She starts prying around, and digs up some secrets that she wished she hadn't. The boys are muted, frightened waifs, the teachers besides West a morose bunch. She arrives and is subjected to a dank, lonely atmosphere that's chilling enough without being haunted. She reluctantly takes the journey, convinced by one of the teachers (Dominic West) a haunted world war one veteran with demons of his own. Rebecca Hall fares excellently ras as a paranormal investigator from circa early 30's London, brought out to the foggy moors of northern england to a grandiose, austere boys boarding school, where some mysterious phenomena has been reported. It's isn't without its paranormal jump scares though, but they are nicely blended with the story and personal conflicts of the characters, giving them earned purpose. The trailer suggests some scary genre thrills, and while there are a few, most of the trauma that befalls the characters is of interpersonal nature, the demons of their past proving to be far more haunting than any supernatural spooks hiding in the closet.

This story of a personal and national legacy is a powerful reminder that while the past is gone, we still live in its wake.The Awakening is a sly ghost story, and slipped by mostly unnoticed in 2012. Illustrated beautifully in black and white, Wake will take its place alongside classics of the graphic novel genre, like Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Art Spiegelman's Maus. We also follow Rebecca's own story as the legacy of slavery shapes her life, both during her time as a successful attorney and later as a historian seeking the past that haunts her. Using a 'remarkable blend of passion and fact, action and reflection' (NPR), Rebecca constructs the likely pasts of Adono and Alele, women rebels who fought for freedom during the Middle Passage, as well as the stories of women who led slave revolts in Colonial New York. But Rebecca decides to look deeper, and her journey takes her through old court records, slave ship captain's logs, crumbling correspondence, and even the forensic evidence from the bones of enslaved women from the 'negro burying ground' uncovered in Manhattan. The accepted history of slave revolts has always told her that enslaved women took a back seat. Rebecca Hall, a historian, granddaughter of slaves, and a woman haunted by the legacy of slavery. They fought their enslavers throughout the Americas. Women warriors planned and led revolts on slave ships during the Middle Passage.

A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and The Washington Post Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour de force that tells the 'powerful' ( The New York Times Book Review) story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Hall's efforts to uncover the truth about these women warriors who, until now, have been left out of the historical record.

Wake by rebecca hall