A review by gigireadswithkiki
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall

dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.5

"Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts" delicately toes the line gut-wrenching and eye-opening. Dr. Rebecca Hall's grief in the course of her research is palpable from every page, and I feel like the story is stronger for her empathic link to the story.

Part memoir, part historical recounting, "Wake" sheds light on a often overlook portion of history, challenging preconceived gendered assumptions about the leaders of slave revolts, and indeed highlighting how female slaves abused these gender assumptions to lead the revolts. Dr. Hall leaves no stone unturned in her search for the impact these women had, taking measures to fly to England to check sources from the original company that had insured slave ship voyages. There are chapters where the author takes historical liberty to showcase a potential sequence of events that could have led to women led slave revolts, and I really enjoyed seeing the level of nuanced detail and emotion Dr. Hall and the artist Hugo Martinez inserts into these moments.

And on that note, the art style is a beautiful compliment to the story. Martinez's use of reflections, in windows, in puddles, to mirror a version of New York that was built by slavery, is a strong and impactful visual, and I enjoyed seeing the ways he experiment with graphic novel panel structure within the story. I also really enjoyed how Dr. Hall explained her choice in choosing to tell this story as a graphic novel. within her afterward, which adds a level of understanding for readers.

"Wake" is an emotionally impactful and highly informative read. Dr. Rebecca Hall is a historian researcher first and an author second, to the point where I do feel like text dialogue can be too dense, but all in all, this is definitely a book worth picking up.