“So the sign for home is like someone kissing you twice, once near the mouth and once on your cheek just below your eye. Home went from being a place where you eat and sleep to the place where someone loves you.”

The Sign for Home was an incredibly educational, inspiring, and unique book. Arlo is a DeafBlind Jehovah’s Witness college student in need of an interpreter familiar with tactile ASL for his classes. Cyril happens to be just the man for the job, although his atheism and homosexuality don’t go over well with Arlo’s guardian and long-time interpreter.

The story contains so many educational elements about what it’s like to be DeafBlind and what happens when people are ignorant of or noncompliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It is also a very powerful story of friendship that occurs between two unlikely parties, Arlo and Cyril. For the entire story, Cyril is pushing for accessibility, better technology and proper ethics when it comes to Arlo’s needs. Arlo’s guardian, Brother Birch, is absolutely despicable and honestly just did so many things to completely hold Arlo back and ruin his life. Meeting Cyril changes everything for Arlo, including being able to talk about the love of his life.

From what I know via Deaf friends, Blair Fell does an excellent job of portraying the life of a DeafBlind person and I love that he gives us Arlo’s point of view in addition to Cyril’s to really understand the mind of someone who is DeafBlind. I loved the Rochester references considering it’s where I live and the Deaf community here is huge, given NTID at RIT. This book is definitely not one that can be read in one setting based on educational content, assuming that the reader probably does not know that much about being DeafBlind. It’s honestly a lot to take in and is heartbreaking as Arlo’s story unfolds and you see the significant impact that lack of accessibility can have on someone’s life. The portraits of friendship and the story are absolutely beautiful and very redemptive for the heartbreaking elements. While this book was slower paced and I expected the romance to play a more major role based on the book’s marketing, I know that the content is something that will stay with me forever.

Thank you to Atria and Emily Bestler Books for the copy of this ARC.