person but I did not care for any of the characters (except Elliot).

This book was also rather long. It took me a week to read True Biz because I just couldn’t get into it (and I usually finish a book within three days). I did however enjoy the author’s note at the end of the book. This book ended up not being my cup of tea, but going by other reviews it worked for a lot of people. So, I may or may not have the unpopular opinion…

[Kristin Martini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking forward to this one when it was in this month’s BOTM selection. There was much to like - an own voices story about a community I don’t know much about. Interpersonal conflicts on the family level, within the Deaf community, and in a more general sense. And the informational bits interspersed with ASL and various other info was useful.

That said - I almost felt like I was reading an unfinished manuscript? The ending was so rush and felt entirely incomplete. Which was a shame based on how much I was enjoying it for the first two-thirds or so.

[Alwynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Award-winning author Sara Nović’s second novel’s rooted in her experiences in the Deaf with a capital "D" community. It takes three characters, all connected to a school for the Deaf in a rundown area of Ohio. The central characters are headteacher February who lives with her wife on campus, the hearing child of deaf adults (CODA); Charlie a teenager whose hearing parents have brought her up in seclusion from Deaf culture; and Austin her classmate who comes from a family that has included deaf members for generations. The plot revolves around the conflicts that arise between parents and children, in a system that routinely privileges educational mainstreaming and “assimilation” into hearing society.

The approach here reminded me of writers like Jodi Picoult who’ve made a career out of fictionalising ethical and social issues. Here Nović offers an illuminating glimpse of the complexities of Deaf culture, its history, its language and its endangered future. Nović’s story’s interspersed with passages from non-fiction work that builds on aspects of her plot, and, strikingly, excerpts from a manual on American Sign Language (ASL). Although these elements could seem like awkward interruptions, I found they greatly enhanced the impact of the book. The ASL sections were particularly useful as a means of representing the intricacies of language systems developed by Deaf communities. As well as the ways in which these reflect their contexts: in the US for example alongside ASL is Black ASL (BASL), a related language that grew out of the segregation of Black children in a racist environment.

Charlie’s chapters further illustrate ongoing divides between hearing and deaf groupings. Like many deaf children of hearing parents, she has been surgically altered by the addition of a cochlear implant, with an accompanying emphasis on total immersion in a hearing environment meaning that she has never had access to ASL; while being in a non-specialist school means that she has only experienced herself as "broken” in comparison to the hearing children she’s surrounded by. But as one of the children for whom implants have been unsuccessful, she’s effectively brutally isolated. It’s only when she transfers to a school for the Deaf that she gains a peer group and learns about the rich culture she’s been excluded from.

The image that’s commonly associated with deafness in the past is that of Helen Keller triumphantly learning to sign, finally able to connect with her family, but it turns out Charlie’s experience is far more representative of the treatment of the deaf in American history - often having their hands tied behind their backs so they were unable to sign or form connections with other deaf people. All part of a drive, tied to the influential eugenics movement, to force integration and discourage relationships between deaf individuals. Nović convincingly compares these policies to recent instances of the forcible implantation of deaf children on child welfare grounds. Nović’s narrative links Charlie’s experiences to this past, as well as to the rise of the Deaf Civil Rights movement.

Nović’s approach can come across as a little heavy-handed and didactic at times but it’s never less than fascinating particularly for anyone, like me, who has a rudimentary understanding of these issues and this history. Although it’s also true that Charlie’s sections have greater force here than either February’s or Austin’s. This is by no means a slick piece of literary fiction but it’s a significant one, that highlights a multitude of issues and talking points, perhaps why it’s been selected for Reese Witherspoon’s book club and has now been optioned for television. Novic says she wanted people to see and understand the Deaf community, and appreciate the richness, complexity and value of its culture, rather than focus on deafness as a problem to be fixed, and as far as I’m concerned she’s more than successful.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Little Brown for an ARC

Rating: 3/3.5

[Nathalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

As an advocate for the Deaf community, I was so excited for this book!! The synopsis promised real issues and real issues we were given. I don’t think this counts as a spoiler… but it includes Deaf lessons on their history, signs, ASL grammar, everything and I was blown away by this inclusion. The two Deaf teenagers had their own complicated issues and their lives reflected conflicts within the Deaf community.

But… the story itself was meh. While real issues were examined in Charlie and Austin’s lives, not enough time was spent on them. I wanted the focus to be on student lives. The headmaster had way too much focus on her personal problems and frankly, I didn’t care. Towards the end another student’s perspective is added and it was great!

Lastly the ending…. It was utter shit tbh. This book included weird additions to the lessons (I’ll include the spoiler at the very bottom) and the book took a violent turn. It was all just odd and not necessary to their story at all. I will say that this author definitely had a political agenda and encouraged violence.



Spoiler below…












Lord, okay.









