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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
Words can’t describe how powerful and essential this graphic novel is. I am both devastated and genuinely inspired by the work of Dr. Hall and the immeasurable courage of those who lived during the slave trade whom she writes about. Her work is vital, especially with the recent removal of DEI efforts, and I hope it reaches those who want to move backward.
Awakening!
The whole book, from the images to the content to the rhetoric, was intoxicating. I couldn’t get enough. I read a couple pages now and then but by the time I got to chapter 2 or 3 I was hooked and could hardly put it down.
The whole book, from the images to the content to the rhetoric, was intoxicating. I couldn’t get enough. I read a couple pages now and then but by the time I got to chapter 2 or 3 I was hooked and could hardly put it down.
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
informative
fast-paced
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Wake tackles both the history of slave revolts simultaneously with the black historian’s grappling with the cruelty and violence of slavery. I loved how it makes me stop and think. It’s important and unpleasant in the ways it should be.
Have you ever read a graphic novel about a historian writing her dissertation? No? Then, you’re absolutely missing out. This graphic novel is not only about Dr Hall‘s extensive research but touches on so many different issues at the same time.
It’s about slavery, its impact on the present-day (with brilliant representations in puddles and reflections etc.) but also on the gate-keeping that’s still done by various institutions like Lloyd’s. The fact that women were omitted from history and equally heavily underestimated by their enslavers is central to the narrative. This novel puts them front and center (sometimes adding some invented details and speculations that are based on Hall‘s extensive knowledge of the topic). Given the staggering numbers of the Slave trade and its victims Hall herself but also the reader might feel overwhelmed - I was relieved when even the novel took a brief break from the main narrative by showing Hall taking a break and going outside and enjoying nature. The subject matter certainly is important but not for the faint at heart. Yet, the way the narrative is constructed makes it accessible for a large audience. And to quote Hall who herself quotes Michel-Rolph Trouillot:
"The ultimate mark of power may be its invisibility; the ultimate challenge, the exposition of its roots."
This graphic novel tries to face this challenge by exposing the importance of women for slave revolts - the more women there were on the ship the more likely a revolt was to occur. Yet the existing information about these women is almost nonexistent, and contained in brief marginalized notes - thus, it’s fantastic to get to read a reconstruction of their stories so that they get some of the attention that they deserve.
4.5 Really interesting account of Hall's own research process (from her dissertation) taking her to archives in different cities and countries in an attempt to locate historical records of women-led revolts. Shows the honest truth about how hard/near impossible it still is to even get many of these historical records, so some of what she does in this graphic is use some fictionalization to imagine what their stories might be. Connecting these stories to her own family history only serves to make the book's through line more powerful and relatable. Her website includes discussion guides and lots of sample lesson plans, this would be a great book for an APUSH class or upper-level history. Hugo Martinez's graphics are reminiscent of 17th/18th century block etchings, which fit to the content but I didn't personally enjoy.