Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts
Ratings14
Average rating4.2
This graphic novel "brings to light for the first time the existence of enslaved black women warriors, whose stories can be traced by carefully scrutinizing historical records; and where the historical record goes silent, Wake reconstructs the likely past of two female rebels, Adono and Alele, on the slave ship The Unity ... [The book] offers ... insight into the struggle to survive whole as a black woman in today's America; it is a historiography that illuminates both the challenges and the necessity of uncovering the true stories of slavery; and it is an overdue reckoning with slavery in New York City where two of these armed revolts took place"--
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This desperately needed a different illustrator. The linework is distracting and took me out of the narrative. I actually think this might have worked better as a traditional written work. The subject matter is worthwhile and I can tell the author has poured herself into it.
The artwork is terrible and it ruined the narrative for me. I skim read and tried to ignore the drawing but it makes my head hurt, like a bunch of half-assed sketches nobody cared enough to finish.
Really wish I could rave about this. The memoir parts were phenomenal: effective, deeply moving. They conveyed Hall's disappointment over so many lost threads; frustration over the many closed doors she encountered and the ways she's been unjustly treated; her heartbreak over all the lives destroyed and reduced to mere entries on a ledger. Her use of excerpts from ledgers and logs is brilliant: their coldness reached deep into my heart, infusing me with despair over a species — my species — that could so easily perpetrate such abominations on fellow humans. The palimpsest-style illustrations in these sections were beautifully done.The fictionalized parts were... pretty good. (Not the dialog, but there was little enough of that). The stories added a personal touch, helping me imagine that past and the individual souls who lived and fought and suffered.The jumping between the two — that did not work for me at all. It took me a while to realize what was happening, and I tried my best to accept it and love it, but couldn't. Maybe there's a way to read it without feeling jolted out; some mindset; maybe on second reading I'll be more prepared and able to understand. Right now, first reading, right on the heels of the exquisite [b:Caste 51152447 Caste The Origins of Our Discontents Isabel Wilkerson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597267568l/51152447.SY75.jpg 75937597], I just can't justify the five stars I so badly wanted to give.(That doesn't mean you shouldn't read this. YOU SHOULD. It's informative, haunting, beautiful.)
