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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Super thought provoking, and incredibly interesting. My only thing is that I felt that the art style was a bit too busy which sometimes distracted me from the conversations that were happening.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
really respect this author's dedication to telling stories long forgotten, and often incomplete. with this graphic novel being part memoir, she illustrates how many hurdles she had to jump thru in order to extract these pieces of history, and of the emotional turmoil she experienced during her research. those pages were illuminating in their own right, but their placements in this novel felt a bit disruptive. still a solid book, and i'm certain she did the best she could with the archives available to her.
Mix of memoir and history for the authors research into women led slave revolts. Graphic novel. Obv gets into some dark topics- doesn’t shy away. Very clear implication and statements of rape/assault/murder, without being graphic.
Huge amount of racism/ desire for coverups during her search for records.
Interesting facts sprinkled throughout- 1/10 slave ships had a revolt, in 1700s a woman murdering her husband or owner is considered treason for killing her ‘natural master’ and is to be burnt at the stake, slave ships with more women were more likely to revolt (access to weapons above deck. Held above deck to be easily raped), African kingdom of Dahomey has female warriors- ahosi
Huge amount of racism/ desire for coverups during her search for records.
Interesting facts sprinkled throughout- 1/10 slave ships had a revolt, in 1700s a woman murdering her husband or owner is considered treason for killing her ‘natural master’ and is to be burnt at the stake, slave ships with more women were more likely to revolt (access to weapons above deck. Held above deck to be easily raped), African kingdom of Dahomey has female warriors- ahosi
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
Reading this book felt like being given a key to a door to a room that was not mine. There are things in here that I will never understand, feelings that I will never experience, at least in the depth and context that they are presented. I came to this book for information, and I got that, but it is so much more. Between Rebecca Hall's evocative language and personal experiences, and Hugo Martinez's intricate drawings, I had the opportunity to feel, in a secondhand sort of way, the grief and difficulty of researching narratives of resistance in a context of cruelty, genocide, exploitation. Like I said, this book is not written for me, but I have been given the opportunity to read it, and for that I am very grateful. May all other white readers seek to feel deeply the horror of what we have done in the past, and use this horror to amplify the ongoing resistance displayed by Black people, including and especially Black women.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
I think this would have been compelling as history, imagined, but the framing narrative of Hall's efforts to find these women in the cracks of the historical record made it even more so.
I really enjoyed this book, though it’s not what I’d expected. Judging by the title alone, I’d assumed this would detail women led slave revolts. But it’s actually about how hidden this history is, the lengths the author/ researcher had to go to in order to get any information, all of the malicious road blocks in her way, and how history is still shaping the present day. A truly powerful book.