If you ever wanted to know what a historical dissertation is like, read this book. Wake: The Hidden History of Women Led Slave Revolts recounts Rebecca Hall’s dissertation research and process in graphical format. Her findings are fascinating. We may think we learned in school about the Middle Passage and triangular trade and even the lingering legacy of slavery still bound and codified into our current society, but Hall adds the layer of gender stereotypes hiding more examples of Black women attempting to change the system. I personally love seeing the history we thought we knew expanded to include the contributions and efforts of all involved, not just those we traditionally accepted as the keepers of history. She even suggests that some of the results may have even connected to the known tribes of women warriors. Hall also illustrates the role of others such as insurance companies profited from and continue to benefit from the legacy of slavery.

My only qualm with this book is the artwork done by Hugo Martínez. The drawings look to be pen and ink, and they do not detract with the words at all. The way he depicts Hall is lovely. It is the drawings of the initial women on the boat with which I take issue. In some panes, they appear depicted as animalistic. In others, the over exaggerated and fetishized features that became unfortunate comic book tropes. It is possible to depict strength (clearly done in the drawing of faces) without resorting to the Barbie-like depictions of the female form.

I am part of an equity and social justice book group, and I still would recommend this title to my clubmates despite my one issue with the artwork. Think of this as an adult version of Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales style of explaining history in graphic format. Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts presents the fascinating yet woefully understudied history of women-led slave revolts. This exploration is done in a unique fashion, by pairing the history itself with a memoir of the author’s quest to uncover the details of such revolts, which were frequently left out of the history books.

This graphic novel does a great job presenting this history in a detailed yet easy to understand manner, making for a very compelling and engaging read. In just over 200 illustrated pages, I learned a great deal about these slave revolts and their suppression from the history books, in a way that is memorable and will stick with me. I could see this going over well in a junior high or high school history class (though it’s just as targeted towards adult readers as well).

The illustrations were powerful and intricate, and I especially enjoyed the intermixing between past and present within the pages that explored the author’s research process. The use of reflections in water or on windows to show the historical events that Hall was discussing as she walked through modern-day cities was extremely clever and well-done, keeping the reader engaged with the artwork by requiring close examination to ensure you saw all the details.

My one complaint about the illustrations was that sometimes the figures didn’t look anatomically correct, but I think that was a purposeful stylistic choice that just didn’t quite connect with me. I do also think using color illustrations—even the limited color palette used on the cover—would have been very impactful, but even with just black and white illustrations the artwork was very engaging because of the unique drawing style, level of detail, and dramatic shading techniques.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel. For its format it packs a lot of information but in a way that feels right. Not too rushed not too condensed. I learned so new information that I can’t wait to regurgitate to my friends. I wish the stories about the slave revolts were longer however I understand that’s not feasible because of the hurdles the Hall faced trying to dig for archives :(. My only critique is the font. I think the font is too small or it’s too “squiggly”. I think it were a times new Roman type font it’d be easier to read.

*DISCLAIMER* I received a free copy of this book for review purposes. I only accept books I think I’d like because life is too short to waste on bad books. That said if I don’t like a book, I’ll say so, free or not. With that out of the way, onto the review:

This is my favorite book so far this year. It’s not an easy read. There’s slavery, racism, sexism. While the violence isn’t depicted too graphically, it is there as you cannot tell this story without it. It should be noted there are mentions of rape, again because this story cannot be told without it.

Rebecca Hall has covered a piece of our history that most of us weren’t taught. Slavery, was a best, briefly mentioned when I was in school. This book reminds us that was intentional. The few puzzle pieces found, didn’t allow the entire story to be told. How do you tell the stories of humans who were stripped of their identities when they were forced into slavery? Names are often nowhere to be found. And the few names that do exist in the records, was still not enough to truly identify anyone. They were human who were effectively erased from the history books. I am glad that someone is still trying to honor the victims of these crimes against humanity.

Anyone who still doesn’t understand just how harmful this time period was and how it still deeply affects individuals and society as a whole today, should probably read this.

The subject matter is a bit too much for young children, but this would be a great way to help teach teens about slavery and women’s role in fighting back against it.

Also the artwork by Hugo Martínez is just stunning.

Rebecca Hall is a historian, lawyer, and granddaughter of slaves. When she set out to research the history of women's involvement in slave revolts, she knew it would be an emotionally challenging project, but it was also a logistical challenge. How does one understand the lives of people who were so systematically disenfranchised that their names weren't even recorded? This graphic history book follows Hall's research journey while also reimagining the lives of women who died fighting slavery.