So… what the hell is up with them making bombs and wanting to bomb the CI plant?? The author even included a page on how to make the bomb….
Let me back up… after Charlie realizes her parents want to get her implanted again, she wants to leave town. But instead of just leaving, she uses her sketchy friends and their violent (we have to beat the Man by lighting cars on fire) agenda. They carry bombs to the cochlear plant. Why? Because they thought this was the same thing as staging a peaceful protest back in the 80s when Gallaudet was fighting for a Deaf president. NOT THE SAME THING. I was irked by the inclusion on the bomb recipe and articles about anarchists. It totally distracted from the story and made it something that it didn’t need to be. I want to support a Deaf author but I won’t be reading her other books.

[Rincey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is between a 3 and 4 star read for me.

I loved reading a story that centered around multiple deaf characters and how ASL is incorporated into the story. And following multiple characters who have different relationships to deafness and ASL was great. But that also led to a slower paced book that felt less cohesive for a while. It took about 200 pages before I actually got settled into the story.

Also the end is really rushed and the romance aspects of the book felt completely unnecessary. And in trying to provide lots of POVs of life in the deaf community, there are one off chapters from some side characters that felt kind of shoe horned in to provide that wider representation. I have mixed feelings because I get why it was done but also didn't love the execution of it

Watch my full review: https://youtu.be/y2eYz0O9Yfk

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overall well-written and cohesive book about deaf culture. I liked how Sara Novic includes three-dimensional deaf characters with messy emotions and relationships. She portrays the oppression the deaf community faces but also focuses on their activism and strength. Novic’s writing didn’t always wow me, though True Biz still manages to be both educational and entertaining.

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her second novel, after the brilliant Girl at War, Nović takes on a heavy burden - educating readers about the deaf community, its history of oppression, cochlear implants, the basics of ASL and telling a coherent story. And she does it remarkably well! I was engrossed from the first page. Many of the issues in the novel are familiar to me as I have a family member who has been hard of hearing since birth, but I still found the education invaluable. I hope this novel finds wide readership - its importance goes beyond its entertainment value. (Note: I recommend reading the print version as there are illustrations of ASL before each chapter)

[Miya (severe pain struggles, slower at the moment) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a soft spot for coming of age stories, but this one really got to my heart. The representation has been needed for a very long time. Easy read that you just don't want to put down. All the feels, beautiful story.

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! True Biz is a fast-paced novel about deaf high school students who have challenging home situations but come together at River Valley School for the Deaf. The book covers eugenics, cochlear implants, ASL: American Sign Language, BASL: Black American Sign Language, abuse, drugs, and protests. A lot is packed into this very memorable book.

Sara Novic, a deaf author, advocate, and interpreter skillfully weaves historical content, sign language exercises, and riveting drama into a rich tapestry.

[Chelsea (chelseadolling reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

So!!!!! good

CW: dementia, disordered eating, death of a loved one, religious abuse

[bookishcharli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely incredible, focussing on the stories and stigmas of growing up deaf, the controversy of cochlear implants, teenage relationships and the usual parent/teenage dramas. But not only do we get to meet some amazing characters in this book -February, Charlie and Austin, but this book is filled with pages of American Sign Language (ASL), information about the discrimination of the deaf community and resilience that people within this community have to fight for what’s right for themselves, and for others.

I learnt so much about ASL, the lack of resources available and the sad reality of the want of understanding what it means to be deaf and to be part of that community. I cannot recommend this book enough, as someone who knows next to nothing about the deaf community it was a real eye opener for me. Once you start this book you won’t stop.

Thank you so so much to Little Brown for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first one star I have given a book. I thought that the perspective on deaf culture was riveting and that part of the storytelling raised a lot of important themes that need to be thought about. I was really excited about the book until the last 1/3 or 1/4 of the book. A bunch of teenagers think it’s a good idea to go bomb a plant with pressure cookers and metal shrapnel waiting to explode everywhere? None of them really seem conflicted or think twice about it? The teacher just lets the other guys do whatever with the pressure cookers and she doesn’t report anything? And smiles when she hears about the explosion? And I don’t think the author is really looking to engage in or create a dialogue about how to respond to injustice - she even includes bomb-making instructions in the book!

I live in Boston and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings were horrific. The story’s detail of the pressure cookers and nails and shrapnel is just way off mark. Our society HAS to respond to injustice, but bombing everything we don’t like CANNOT be the answer. I am very displeased with the endorsement this story gives to using violence as a response and am questioning why this was a book of the month pick.

[Blaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charlie was aware from a tender age that she was not the daughter her mother wanted.
…
Nine out of ten deaf kids had hearing parents, and those parents held Deaf fate in their hands—the fate of their own children, of course, and the future of the Deaf community at large. Problem being, most parents understood deafness only as explained to them by medical professionals: as a treachery of their genes, something to be drilled out.

True Biz tells the story of one year in the lives of several people connected to the fictional (but quite realistic) River Valley School for the Deaf in southeastern Ohio. Charlie is a new student at the school, the dead child of hearing parents who have always insisted she attend mainstream schools even though her cochlear implant has never worked properly. Austin is a fifth generation deaf child, the golden boy from a golden family. His roommate Eliot has suffered some type of trauma recently that he won’t share with the other students. And the headmistress February, a hearing child of dead adults, is struggling with an aging mother, a jealous wife, and the knowledge that the district has secret plans to close River Valley at the end of the school year.

