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chronicallybookish 's review for:
Give Me a Sign
by Anna Sortino
Release Date: 7/11/2023
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 13+
Over All: 4.5 stars
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Setting: 5/5
Writing: 4.5/5
Disability Rep: 5/5
Special thanks to Penguin Teen for sending me an ARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.
Reading this book while it stormed out made me miss summer desperately. This is a book about a camp for the Deaf and blind that gives the reader an immersive experience of both summer camp shenanigans and Deaf culture. I make it a priority to read books, especially #ownvoices ones, about disabled characters and the disabled experience, so I’ve read many books with Deaf characters by Deaf authors, but I think this gave me the most insight to the Deaf Community and Deaf Culture in general, since not just one character was Deaf, but almost 50% of the cast was.
I really enjoyed Lilah as a character, although there were a few occasions where I just felt like she could’ve had a little bit more character development. She was interesting and easy to root for, but there were a couple of interactions and inner monologues that felt a bit two dimensional. However, I think that is very common in debut novels, and it didn’t have a negative impact on my reading experience. I just saw a little bit of unmet potential here and there. Similarly, I wish that the cast of main side characters was fleshed out just a little more. I liked them, but they never felt quite like fully fledged humans of their own.
I also enjoyed Lilah and Isaac’s interactions and relationships. It was a little awkward, a lot cute, and all around adorable. They had great chemistry, and I found their relationship and feelings for each other to be believable. I do feel like some of their interactions, especially near the beginning, to be a bit immature. They’re supposed to be 17/18, but the way they interacted, and the way Lilah was thinking about it, felt a bit more 14/15 year old to me. I believe it is Lilah’s first relationship, so of course there’s going to be that inexperience, but I think its possible to portray that inexperience without making her come off as immature or younger than she is. However, once things start to move forward in their relationship, that issue seems to resolve itself, and I don’t remember noticing it in the back half of the book.
Later in the book, we come head to head with some heavier topics and prejudice—and even violence—against Deaf people (and more generally, disabled people as a whole). At first this seemed a little out of left field. Like, it’s this happy wholesome sweet summer camp romance, and now suddenly, we’re faced with these serious, traumatic issues of ableism and police brutality. It was very shocking, and felt a little out of place at first, but it was really well executed, and it’s such an important topic. I think that shock factor and narrative dissonance when it first happens is actually good. I feel like it gave the scene a more powerful effect. Especially since, it is tied into the rest of the story well in the aftermath, as soon as you get past the shock of it.
This was a wonderful debut, and I can’t wait to see how Anna Sortino grows as an author in the future. I highly recommend this book—it’s the book to keep on your radar for this summer.
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 13+
Over All: 4.5 stars
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Setting: 5/5
Writing: 4.5/5
Disability Rep: 5/5
Special thanks to Penguin Teen for sending me an ARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.
Reading this book while it stormed out made me miss summer desperately. This is a book about a camp for the Deaf and blind that gives the reader an immersive experience of both summer camp shenanigans and Deaf culture. I make it a priority to read books, especially #ownvoices ones, about disabled characters and the disabled experience, so I’ve read many books with Deaf characters by Deaf authors, but I think this gave me the most insight to the Deaf Community and Deaf Culture in general, since not just one character was Deaf, but almost 50% of the cast was.
I really enjoyed Lilah as a character, although there were a few occasions where I just felt like she could’ve had a little bit more character development. She was interesting and easy to root for, but there were a couple of interactions and inner monologues that felt a bit two dimensional. However, I think that is very common in debut novels, and it didn’t have a negative impact on my reading experience. I just saw a little bit of unmet potential here and there. Similarly, I wish that the cast of main side characters was fleshed out just a little more. I liked them, but they never felt quite like fully fledged humans of their own.
I also enjoyed Lilah and Isaac’s interactions and relationships. It was a little awkward, a lot cute, and all around adorable. They had great chemistry, and I found their relationship and feelings for each other to be believable. I do feel like some of their interactions, especially near the beginning, to be a bit immature. They’re supposed to be 17/18, but the way they interacted, and the way Lilah was thinking about it, felt a bit more 14/15 year old to me. I believe it is Lilah’s first relationship, so of course there’s going to be that inexperience, but I think its possible to portray that inexperience without making her come off as immature or younger than she is. However, once things start to move forward in their relationship, that issue seems to resolve itself, and I don’t remember noticing it in the back half of the book.
Later in the book, we come head to head with some heavier topics and prejudice—and even violence—against Deaf people (and more generally, disabled people as a whole). At first this seemed a little out of left field. Like, it’s this happy wholesome sweet summer camp romance, and now suddenly, we’re faced with these serious, traumatic issues of ableism and police brutality. It was very shocking, and felt a little out of place at first, but it was really well executed, and it’s such an important topic. I think that shock factor and narrative dissonance when it first happens is actually good. I feel like it gave the scene a more powerful effect. Especially since, it is tied into the rest of the story well in the aftermath, as soon as you get past the shock of it.
This was a wonderful debut, and I can’t wait to see how Anna Sortino grows as an author in the future. I highly recommend this book—it’s the book to keep on your radar for this summer.