This is the best graphic history book I've ever read. Hands down. It's truly a phenomenal piece of research, art, and memoir, all woven together perfectly. Hugo Martinez brought Rebecca Hall's story and research to life with vivid, emotional comics that show how the history of slavery in the U.S. is both ignored and still reflected in our society today. I'm blown away by how well Hall and Martinez honor the lives erased in history, and I already can't wait to read this book again.

“I am a historian.
And I am haunted.
As far back as I can remember, I’ve been searching for women warriors. Pickings were slim. For hundreds of years our ancestors were brutally silenced. I wasn’t supposed to find their voices. But sometimes, when you think you’re hunting down the past… the past is hunting down you…

I was born to tell these stories.”


Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Dr. Rebecca Hall is part memoir, part graphic novel detailing the erased history of women that planned and led slave revolts on slave ships during the Middle Passage. Historian Dr. Hall navigates her family legacy of slavery, exploring slave ship captain’s logs, court records, correspondence, as well as forensic evidence to find the women warriors. Using historical findings, Dr. Hall reconstructs the pasts of Adono and Alele, women who fought for freedom during the Middle Passage, as well as women who led slave revolts in Colonial New York all while detailing her experience as an attorney and historian haunted by the past.

Dr. Hall’s writing and personal experience in the pages of Wake were both readable and emotional. There are only so many words that a writer can include in a graphic novel, making each choice incredibly important and meaningful. I’m still thinking about the page where it was stated that “the more women on board a slave ship, the more likely a revolt,” and then Dr. Hall repeated that line. Wow. I found the starkness of the black and white illustration to be powerful especially when the word count on a single page was limited.

For me as a reader, the graphic novel format is the perfect format to learn about history. It is impactful to see what happened as well as read about the events of the past.

Thank you to Rebecca Hall and publisher, Simon and Schuster for giving me access to an advanced readers copy.

Some 36,000 slave ships had crossed the Atlantic Ocean in over four hundred years, with a revolt happening on 1 in 10 of these voyages. What did the ones fighting back have in common? "The more women on board a slave ship, the more likely a revolt would occur," Rebecca Hall writes.

In her partial memoir mixed with reconstructed events based on her scholarly knowledge, Hall takes readers along on an illustrated journey of a historian trying to discover the truth of women-led slave revolts. Existing evidence omits the role women had in fighting back during slavery, and some companies are not eager to change that. Blended with her grandmother's story, Hall has been on a quest to discover the truth just to find women warriors everywhere.

While the book may not have all the answers (and actually thanks to that), Wake delivers an important lesson about why it is so difficult for historians to trace historical events, especially the ones involving slaves, especially the ones involving women.

Oftentimes with only a few words to a page, Hugo Martínez's illustrations speak volumes. Maybe the choice of font was not the luckiest, but if anything, it makes you slow down and read more carefully. There is power in the black-and-white finish. At first glance, it is sometimes difficult to divide between the present and the past where both collide in a single graphic, but it emphasizes the truth that we are still not completely free of the past (whether that was intentional or not).

The idea to devise Wake as a graphic novel is phenomenal. Reducing word count turns every sentence central, with no unnecessary descriptions and storylines. It makes both history and the historian's story easily digestible and vivid, engaging readers who may not otherwise reach for a historical book or a scholarly article while also attracting those who may not be graphic-novel fans otherwise (like me).

In a very easily digestible format, Hall shows us how much we still don't know while she showed up to change that.

Intense and enlightening, this book pulls no punches. The subject matter and the art style are both stark; the use of reflections to show the violence of the past in present-day situations is especially striking. The book is informative, and shares information that has rarely been presented before because of bias in who has been defining "history" for a long time, while also giving an insight into the process of the historian, herself a black woman. Very impactful, this book hits you like a punch to the gut.

Absolutely captivating visually and thematically. Necessary for all library collections everywhere. I thought this book might be young adult, but I think it has an adult audience as more of the focus. That could be different at different libraries, however.

I was given this book for an honest review from netgalley
#netgalley

I absolutely devoured this graphic novel. I love the feminist tones as well as learning more about African-American history and the horrible Injustice of slavery.

This book was really good. It covered a topic that is both significant and rarely discussed. It is also depicted in a very unique way. While trying to uncover the racist atrocities of the past, the main character has her own experiences with racism. This interplay of the past does a great job of making the history feel more immersive. I’m not really a fan of the art. While the high contrast of the black and white color scheme were probably intentional given focus of the book, the anatomy was kind of “knobby” in a way I found unappealing.

