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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
Gigantic thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Part graphic novel, part memoir, I will tell you now you are not ready for this story. If you can't handle hard realities and hard truths, then this is not the novel for you. However, if are ready to be educated, wrecked and changed for the better than pick up this novel now. The art is beautiful, impactful and insightful. The plot is moving and thought provoking. This book deserves to be read by the average person and taught in schools. Here is my standing ovation.
If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. I've already ordered a copy for my library and I will be gifting it to others as well. Read this, please, read this.
Part graphic novel, part memoir, I will tell you now you are not ready for this story. If you can't handle hard realities and hard truths, then this is not the novel for you. However, if are ready to be educated, wrecked and changed for the better than pick up this novel now. The art is beautiful, impactful and insightful. The plot is moving and thought provoking. This book deserves to be read by the average person and taught in schools. Here is my standing ovation.
If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. I've already ordered a copy for my library and I will be gifting it to others as well. Read this, please, read this.
challenging
dark
informative
fast-paced
An incredible look into an untold part of slavery. I hope the author continues to write because this was an amazing nonfiction graphic novel. A touching and haunting book.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
Wake spends a lot of really interesting time spent on research, of diving in, of looking for connections, of explaining historiography. The stories we get, the specificity, the largeness of the absence, is really well done. I just… man I really just don’t like the art, though. It has some nice woodcut imagery but it’s never appealing to look at and the style gets repetitive after awhile. It’s rarely clear and easy to read, especially in more complex scenes. I also wish maybe a little bit more history was included? I’ve never felt more lacking in stories set in these time periods with Black protagonists as I did reading this book, but I felt like it kind of petered out a bit instead of tying it all together. Still highly recommend.
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation
Moderate: War
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment
Part history lesson, mostly memoir. Informative, moving, personal. Wanted more about women-led slave revolts.
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
This hit me in a different way than I expected. I picked it up to learn about women led slave revolts and while that history was there a bit, the real surprise was seeing just how hard it is to access that history in the first place. Between biased records, lost archives, and gatekeeping of those archives, it’s no wonder these stories have been buried. It left me wanting to dig deeper into revolts during the Middle Passage.