It has been years already since I’ve read Girl at War by Sara Novic, a book about the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. I rarely rate contemporary novels 5 stars, but that one got them all. Years later, Novic’s newest novel True Biz got released. Even though I intended to read this book straight after its release, it just didn’t happen. It made several of my Top Ten Tuesday lists over the years, but I finally picked it up. I listened to the audiobook for this novel since I already pre-ordered it upon release. Was this book as intriguing as Girl at War?

About the book

True Biz by Sara Novic
Published by Random House on April 5, 2024
Pages: 386
ISBN: 9780593241509
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, General fiction

TRUE BIZ (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk

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.

My review

After reading Girl at War, I have to admit that my expectations for this book were quite high. That story was intriguing to me and I was wondering whether this would be as intriguing. However, I was already aware of the differences to both books. Girl at War has more of a broadened story, whilst True Biz is quite narrow when it comes to setting and atmosphere. Still, I was curious and couldn’t lower my expectations. I never read a book with deaf characters before and that made me even more interested. I barely know anything about deaf culture. In the end, this book delivers on providing knowledge, but falls flat in terms of characters and plot.

In this novel, we folllow three characters. Firstly, February, a hearing child born from deaf parents. She is the head mistress of River Valley, the local schoof for the deaf in Colson, Ohio. Secondly, we have Austin, a deaf student who’s family is partially hearing and partially deaf. Once his baby sister is born hearing, he doesn’t know how to deal with it. Finally, there’s Charlie, a deaf student born in a totally hearing family. After struggling all her life, she is finally alllowed to attend deaf school. Here it becomes obvious how hopelessly behind she is on deaf culture, she for instance doesn’t know sign language at all. Every character has their own POV and we get to know them for the sake of the story. We barely get to know them in depth and honestly here is were the book is lacking for me. It provides a broad insight in deafness and deaf culture, but I miss the exploration within the characters. They are fine, but quite forgettable.

The story is written well. The author is familiar with sign language and deaf culture, which is proven when listening to the audiobook. The dialogues between characters using sign language are amplified with the sounds of said language in the audiobook. Novic recorded that herself. For me, this was a nice addition since it otherwise falls flat when missing these parts. Furthermore, I liked the POV switching. Each main character got a lot on their plate and we were able to get to know all of it because of the altnernating POVs. However, the writing style in this novel is not really engaging which makes this book less intriguing. It’s not a long book and therefore easy to read. Between chapters, bits of deaf history and sign language for starters is included. It’s interesting, but I found it hard to focus on the sign language. It’s difficult when you can’t see it and have to listen to the steps.

Since this book is classified as a coming of age novel, there is not much plot. However, that’s not the main focus of this book I believe. We follow the characters throughout a school year and that’s fine, but therefore not really intriguing. Even though I didn’t zone out, I didn’t feel engaged to the story. It was more interesting to learn about deaf culture. The characters grow significantly, supported by the storyline. All events are placed in a logical order as well, but it still left me disappointed.

Despite the fact I enjoyed True Biz by Sara Novic, it still felt lacking to me. The writing was fine, the recording of the dialogues in sign language was a nice addition to the audiobook. The characters show growth, but we didn’t get to know them as well as I was hoping for. The plot is there to support the characters, but I just couldn’t get invested in both the storyline and the characters. The aim of this book is to provide more insight in and knowledge about deafness and deaf culture and there it succeeded.