A part of history I didn't know about but important in African American History. Shows that black women have always been at the forefront of revolution/rebellion/change even on slave ships.

4.5 stars. This is a phenomenal graphic novel memoir about Rebecca Hall’s search for the stories of women-led slave revolts. She gives a voice to people who rose up to defy being enslaved, which is so important because history and even the present climate seeks to silence these voices. The only reason this didn’t get 5 stars was because the art style was a little confusing at times, where I’d have to stare at a picture and couldn’t understand what I was looking at many times. This is due to everything being in stark black and white, it was a little difficult to discern what was being depicted several times. I’m unsure of if the finished copy will be different. Other than that, this is fantastic and I think it should be required reading for high school students. Graphic memoirs are such an incredible device by which we can teach history, and this book is an excellent example of that.

This took me a long time to read. I had to keep putting it down because Dr. Hall’s pain at finding these suppressed stories was palpable, and I cried every time she cried. This research was an incredible act of emotional labor on her part and I thank her for it.

Though I didn’t love the art style used, I appreciated the way the artist used reflections (water, windows, etc) to reflect the past within the present. That really brought an incredible amount of depth to the story.

A part that will stay with me is when Dr. Hall talks about how sound travels through water slowly, and she wonders if the cries of her ancestors are still calling out to her within the ocean.

This is a difficult book to read, but very worth it. It sheds light on an aspect of history that is often washed over or downright hidden in the American education system, while also showing both the microaggressions and trauma that come from being a Black slavery historian. It is a powerful story and one that should be required reading. I'm not the biggest fan of this kind of art style, but it works well for the seriousness of this book.

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.

Lots of solid graphic novels coming out recently focused on historical events. Wake talks about women-led slave revolts. These stories are hidden in the records for a variety of reasons, but can be teased out with some difficult research. I liked the stories that were featured, but the graphic style was slightly too line heavy for me. Either way, a good way to learn about this little talked about aspect of history.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review, but the opinions are my own.

I have chills from reading this. It has the same intensity as that of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis with none of the levity. The stories are scraps of history that went unrecorded or are held in vaults of the oldest financial institutions thriving today. When Dr. Hall points out the evil in banality of slavery and modern racism and takes you through her difficult journey to piece together stories of revolts and assertions of freedom in several different contexts of slave trade and the lives of slaves. It was truly surprising to me how several white nation states have sought to distance themselves from the narrative of being complicit in the process, as have "progressive" cities like New York. It's kind of masterful how the writing takes you back and forth from the 18th to the 21st century without loss of fidelity.

Content warnings galore: murder, rape, slavery


Thank you NetGalley for an advanced readers e-copy of Revolt in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not a big graphic novel reader. Even though it’s an easier format for a lot of people, and I do love the combination of art and writing and how the art can be it’s own way of telling the story and add all these different nuances, I just usually have a hard time focusing on them or getting into them. But WAKE had me hooked from the start. Completely absorbed. I love learning about women in history, and ever since I read At the Dark End of the Street by Danielle L McGuire, I’ve been more interested in learning specifically about women’s roles in rebellions, movements, and power struggles. Women have played prominent roles in them, but we rarely hear about it. So I deeply appreciate Hall’s work to tell the stories of women who weren’t just involved in, but actually organized and lead slave revolts. Part memoir, Wake also shows Hall’s journey researching these women, barriers in her efforts to uncover their stories, and the idea of being haunted by slavery. I thought these 2 storylines were well balanced and intertwined. T he bits of writing scattered are brief but incredibly powerful, and I do think a graphic novel was the best format/vehicle for what she was trying to do.

This beautifully written and illustrated graphic novel combined history, facts, research, and personal memoir in a way I have not read before.

Ms. Hall hit so many dead ends with her research (as chronicled in the novel), that it is a miracle she had the emotional want to continue.

A definite need for anyone researching slavery or female revolts.

A haunting yet in your face graphic novel that needs to read by anyone and everyone.

what a phenomenal book! first of all, the art style was unlike anything I've ever seen before. so evocative and beautiful. the only issue I had (with the entire book, honestly) was that the font was hard to read at times. secondly, the structure of the book was a great choice. weaving the history in with the historian's own personal journey made the content so much more engaging than it already was. I'm disappointed but not surprised that I never learned about any of these events in school, even the ones that took place in my own city. would definitely recommend this to anyone that wants to learn about women's history that they won't teach you in school.