ljrinaldi's review
4.0
A fascinating look at an event that apparently turned the French against the slave trade. A shipwreck leaves Africans who have been captured for the slave trade alone on a small desert island, where some manage to survive for 15 years.
The island has nothing on it, and somehow, they manage to get rain water, and catch fish, and survive.
The second story in the book is of Sylvian, the author, flying to the island, to learn by what was left behind, how these people survived. I tended to skip over those parts, that were sprinkled into the story of the people left behind, because I was more interested in that part of the story.
Not sure if this story is well know by the French, but I had never heard of Tromelin, or the people left behind. Glad that it got translated.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
The island has nothing on it, and somehow, they manage to get rain water, and catch fish, and survive.
The second story in the book is of Sylvian, the author, flying to the island, to learn by what was left behind, how these people survived. I tended to skip over those parts, that were sprinkled into the story of the people left behind, because I was more interested in that part of the story.
Not sure if this story is well know by the French, but I had never heard of Tromelin, or the people left behind. Glad that it got translated.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review
3.0
Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley
There are many stories from history that we do not know. It isn’t that in every case they are totally forgotten, though that is true in some cases, for sometimes people do know the story, but the story is not widely known. This graphic novel relates one of those known but unknown stories.
The novel tales two stories. The first is that of the slave who not only find themselves kidnapped but then stranded on a small island. The second is group of scholars many years later as they struggle to piece together what happened. There is the stark contrast between the deprivations that the shipwrecked people suffered to that of the relative ease in which the researchers live.
The dual stories work, as the graphic novel is true. It is a non-fiction graphic novel. Once you realize this is account and that is why some of the characters aren’t as fully developed as they would be in more fictional and less scholarly accounts.
The amount of information that the book conveys is quite nice and the art work is lovely.
There are many stories from history that we do not know. It isn’t that in every case they are totally forgotten, though that is true in some cases, for sometimes people do know the story, but the story is not widely known. This graphic novel relates one of those known but unknown stories.
The novel tales two stories. The first is that of the slave who not only find themselves kidnapped but then stranded on a small island. The second is group of scholars many years later as they struggle to piece together what happened. There is the stark contrast between the deprivations that the shipwrecked people suffered to that of the relative ease in which the researchers live.
The dual stories work, as the graphic novel is true. It is a non-fiction graphic novel. Once you realize this is account and that is why some of the characters aren’t as fully developed as they would be in more fictional and less scholarly accounts.
The amount of information that the book conveys is quite nice and the art work is lovely.
tawallah's review
3.0
I received this via NetGalley for an honest review.
This graphic novel tells a dual perspective of the events of 18 Th century shipwreck to Tromelin and the archaeological finds in 2008. The art is the watercolor palette that I really love. And it was quite close to real view. I appreciated this format to tell an unknown tale of slavery but more so of survival of those stranded on this tiny island. It is truly an amazing tale. Unfortunately, the narrative overwhelmed the artwork at times. It was choppy, not sure if this was due to translation or it was needed to fit the space limits. And there were times I was confused to how to read the texts as there were blocks of writing around the art. Both stories were interesting enough on their own but not sure if the meshing was as smooth as it could be. And the real photos afterwards seemed more like appendix, really source material, for the tale. But I’m not clear to its exact purpose. It wasn’t that much different to what was presented earlier.
The story was great, the format used needed a bit more work. Putting environmental spin onto a historical story seemed inappropriate. But as a teaser to do more reading, it works well.
This graphic novel tells a dual perspective of the events of 18 Th century shipwreck to Tromelin and the archaeological finds in 2008. The art is the watercolor palette that I really love. And it was quite close to real view. I appreciated this format to tell an unknown tale of slavery but more so of survival of those stranded on this tiny island. It is truly an amazing tale. Unfortunately, the narrative overwhelmed the artwork at times. It was choppy, not sure if this was due to translation or it was needed to fit the space limits. And there were times I was confused to how to read the texts as there were blocks of writing around the art. Both stories were interesting enough on their own but not sure if the meshing was as smooth as it could be. And the real photos afterwards seemed more like appendix, really source material, for the tale. But I’m not clear to its exact purpose. It wasn’t that much different to what was presented earlier.
