This was a fantastic graphic novel. It was very well written and illustrated and the story was extremely moving.

Have already read this three times and purchased a few copies. One of the best graphic novels out, and such a necessary story that is entirely overlooked. Incredibly researched.

The history in this graphic novel is very well researched and works as an introduction to archival research methodology and a critique of the archive wherever it exists as the definitive source of all things historical.

I loved Rebecca Hall's approach to this graphic novel, part history and part memoir. It drives home a point that history is not ever really a thing of the past, its something that impacts people on a daily basis, something that is carried with us and informs us about the world. Her in depth research and narrativizing of women led revolts against slavers, is a crucial piece of history that often gets missed in the broader conversations. While I loved the story, the art did not do much for me. Hugo Martinez has a style that I couldn't relate to, despite his attention to detail.

extremely informative and engaging. i enjoyed reading this and took my time with it. i haven't read many non fic graphic novels and will be seeking them out more after this

Excellently illustrated and a staple of consistency in innovation and technique from this excellent graphic novelist! I can't wait to see what comes next. A must for classroom environments.

Thank you Simon & Schuster for providing an eARC to review. I did not download the PDF, but did purchase the book.

3.5 rating

Quick notes

Definitely not what I was expecting.
It was hard to read even with glasses.
This was a graphic about the authors research.
I wanted solid info on the women led slave revolts
Reading so much about slavery, over the years, I didn't find much new info here.
I would love to read more about slave revolts and agree with author about the distorted inaccurate history we are taught about slavery.

Hall included her experiences with discrimination while in research.

I do recommend.

The illustrations are great, but the lettering is small.

Great book - everyone should take the time to dive in and swim in this title. Beautiful work! Loved the women they highlighted

The content inside Wake is important and well researched. Personally, my eyes and brain had some difficulty following the flow and layout of this book. I still plan to purchase this title and recommend it to teens, teachers, and even adults.

This book is an introduction to Rebecca Hall’s research as a historian of transatlantic slavery and focuses on the role of women in slave revolts. It is presented as a graphic nonfiction and is incredibly easy to read through. For me, this was what kept me reading – the attempt to make academic research so easily accessible for a wide audience of readers. I felt a lot of the background introductory and wanted more of statistics and retellings of the roles of women in slave revolts.

Part memoir, readers are introduced to Hall herself – her background as an attorney, her family history (granddaughter of a slave) and her academic journey, including the roadblocks she faced while conducting her research, and the emotional toll conducting this research had on her. The other half of this book is a History lesson, and while it wasn’t completely new material to me, the way it is presented did put some things into perspective for me.

I will say that based on the title I thought this book was going to be something different. For one thing, I did not expect it to read as much of a memoir as it did. For me, this wasn’t entirely disappointing as I was happy to see glimpses of the research process. But I did start off expecting a book filled with stories of women-led slave results and that’s not what I got. There were a few (perhaps 3?) retellings of slave revolts in which the author had to use her “historical imagination” to give a complete picture when primary sources were nonexistent or could not be accessed.

This was my first graphic nonfiction and I did enjoy reading it and think it’s a great start to learning specifically about the women who led slave revolts.

This is a MUST read graphic novel. I love the history mixed with speculation that was well researched. You never hear about women in slave revolts and it was so interesting to learn about their roles in revolts. Everyone needs to read this and it should be required reading for high school history courses.

All I can say about Wake is "wow!" This book was full of important history that has escaped common historical narratives and presents the details in an engaging and captivating way. I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Covers a side of history that has been wrongly buried - like most Black people’s stories. The research and attention to detail shine through in this graphic novel/memoir, and the art is just as visually arresting as the art is literarily arresting. A fine read, and a necessary one as American and British society continues to learn of its past crimes during the slave trade.

This was an amazing look at history, I personally am not giving it five stars just because the illustrations weren’t my favorite type of art. Still worth the read!

"History written by the victors always erases resistance. And those of us who live in the wake/ruins learn that we were inferior and needed to be conquered and enslaved. This is the afterlife of slavery that the victors need us to inhabit. One in which we have always already lost and have accepted our fate as handed to us. But we always resisted slavery. Our constant resistance was central to bringing about slavery's end."

This graphic novel is part memoir part nonfiction stories of what author Rebecca Hall believes happened during some of the earliest women-led slave revolts. Of course, we will probably never know what happened because records about enslaved people are short, at best. Hall shared many records where all we know about a person is they were numbered and they died at some point from their journey from Africa to the Americas. This book was difficult to read, for this reason, but I do have to admit I was expecting more nonfiction stories about these revolts rather than these stories mixed in with Hall's memoirs of going about writing this book and doing this research. I felt this damped the story and made it less effective, in my eyes. Regardless, this was an interesting graphic novel to read and I appreciated all of the details in the illustrations. It was really quite something.

TW: slavery, violence

I love a great non-fiction graphic novel - especially one that scratches the surface and makes me want to learn more about the topic. Rebecca Hall's Wake is as much about women slave revolts as it is about Hall's journey researching this topic and the obstacles that she encountered when she followed a lead. We learned why this research was important to *her* and she writes in a way that makes it important to *us*. I felt like I was going on the journey with her.

The illustrations supported the story well - especially the drawings of Rebecca, I got a better sense of her frustration.

This would be a great book for teaching history for high school or college kids.

A truly powerful read going over a history I wasn't entirely aware of. This is an important book to pick up to just learn from. There's powerful story an images throughout this noel hat it's hard to put down. I highly recommend and prefer not to spoil to much of the stories told because they're better experienced first hand. Truly some amazing work done here, would read more.

A very informative and exciting book about women led slave revolts in the early US. I really liked the artworks and the story. It was overall a great book but the dialogue bubbles were very small and difficult to read.

Wake is a graphic memoir about Rebecca Hall's research into slave revolts led by women. It's a difficult story to tell. Both because of the awful subject manner and the lack of records from that time. That's where I think the book goes off track in places. I don't really care about sifting through these records with Dr. Hall. It's tedious to read about and full of passages of antiquated English. The only interesting bits are when she was held up by institutions that didn't want these stories out there like Lloyds of London.

I didn't find Hugo Martinez's art very strong. I did like his imagery of the past in reflections in windows or puddles. But the artwork itself was almost too detailed to the point where little stands out. His facial fetures and body proportions could use some work as well.

Overall, it's a powerful book of the kinds of stories that need to be told, that people should be aware of.

Informative and enthralling all at once. Most of the information in this book is little taught or known, which makes it all the more powerful to read.