I really enjoyed reading this book and learning more about the Deaf community. I have a Hard of Hearing friend and she has expressed many of the same opinions that this book did, such as being proud of being HoH/Deaf and not needing to be fixed. I really appreciated this #OwnVoices book and the research that was done. I also really liked how the author wrote ASL and kept it more with ASL grammar vs writing it with English grammar as other books I’ve read about this topic. Additionally, I thought how the lipreading portions were done well, how it’s impossible to catch every word lipreading and how you have to piece together context with what you caught.

I usually love a good historical fiction read, but this one never caught my attention like others I have read. Took a while to get into this book. It was hard to follow for me. I liked that the theme was very relevant to the times we are living in.

Amazing book! Tons of detail and humor.

I fee like I'm on a trend this month of books that just start out really slow. Emily and Kristen have been best friends since college, and they have a hobby of going on trips to random places together. Last year they went to Columbia, where their trip ended with a dead guy. This year they go to Chile, where their trip also ends with a dead guy. Now forced to deal with the trauma of two dead men, Emily is struggling to return to normalcy. And then all of a sudden Kristen appears in town, moving in and inserting herself in her life more fully than ever before. Could those two instances really have been just a fluke, or is something darker hiding under the surface of their relationship? The first chunk of this book was just so boring, because it felt like you were waiting for the shoe to drop and the action to begin. The world-building aspect here was not captivating at all. The book was also SUPER predictable. You could see every twist and turn coming on a mile away, and I felt like the author didn't trust me to put together anything subtle. There was one clue near the end of the book that I went "huh, I wonder what that will mean," only for it to be immediately explained a few pages later, like she was afraid I wouldn't remember it if she waited. Overall a little too much of a handhold while reading, and nothing really special. Probably closer to 2 and a half stars, but I'll give it three because I don't think I regret reading it, it just wasn't memorable.

Love ignores rules! The build up for this romance was really well done. The characters had great chemistry when they were falling in love but the ending seemed to fall apart - rushed and jumbled a bit. The set-up to the end could have been expanded

I rate this 5 stars - it was a funny book because Hilo came crashing down to earth in his gray silver underpants. He never wanted to take them off which made me laugh.

This was so fun! I didn't want to put this one down. Told from the perspective's of twins Fern and Rose, the book alternates between Fern living her life and Rose writing in her diary. Fern has a sensory processing disorder, and she relies heavily on her twin sister to help her navigate the world. When Rose confesses that she has found out she has a rare disorder that is making it impossible for her to become pregnant, Fern decides on the perfect thank you present for her sister - she'll just have to get pregnant and have a baby for Rose! Enter Wally, named for his similar appearance to Where's Waldo, the perfect match for Fern. Unfortunately, he's maybe too perfect, and before long Fern finds herself in over her head. Everything about this was just so well done. I loved the different perspectives we got, and how I really felt like I was following along with Fern and putting the pieces of the puzzle together with her. It felt like it took a little bit for the mystery to come into focus, but when things started to become clearer I was enthralled. I'd have loved more time with Fern and Rose. Absolutely lovely!

This was okay. Josephine has just gotten married. As a child, she was known as a "Divine" - she went to a very expensive school for entitled rich people, where the children were taught nothing academic and mostly just how to treat people they considered beneath them poorly. She hasn't thought about her years there much since she left, but when her husband starts asking questions about the box of mementos she's kept, she's forced to relive her past and confront some of the darker moments within - especially the tragic tale of her roommate, Gerry. The mystery part takes a bit to develop, and really isn't the focus of the story? It seems more like the struggle of a young girl to find her place in the world, and to deal with the pressure to conform to what her friends and family want her to be. The chapters alternated between her years at the school and her adult life, and I honestly didn't really care about her as an adult. Those chapters didn't really add anything to my experience. By the end I was left with this vague feeling like I'd missed something important, but I'm not sure what? This was the sort of book that seemed like my jam, because I love a good boarding school mystery, but something about it fell flat and I just didn't adore it like I expected to.

This was great. Jo is a Chinese-American girl living in the South. Her and her adoptive father, Old Gin, face rampant discrimination, especially considering the fact that they are treated as "in-between" - they are not colored, but they are not white, either. They are treated poorly, while also facing the realization that many segregation rules do not seem to specifically apply to them. When Jo is fired from her job, she takes up her previously position as lady's maid for a girl she grew up being mistreated by. At the same time, the newspaper shop they live under is at risk of going out of business if they don't come up with some great new idea to get a whole lot of subscribers. Enter Jo, who under the anonymous name of Miss Sweetie decides to start writing an advice column that challenges many of the racist and sexist ideas her society is filled with. Of course, this brings with it a whole host of problems - Jo's writing is a crime in and of itself, and she will be chased out of town if anyone finds out that she is Miss Sweetie. She also has to balance staying hidden underneath the printshop, bite her tongue when it comes to the cruel things her mistress says, and ignore the fact that Old Gin seems to be doing something sneaky that she worries may have to do with marrying her off to a stranger. And, of course, she's still curious about where she came from - who were her parents, and why did they abandon her with Old Gin to begin with? Jo is a great role model for young girls to look up to - she is spunky and has her own thoughts and opinions that she is not afraid to share with others. She is a big risk taker, and an absolute delight to read about.

This book is based on the premise that the solidarity dividend is when folks come together across racial lines benefits society as a whole. It is a dense book written mostly from an economical standpoint which surmises that the cost of racism and white supremacy hurts not only Black people but white people as well.