The story was great, the format used needed a bit more work. Putting environmental spin onto a historical story seemed inappropriate. But as a teaser to do more reading, it works well.
spiringempress's review
3.0
I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review
3 1/2. The Forgotten Slaves of Tromelin is a graphic novel that follows two separate and distinct narratives: one of Tsimiavo, a Malagasy woman trapped on Tromelin, and Sylvain Savoia, an artist working on an archaeological expedition on the island. This graphic novel unravels the forgotten story of the L'Utile/Tromelin, where a trade ship wrecked and stranded sailors on a tiny island alongside their slaves stolen from Madagascar. These narratives of Sylvian and Tsimiavo are interspersed and work in multiple ways to illustrate how racism effects individuals, as well as, the written record left behind. The artwork is also stunning in this graphic novel and uses its qualities to demonstrate the difference in equality.
I was completely enraptured in Tsimiavo's story, which begins when she is taken from her homeland and thrown onto a foreign ship with strange men. It was absolutely stunning and also heartbreaking to see Savoia uses the graphic novel format to capture a sense of how Tsimaivo felt on that ship. Her terror, her fear and how she felt in that situation are beautifully captured. I stopped on the panel, where Tsimiavo is first shown on the ship and Savoia shows the slaves at a lower angle than the sailors. It really creates the feeling of how small and subservient these individuals would have felt. In fact, I would use this panel to show how graphic novels can be superior to literature.
In addition, this graphic novel is truly exceptional because it attempts to shed some light on a remnant of forgotten black history. It does not shy away from the truth; it does not paint the white man as benevolent or fair, but instead as cowardly and craven. And honors the Malagasy people, who died on Tromelin while white men sailed free. We need more graphic novels/books that are willing to look at the industry of slavery and ugly aspects of history without glossing over it. Therefore, I think this graphic novel will become a must-read.
Even though I think this graphic novel is an important read, it is not entirely flawless. In fact, I found that I did like how the narrative jumped back and forth between Tsimiavo and Sylvian because the found the former much more interesting. Sylvian's narrative is also necessary to provide a commentary on the archaeological dig and how the island feels to him. However, I cannot think of a solution since I think Sylvian and Tsimiavo are both necessary to the overall work. I do think that the overload of information in Sylvian's panels did create a disjointed effect between the two. Furthermore, the text was often not presented in a clear order and I often found myself rereading sections of text in different ways to piece it together. Overall, it could have been clarified.
3 1/2. The Forgotten Slaves of Tromelin is a graphic novel that follows two separate and distinct narratives: one of Tsimiavo, a Malagasy woman trapped on Tromelin, and Sylvain Savoia, an artist working on an archaeological expedition on the island. This graphic novel unravels the forgotten story of the L'Utile/Tromelin, where a trade ship wrecked and stranded sailors on a tiny island alongside their slaves stolen from Madagascar. These narratives of Sylvian and Tsimiavo are interspersed and work in multiple ways to illustrate how racism effects individuals, as well as, the written record left behind. The artwork is also stunning in this graphic novel and uses its qualities to demonstrate the difference in equality.
I was completely enraptured in Tsimiavo's story, which begins when she is taken from her homeland and thrown onto a foreign ship with strange men. It was absolutely stunning and also heartbreaking to see Savoia uses the graphic novel format to capture a sense of how Tsimaivo felt on that ship. Her terror, her fear and how she felt in that situation are beautifully captured. I stopped on the panel, where Tsimiavo is first shown on the ship and Savoia shows the slaves at a lower angle than the sailors. It really creates the feeling of how small and subservient these individuals would have felt. In fact, I would use this panel to show how graphic novels can be superior to literature.
In addition, this graphic novel is truly exceptional because it attempts to shed some light on a remnant of forgotten black history. It does not shy away from the truth; it does not paint the white man as benevolent or fair, but instead as cowardly and craven. And honors the Malagasy people, who died on Tromelin while white men sailed free. We need more graphic novels/books that are willing to look at the industry of slavery and ugly aspects of history without glossing over it. Therefore, I think this graphic novel will become a must-read.
Even though I think this graphic novel is an important read, it is not entirely flawless. In fact, I found that I did like how the narrative jumped back and forth between Tsimiavo and Sylvian because the found the former much more interesting. Sylvian's narrative is also necessary to provide a commentary on the archaeological dig and how the island feels to him. However, I cannot think of a solution since I think Sylvian and Tsimiavo are both necessary to the overall work. I do think that the overload of information in Sylvian's panels did create a disjointed effect between the two. Furthermore, the text was often not presented in a clear order and I often found myself rereading sections of text in different ways to piece it together. Overall, it could have been clarified.
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