On one level, True Biz is a familiar combination of family, teen, and school drama. We explore Charlie’s fraught relationship with her parents and with students at both her old and new schools. All the students are on the prowl for sex and alcohol. February’s problems are familiar to anyone who’s reached middle age. But all of those typical dramatic beats—so often revolving around failures of communication—feel fresh because they are all built on the framework of this deaf community. The author has constructed a cast of characters that allow for a deep dive into divisive issues in the deaf community: cochlear implants, immersion v. the use of ASL, and mainstreaming, just to name a few.

As it slowly builds towards its climax, as we fully grasp the traumas and pressures these characters are under, True Biz surprisingly reminding me of the movie Do the Right Thing, which I promise is high praise. It’s got a few rough edges, and I didn’t love the ending, but True Biz is a well-written, completely absorbing story. Highly recommended.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Super easy read. For sure learned a lot about Deaf culture, history, and language. A little long and the story was very predictable but glad I read it.

[Maria Yankulova · Rating 5 out of 5]

От април месец чакам тази книга да излезе на български и да я прочета! Изключително важна! Надявам се да успее да достигне до повече български читатели.

Привидно роман за подрастващи, и съзряването “Честно казано” ще ви потопи в света на глухата общност и дългогодишните борби и трудности, с които глухите се сблъскват. Аз бях изцяло незапозната и признавам, че съм доста шокирана от всичко, което научих.

От всяка страница си личи колко лична е книгата за авторката Сара Нович, която също е глуха. За мен романа е обяснение в любов към културата на глухата общност и традиции.

Сюжета се върти около Чарли и Остин, които учат в училището за глухи *Ривър Вали*. Чарли е от семейство на чуващи родители и носи кохлеарен имплант, не владее жестовия език. Семейството на Остин е известно в глухата общност, а майка му, баби и дядовци са възпитаници на училището. Важна роля заема и директора на училището - Фебруъри, която е чуващо дете на глухи родители.

Сара Нович ни въвлича в много сложни и емоционални семейни отношения - чуващи деца на глухи родители, глухи деца на чуващи родители. На моменти ми беше много тежко и трудно да осмисля собствените си емоции. Достатъчно трудно е да бъдеш родител, а в романа нещта са още по-драматични. Шокирана съм от желанието на някои родители да “поправят” децата си, поставяйки им импланти, които повече им вредят. Нежеланието да научат жестовия език…

Оформлението на книгата е чудесно. Има много полезна информция за жестовия език и исторически факти за глухата общност. Поздравления за издателство Лемур и всички, които са работили по книгата.

Признавам, че ми се искаше друг, по-завършен финал, но и този няма да повлияе на оценката ми от 5⭐️!

Не подминавайте романа!

[Holly R W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was drawn to this novel after watching the movie "CODA", which is about a hearing daughter with deaf parents who has a talent for singing. It was beautifully filmed and showed a deaf family navigating their day to day life.

"True Biz" is written by Sara Novic, who is deaf herself. At its heart, the novel is about a teen aged girl named Charlie. Charlie is deaf and her parents are hearing. At age 2, she underwent surgery for a cochlear implant. At the time, her parents were told that with speech and hearing therapy, Charlie's implant would enable her to hear and function in the hearing world. They were also told that ASL (American Sign Language) should not be taught to Charlie, as it would inhibit her learning to use her implant. Unfortunately, Charlie's implant never functioned as promised and she grew up not able to communicate with others effectively - a very lonely, isolated and frightening situation.

The book starts when Charlie is a troubled teen and her parents divorce. Custody is awarded to Charlie's father, who has more sympathy with Charlie's plight than her mother. One of his first decisions is to enroll Charlie in a residential School for the Deaf. The head mistress of the school (named February) is herself a hearing adult child of deaf parents. She is a passionate advocate for her students. February tells Charlie is that she has been speech deprived and that learning ASL will change this.

Just as Charlie is immersed into deaf culture and ASL, the book is written in such a way to immerse the reader into this world also. Conversations are italicized and people speak to each other side by side on the page; Illustrations of ASL hand gestures are included and explained. There are gaps with omitted words, due to Charlie's not being able to either hear them or recognize the ASL signs for them.

I appreciated learning about the history of the deaf community that is included in the book. The story itself is riveting. I think "True Biz" will be one of my favorite books for 2022.


Here is a podcast interview with the author. https://lithub.com/the-page-is-so-fla...

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever finished a book and thought, I'm so glad you exist? That's how I feel about this book.

I'm ashamed to say I cannot think of a book I've read that features one deaf character, let alone a full cast. I've certainly not ever thought about Deaf Culture. 

Meet February, Charlie, and Austin. Through these three main characters, we enter a school for the Deaf. We meet hearing families with deaf kids, deaf families with hearing kids. Families that can accept deafness and those that cannot.

We learn about the history of sign language, the racism, and culture. We learn about how people navigate a world that is silent.

Sara Novic, the author, is also deaf and is an activist for the deaf. This book feels like a form of activism.

Thank you for existing True Biz. Thank you for opening my eyes to something a week ago I'd never considered. For educating me and making me more away of ableism.

I won't forget this book.

Five stars.