Blair Reviews: Barbarian’s Touch by Ruby Dixon:
1.5
As a Deaf person, and a Deaf sensitivity reader, this book had me sighing more often than not. Reading the authors note, I understand her goal in Deaf representation. However, I feel it was severely missed. The vast majority of this book was a “woe is me, I’m so weak and pathetic because I’m Deaf” and from every other pov “she’s so weak because she cannot hear” there was only one small section where the main FMC had a “Deaf can” attitude. Then it switched right back to, I’m so Deaf and useless with the twist of being left out of everything. Also, why does the reader need to be reminded every few sentences that the FMC is Deaf? This story had great potential, I truly wish the author would have gotten a Deaf sensitivity reader.
A side note. ASL has some forms of gesturing. However, every single sign is not a gesture. Every single word, is not a gesture.
If Lilah was not portrayed as a Deaf character. I feel this story would have easily gotten a 5star from me. I did enjoy the splashes of humor.