This graphic biography/memoir is most powerful in its last few pages, when it sums up the importance of recognizing the history of slavery, oppression, and injustice that is the foundation of American society. The book is at its best when talking about the historiography of women led slave revolts - the barriers to finding information, which include both institutional resistance to sharing damning evidence and the fact that the lives of black women were not valued enough to be recorded. And yet, this book does a good job of filling in the spaces where there is not a full history to give life to these women, and in disproving long held beliefs that resistance was led solely by Black men. The illustrations are pretty busy, and at times, I had a hard time understanding what was happening in the images... and it took away from my ability to stay engaged in the story. There were also moments in which there was written text on documents within the greater story/images and I wasn’t sure where to focus. Regardless, I think it’s an important and timely book that reveals how our inability to reckon with and acknowledge our past in the US continues to reinforce white supremacy culture and hold us all back.

WAKE BY REBECCA HALL

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy!

Wake by Rebecca Hall is the story of Women-led slave revolts, about how history and today we try to erase the ugly truth of slavery and the history of women in general, but ESPECIALLY black women and how far Dr. Hall had to go to even TRY to find their stories, and pulling strength from her own family history.

This was a hard read, but one that I couldn’t put down. As a white American, it would be easy for me to ignore the history of slavery around me everyday and what’s happening in the world now, but black people don’t have that privilege, they never have. Wake is a powerful reminder of that, and how far white people, not just Americans, will go to cover up the history of slavery and our involvement in it.

I would strongly recommend this to anyone, over and over again. Again, thank you so much to the publisher for an advanced copy and to Rebecca Hall for writing this!

Wake is a part memoir part graphic novel that chronicles the research of Rebecca Hall on slave insurrections.
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This book is a poignant and thoughtful look into the slave trade and how our world is still experiencing the effects today, Hall shares her own experiences working on research, and how people try to cover up this part of history,
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There is also a great look into privilege, especially white privilege, and how to it is a system built on the inhumane slave trade.
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4.5 stars rounded down
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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Graphic novel which is part memoir about doing research, and what the author found from her research.

She is very clear on how men and women in authority were in her way in many places both in the US and in the UK.

One of the most interesting things she came up with, from her research, was how when there were revolts on slave ships, which happened 20% of the time, they were more often lead by the women, who were left unchained, up on the quarter deck, because, well, who would have thought the women would revolt.

Well written, and breaks down the history we have been taught badly in school.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

Ms. Hall's journey to the truth about women slave revolts. Takes her on a journey to the archives of London and New York. She details the adversity, racism, and sexism she encounters. She presents little known facts as well as shares her familial history. This is an awesome, one sitting read. It is Imogen one knows their history.

Rebecca Hall's account of her historical research, paired with thoughtfully imagined/reconstructed scenes of resistance by Black women, makes this stunning black-and-white graphic novel a must-read for anyone interested in history and in the nuts and bolts of how to "make" history.

Hall - the descendent of enslaved people - explores the effects of generational trauma on Black Americans like herself. She chronicles the story of the racism her grandparents faced and her own search for the history of enslaved women in the archives. A lawyer-turned-historian, Hall demonstrates the contemporary barriers researchers can face when looking for records, particularly records that cast the holding institution in a poor light. But despite the lack of records about Black women involved in slave revolts (and the roadblocks thrown up by several holding institutions), Hall is able to use contextual knowledge, along with the little information she can find, to reconstruct these women and the reasons behind their resistance. The results are three stunning portraits of Black women taking action to fight their abusers and enslavers.

The only critique I have of Hall's narrative is that it sometimes seems to jump around or leave the reader hanging. (What happened in the class discussion of Toni Morrison's Beloved? How does researching the women warriors of the past connect Hall to her own ancestry?) This is a fairly minor issue in the scope of the larger project, and I hesitate to call it an issue at all. But I do think a little more could have been added to the parts of Hall's story outside of her research and reconstructions to clarify some of the storyline(s).

The artwork in this graphic novel is the perfect complement to Hall's writing. As Hall-the-character walks the streets of New York City, she is haunted by the past - literally reflected in the puddles and glass surrounding her. Every stark, detail-packed panel deserves a close examination. The strength and determination of the women warriors comes off the page, bringing Hall's historical characters to life.

I will be buying this book for myself and others when it becomes available in June. I strongly encourage other readers to pick it up!

I loved this book. It was eloquent, thought-provoking, and eye-opening. I loved seeing the author’s research methods as she tried to bring to light the power of women to lead revolts of people who were enslaved. I also appreciated the author’s attempts to bring history to life by crafting plausible stories about the revolts. The artwork was beautiful: intricate and haunting. This is a must read for history buffs, research lovers, and anyone who wants to learn more about what really happened in the past.