Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race and Voting Rights in the U.S.

by Caitlin Cass

New Yorker contributing cartoonist Caitlin Cass traces the fight for suffrage in the U.S. from the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This intersectional history of women and voting rights chronicles the suffrage movement’s triumphs, setbacks, and problematic aspects.

“She put in her work, but there’s so much left to do.” Begun in the Antebellum era, the song of suffrage was a rallying cry across the nation that would persist over a century. Capturing the spirit of this refrain, New Yorker contributing cartoonist Caitlin Cass pens a sweeping history of women’s suffrage in the U.S.―a kaleidoscopic story akin to a triumphant and mournful protest song that spans decades and echoes into the present.

In Suffrage Song, Cass takes a critical, intersectional approach to the movement’s history―celebrating the pivotal, hard-fought battles for voting rights while also laying bare the racist compromises suffrage leaders made along the way. She explores the multigenerational arc of the movement, humanizing key historical figures from the early days of the suffrage fight (Susan B. Anthony, Frances Watkins Harper), to the dawn of the “New Women” (Alice Paul, Mary Church Terrell), to the Civil Rights era (Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker). Additionally, this book sheds light on less chronicled figures such as Zitkala-Ša and Mabel Ping Hua-Lee, whose stories reveal the complex racial dynamics that haunt this history.

The interiors include 4 foldouts, most notably a 4-page map detailing where women could vote in the US in 1919, leading up to the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Impeccably researched and rendered in an engaging and accessible comics style, Suffrage Song is sure to spark discussion on the vital issue of voting rights that continues to resonate today.

Genres: History, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Politics, Feminism, Comics, Historical

264 pages, Hardcover

First published June 18, 2024

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Denser than I thought it would be so I made sure to read this slower so I could properly absorb the information. Some things I recalled from a women’s history class I took in college but I still learned a lot, including about the Indigenous woman Zitkala-Sa who fought for her voting rights!

I know the author intentionally made the story of women’s suffrage disjointed to reflect the reality of the history but it felt a bit too much at times.

This book made me realize how much organization, determination and time it took to get the 19th amendment passed. And how there are so many today who still have their voting rights infringed upon. There is still so much work to do!!

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this one. I loved the illustration style, and as a history student, I thoroughly enjoyed the inclusion of minorities and race discussions.
However, the narration and formatting were incredibly hard to follow. In my experience, illustrated and graphic novels benefit from "less is more." There was too much information in such a small space.
Nonetheless, the topics discussed were incredibly important.

Thank you, NetGalley, Caitlin Cass, and Fantagraphic books for sending me an eArc.

Publication date: 5th March 2024

[Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lot of information in this graphic novel about people involved in the suffrage movement. The subtitle in part refers to the racism many of the leaders of the movements had at the time period. It is hard to judge people for the feelings of the time period in which they lived. This begins with the main leaders I expected like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances Watkins Harper and Alice Paul. I liked the inclusion of less familiar and especially people of color being included. The inclusion of Jim Crow laws and how small laws can be very restrictive to voting rights of minorities and the poor was informative. One only has to watch news to see continued use of laws, gerrymandering and bullying in use to stop people from exercising their rights to vote. I liked this graphic novel but some of the writing was hard to read even when enlarged on my device. Thank you to Fantagraphics Books for the temporary digital ARC via NetGalley and I am leaving a voluntary review.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, hands down, the best book on intersectional suffrage that I've read. Cass explores the topic from multiple angles, giving us the stories of women all across the spectrum who fought for the right to vote, not shying away from the more horrible elements. (And there are horrible elements.) The art makes use of fold-outs, newspaper excerpts, and a variety of styles, all of which come together surprisingly well to create a patchwork quilt of history and intersectionality. If you like your American history with the unvarnished truth - and even if you don't - this is a book worth reading.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is infuriating and important at the same time. Our country was founded at every turn on a fear of coming together and helping others in place of self-interest and capitalism. The people currently screaming about how it's allegedly a "Christian nation" clearly haven't read their Bibles if they think Jesus told them to be self-serving constantly and only look out for themselves (said as an agnostic who was raised in an evangelical cult). I'm sad that we're living in a time when the work of all of these women is being challenged by small-minded men who can't handle true equality.

