Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

True Biz by Sara Nović

23 reviews

lovelymisanthrope's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I received a copy of this book as a gift.
"True Biz" is a story that follows several students, and the headmistress, at a school for deaf students. The students at River Valley School for the Deaf just want to act like every other teenager in the world. February, the headmistress, is fighting to keep the school open, because she knows how important a school like this is for deaf students. Charlie is a transfer student who has never spent much time with other deaf people. Austin is trying to come to terms with the fact that his baby sister was just born and can hear, despite being born into a predominantly deaf family.
I believe this is the first novel I have read that has deaf representation. I found the commentary on ableism and racism associated with American Sign Language to be fascinating, and something that I had never really thought about. When segregation was still mandated, there were separate deaf schools for those who were white versus black. Because of this separation, American Sign Language developed differently, and some signs actually mean different things depending on which community the person is a part of. I always thought American Sign Language was seen as a universal language, and it was really eye-oping to realize it is not, and it too suffered from racism.
Overall, I enjoyed the story and themes in this book more than the characters. I think it was great that we got to read from a few different perspectives, and they all had a different relationship towards being deaf or the deaf community in general, but I was not overly invested in any specific character's story. I think all of the characters represent an important experience, but as a whole, I did not find any of them especially interesting.
I think this is a great story, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to read about deaf characters or who wants to read a story about human connection. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, Torture, and Ableism

Moderate: Pregnancy and Racism

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

lindsayhotrod's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

brogan7's review

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Really enjoyed reading this book.  It's a new generation's Train Go Sorry (Leah Hager Cohen, 1995).  I loved the ASL illustrations and explanations of how ASL works.  I also enjoyed the different POVs (although I thought it was a mistake to give

Charlie's mother

a chapter of her own at the end.  It felt forced and not that empathetic, where we hadn't heard from her before.
I was disappointed in Novic's sometimes clear bias...even though I agreed with her, I felt that at times she was really pounding it in about the anti-CI point of view.  
And finally, I was a little startled at the ending. 

I don't believe the principal would have let Slash walk away with the makings of a bomb, saying only, "Not tonight."  I thought we were going somewhere interesting when she and Wanda speculated the kids were up to leaving flaming bags of dog poo in strategic places... and their game was clearly of another level entirely.  I expected their shock, surprise, need to distance themselves from this form of action...(come on, you met an adult lately?)...and instead it was a pretty implausible denouement.

My only other drawback was the portrayal of dementia.  If your mother still remembers your birthday, and she is still someone you go to for emotional support, how exactly does she exhibit having dementia?  It just didn't feel realistic.
However, overall the story was great, Charlie is a strong and engaging character, and the setting of the Deaf school is interesting and revelatory in terms of the difference Charlie experiences there, as compared to her previous hearing school.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Drug use, and Injury/Injury detail

wy_woman's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident and Physical abuse

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Drug use, Alcohol, Gaslighting, and Death of parent

Minor: Bullying, Grief, Racism, Classism, Sexual content, Cursing, and Infidelity

liesbethvv's review

challenging informative mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I am very grateful for this book. It’s eye-opening and very informative. Although the informational bits interrupted the pace a bit, I didn’t really mind. It felt true to form to feel like an outsider for once, having to learn things to fully understand the setting and characters. As we are fed little bits of the characters’ struggles in their different parts of the Deaf community, we are immersed in a different world, that should very much be more intertwined with ours. Thanks to Sara, I’m now much more aware of the struggles and possible solutions that could be put in place for everyone’s sake, not just the hearing world’s. Also curious to read more of Sara’s work. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Ableism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, and Cursing

Minor: Pregnancy, Racism, Lesbophobia, Gun violence, Child death, Car accident, Bullying, and Vomit

hanz's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Medical content, Death of parent, Drug use, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Violence and Racism

sarkenobi's review

challenging informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Body horror, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Bullying, Dementia, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Dysphoria, Grief, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Abandonment, Car accident, Child death, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Cultural appropriation, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Violence

leanniefae's review

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Medical content, Grief, Child abuse, Drug use, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit and Forced institutionalization

icapturethecastle's review

emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book opened my eyes to the dilemmas and resilience of the deaf community, and I learned a lot about their culture and history. Characters were real, raw, but loveable. Also enjoyed the boarding school aspect

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

Minor: Medical trauma, Death of parent, Violence, Racism, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Medical content, Grief, Death, and Cursing

tigger89's review

emotional informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

While this book was a bit more coming-of-age-drama than I'd anticipated when I picked it up, I found so much in it that I loved that I wound up not minding the plot. I loved learning about Deaf culture through Charlie's eyes, and thoroughly appreciated the between-chapter ASL guides. I laughed out loud when (very mild spoiler)

there was a fade-to-black for a sex scene, followed by a full page showing various applicable signs.

The notation for signed speech was very clear, to the point where even my mother, who isn't known for picking up on things like that on her own, figured it out without needing instruction(I'd handed her the book before I'd read it myself).

The drama was well-done, tugging me along on the roller-coaster ride right along with everyone else. I liked how the twin dramas(that of February and of the students) mirrored each other, both in terms of the romantic drama and the more climactic issues regarding Deaf rights and safety. I also really enjoyed the ending(particularly the conclusions regarding what exactly it means to fight), though I will say that if you want everything tied up in a neat bow, this is not the book for you. It's left open-ended, but the characters do a pretty good job of pointing in the direction they intend to travel. Whether or not they succeed, however, is left to the imagination of the reader.

The biggest thing I didn't like about this book was that I felt it could have been more racially diverse. To the best of my recollection, we had one good Black side character(Charlie's roommate), and then a bunch of white people. She wound up carrying more than her fair share, and that burden could have been better distributed with a more diverse cast. I also want to warn potential readers that this book has an unexpected amount of teen sexuality and drug use in it. It's not anything that offended me, but I probably wouldn't have handed it to my mom if I'd known! It made for a bit of an awkward "so, what'd you think?" conversation, let me tell you.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol

Minor: Racism, Physical abuse, and Violence

A major theme of the work is parents making medical/social decisions against the stated wishes of their minor children.