It feels like a story designed for Hearing readers

As someone who's HoH and linked into the Deaf community, a few key things were missing for me and some were outright incorrect.

[if you want to avoid any minor spoilers, stop here]

Dawson's Deaf accent was lowkey offensive in the way it was done by the voice actor and inaccurate for any Deaf accent. Hire a Deaf voice actor for those lines if you have a character with a Deaf accent.There are more than enough around to hire one.

But as someone who lost his hearing later in life after being able to speak well, he wouldn't have one at all. Deaf accents are learned when growing up Deaf and learning how to speak without hearing.

Speech after losing your hearing is muscle memory including volume and most "late Deafened" folks are able to speak just fine.

Losing the ability to speak due to a TBI is super common, but still doesn't cause a Deaf accent. So there's no reason for him to have one other than the author's incorrect understanding of Deafness.

Also there are many sign languages, plural, not just one, yet the one used in this book is constantly referred to as "sign language" rather than what is presumably the local-to-Florida dialect of ASL (American Sign Language) and this is something that any author writing about Deaf characters should know from their research. It's literally called ASL once, in passing, near the end of the book.

Also this book would've been better without bringing a surgery to correct his hearing into it, even as an option he has for the future. Many Deaf people love music and it would've been better to focus on how their apartment was modified to be accessible for him and how they worked together on stuff like the doorbell that was such a big issue for him in the first chapter but which seemingly doesn't matter when living together. (Spoiler alert: It matters if our home isn't accessible!)

The potential of a surgery to restore his hearing shouldn't have been part of their "happily ever after" even if it was a part of the story anyway. It detracts from any idea that he's happy and thriving as a Deaf person.

Why not have him connect with the Deaf community in New York as part of his HEA instead? Something I found was lacking throughout the book was Deaf pride and any mention of the Deaf community. Community support is so important to feeling pride in Deafness, at least in my experience.

Please hire a sensitivity reader who is Deaf and fluent in the appropriate sign language next time.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!