Tone Deaf

March 15, 2016
An abused, totally deaf teen runs away with a rock band. There's just four months until her 18th birthday; can she make it? Ali had been a classical musician, a child prodigy who performed at Carnegie Hall, until the white girl lost both her hearing and her mother in one fell swoop. It's been seven years since her world ended and she came to live with her alcoholic, physically abusive father. All she wants is to escape and go to Gallaudet, where she can actually join a Deaf community and meet others with hearing loss, but her dad is violently opposed. She wins the chance to meet her bestie's biggest crush, Jace Beckett, "total jerk" rocker, and is underwhelmed despite her physical attraction to the attractive, ripped, white 19-year-old. Jace's poor crumpled heart grows three sizes when Ali evokes memories of his own abusive upbringing as the child of mentally ill addicts. Perhaps, though he's "broken," Ali will be able to "fix him." Jace and Ali share the narration in first-person, present-tense chapters. Neither the presentation of deafness nor of abuse is entirely convincing, and the ending is too tidy for belief. Ali's ASL is phenomenal for someone who's only ever signed with hearing tutors and one hearing friend, while her lip reading is near magical. The plot begs connection to Antony John's richer Five Flavors of Dumb (2010); though Ali and Jace are likable, readers interested in Deafness and rock-'n'-roll are better served by the earlier book. (Fiction. 11-14)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2016

Gr 10 Up-This narrative of extremes (written by an exceedingly popular Wattpad writer) moves from your worst nightmare to your greatest dream. What holds it together is its two narrators, Ali, who moves intelligently in the company of freaks and geeks, and Jace, an angry young rock star. Almost 18, Ali is Deaf and being physically abused by her father. No one believes her until she meets Jace. Ali and her best friend Avery attend a concert by Tone Deaf, a heartthrob boy band. Their friendship is refreshing-the two girls display not jealousy but awareness of how much their differences strengthen their friendship. Ali wins the raffle for a backstage tour and meets Jace, the lead guitarist and songwriter of Tone Deaf. He recognizes the abuse and aids her escape. The portrayal of Ali as Deaf is authentic and modern. She loves rock concerts for the vibrations and sensory pull of the crowd. She prefers to sign but exasperatedly reads the lips of people who talk fast or turn away as they talk. As Ali, Jace, and the band tour amid Amber alerts, surprising emotional connections are painfully forged and will resonate with young survivors of abuse, especially as Ali takes small steps toward recovery.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.