Wow, I finished this book today and I am still a swirl of emotions and I know this one will be on my mind for a long time to come. It’s definitely my top read so far this year. 

Nović creates beautiful, enthralling characters that will suck you into this story from the earliest pages. The story is set at a residential deaf school and is told from multiple points of view including the headmistress, Austin (a cute boy from “Deaf Royalty”), Charlie (a teenage girl new to deaf school), and others. The students all have their own challenges including ableist families, new siblings, divorce, abuse, cochlear implants, but they share the mostly common experience of being up against an ableist society. As the story moves forward, we discover challenges the school itself faces. Suddenly the school and the students and staff are headed for a dramatic ending that will keep you from putting this book down. 

Truly I have not a single complaint about this book other than that I’m done reading it. I loved it start to finish. From the exceptional characters to the incorporation of informative pages between chapters to build the reader’s background knowledge, this novel is a work of art. I’ll be recommending this one for years to come.