I have mixed feelings about this book. To start, I’m Deaf. I wear hearing aids, lip-read, use ASL, and am oral because I grew up in a hearing family who didn’t learn sign.
I was excited to get this book by a Deaf author - yay representation! As soon as I saw it on Book of the Month, I grabbed it.
I ended up being disappointed with how it was written.
Let me explain.
ASL grammar is very different than English. I am very English-minded and tend to lean more PSE (pidgin-sign English which is a mixture of ASL and SEE - sign extract English). I understand that. But this wasn’t because of ASL grammar.
There were no quotation marks (“”) that denotes talking. I can understand that in the POV of the deaf characters, but not with the hearing headmistress who was a CODA. I struggled to understand if it was thinking, or a part of the paragraph.
Then, the ASL was represented by italics. That was fine - however, it was placed so that it could show 2 different people signing. (One on the left, the next line down, the other on the right. Back and forth) It worked for 2 people, but once there were more than 2, it became complicated to remember who was where and was signing.
The story itself was okay. I felt it gave a lot of background and then after so many pages, it decided it needed to wrap up and within 25 pages, ended. The resolution was fast, and honestly, I don’t feel like it gave a full resolution - it was very open to interpretation.
Finally, the inserts about Deaf culture were… interesting. In my opinion, it was overdone. The inserts about certain signs, classifiers, etc that helped with the comprehension in the story was great tidbit to add. But, the others - Deaf history, etc. I felt it was too much - a little would be fine to add, but this was pushed in your face and turned me off. Much like Kayla said to do her (Charlie) research about BASL (Black ASL), I felt like the hearing who are reading the story, could get on Google and do their own research too. Yes, the story was fictional based on events that have happened, but the readers weren’t wanting a history lesson (it’s not non-fiction).
Mostly, I had high hopes. And this, just was a disappointment.
The reader definitely could feel the plight of the deaf students, the contradictions of a CI (cochlear implant) and other things society has done to “fix” deafness, but the story itself was messy and convoluted.
I gave it a 2.5 stars, because while it is a confusing and somewhat frustrating read, when you can get to it and follow, it’s easy and has so much potential.
Happy Reading!
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