Series ✦ Penny’s Take
True Biz
Sara Novic · 2022
83/100
👍 Worth It
Sara Novic has written something genuinely rare — a novel that educates about Deaf culture and history without ever feeling like a lecture, balancing real humor and heartbreak across three fully realized characters. A Reese's Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller that earns both, with the caveat that teen substance use and a protest-sabotage subplot mean this is not as family-neutral as the school setting might suggest.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: teen substance use · some profanity · sabotage/protest subplot. We still scored it 83; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety60
substance86
craft85
originality84
accuracy88
hype75
age-fit65
human-eye88
Penny’s verdict83
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