Tag: Read & Reviewed

My unfiltered bookish thoughts—what I loved, what made me cry, and the stories worth talking about (or side-eyeing). The ASL version of the reviews will be on YouTube.

  • Laughter, Tears, Screams, and Misadventures

    I’m still trying to figure out all my feelings for this book. It took you everywhere from laughing to second-hand embarrassment to tearing up (or crying) to screaming and wanting to throw the book to sighing and shaking your head. It was definitely an adventure… or a misadventure. The Misadventures of Callie Compton by Alyson…

  • Misunderstanding to Madly in Love

    This is one of the first books that I’ve read that’s had a specific hard-of-hearing character. Not a deaf character, but specifically hard-of-hearing.  “Hearing aids don’t fix ears, they only amplify sounds.” The Un-Arranged Marriage by Lauren Brown In this book, both main characters represent something – Shaina (female) represents a person with hearing loss,…

  • Tangled Threads and Unraveling

    Princess. Magic. Deaf. A young adult novel filled with magic, adventure, and even a little romance with warring nations. “A little danger adds to the feeling of adventure, doesn’t it? This was the first DEAFinitely Readers book club read! Unravel by Amelia Loken Marguerite is a deaf princess in a world where her uncle would…

  • Calligraphy, Tattoos, a Wedding… Oh My!

    As soon as I saw the cover… and then read the blurb, I knew I had to try to be a part of Harriet Ashford’s ARC team. Luckily, she said yes. “Well, give it time. They say tattoos are like chips. You can’t have only one.” The Trouble with Love and Ink by Harriet Ashford…

  • The Right Kind of Representation

    This. This is the story that I have been waiting and searching for. The kind of book that has not only a great Deaf representation but also has a great plot. The dialogue was witty, there was believable romance (even with “instant love”), and a trope that I love to read – fake dating. The…

  • No. Just… No.

    Do not have your character have a disability JUST to say you have “representation” and to get more people to read your books. This story line of Every Wrong You Right had such promise. A hearing male learns ASL for the girl he is interested in, who is deaf. Obviously, this is a romance book…

  • Book Review: True Biz

    “Imagine telling someone that learning French would ruin their kid’s English, hurt their brain. Usually people scoffed at her and February would nod. It did sound ridiculous. And yet, though fear of bilingualism in two spoken languages had been dismissed as xenophobic nonsense, though it was now desirable for hearing children to speak two languages,…

  • Book Review: Give Me a Sign

    I love reading books with Deaf and hard-of-hearing characters. I want to read them and any that are recommended, I read. I do this because I want to see my experiences, my culture, within a book and relate to a character. If I take it book and solely review it on is it a true…

  • Book Review: When Women Were Dragons

    All women are magic…It’s in our nature. This past month, my ASL. Book Club read When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill – after I had suggested it since I finished the book in January. When asked about why I continued to recommend, I struggled to explain until finally, I signed, “This book needs to…

  • Book Review: A Song for a Whale

    Somewhere, someone is singing. “I’d found him. He’d never know what he meant to me, but that was okay. I didn’t speak his language, and he didn’t need to be fixed. He was the whale who sang his own song.” I almost didn’t read this book because I’ve found a lot times, it’s hard for…