This isn't a graphic novel you'll read in one sitting. It is full of information and direct quotes. It demands to be sat with. You can't speed through this if you want to get anything out of it. But the author does a great job of examining both the good and the bad of each subject, as well as how integral intersectionality is to suffrage and equality. "None of us are free until everyone is free!"

4.5 rounded down to a 4 for GR

[spalanai ⛤ · Rating 3 out of 5]

***I thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review***

I’ve always wanted to read more about feminism and suffrage through the ages ever since I first read about it in an encyclopaedia 8 years ago. Speaking of this book now, I liked everything about it and learnt a lot about history, her-story, more like. It’s brilliant how so much of it was watered down for easy understanding. However, the art’s designing was quite bad—I couldn’t read much of the text due to the small font size and there were instances where a lot of information was crammed into a single comic panel. Besides this, I couldn’t help but feel the author’s white savior complex through the introduction and epilogue, not to mention their current political standings which were completely unnecessary. Regardless, I would recommend it for an overview into the struggles of women.

⊹ . ⋆ ☽ ⋆ . ➶

[Moon Captain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense, worthy. The nearly scrapbook style of this helps it feel less heavy somehow. A well-designed book as well as body of work. A lot to appreciate here. Sorry this is coming out as a list of points rather than elaborate review. Kinda floored. Really good choice for me particularly because I didn't know much about the quest for voting rights in the USA. History is hard to look at. I can only really bear to see it presented in comic form, I think, or Ken Burns shows. I'm worried about our future, but in a way I am not. We have come so far and if yard signs are to be believed "we are NOT going back". I've been reading Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad and that was written in 1909. Women couldn't vote then. They weren't even people! Misogyny makes me feel completely insane, especially because I am a woman. I dunno. Off on a tangent now. Really solid volume here. I hope schoolteachers pick it up, teach it. Are there still schoolteachers? I found it at the library. May we all keep sharing important information with each other, and fighting for human rights, and doing Haka in the courtroom.

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Coastline Library | A mess. | The layout of this is terrible, and the organization is almost entirely lacking, especially in the first few chapters, which seem to have had a game of 52 card pickup done with the pages. Almost every panel is too dense and badly kerned, often dark and blurry, making them difficult to follow. The ghosts--I'm sorry--look like sperm. On one page a black woman is drawn with her skin the same hue as the white women, and on the next page she's tinted brown. The content is intersectional in only one way, there are many groups entirely left out (disability rights, please? They're an important part of suffrage history, and of black history and women's history generally). And it never felt like the author really knew the content, more like she had read some things and very earnestly decided that she was the one to share the story. I really wanted to love this, and was thinking about buying it as a gift for someone if I liked it. Glad it was a library book, but super disappointed.

[Dr. des. Siobhán · Rating 3 out of 5]

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free graphic novel.*

While the content matter of the book was well done and is super important, my main criticism has to do with the graphic novel aspect: "Suffrage Song" was immensely hard to read. Some chapters were just pencil drawings, the text barely legible, the drawings weirdly smudged or quite immature compared to other, more professional chapters.

I also found the drawing style a bit mediocre but that might be my personal problem. Having said that, the graphic novel managed to introduce a lot of characters which I could barely differentiate visually. The comic also featured a lot of text - too much text if you ask me and parts, again, could barely be deciphered.

So I'm sorry to say, this was informative but not really enjoyable or pleasing to look at. 2,5 stars

[Jessica Nish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book (also loved the spooky theme with Halloween around the corner). I like how the story was told in a non linear way. I learned a lot more about people like Alice Paul and Fannie Lou Hammer! Really worth reading, it’s just a little dense sometimes.

[Liz Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a headstrong and independent women. I hate when people (especially men) try to tell me what to do, expecting me to just roll over and comply. I hate being talked over or ignored because I'm assumed to have no valuable contributions to things. It's annoying and frustrating and something I think about in my interactions with men.
And then I dip into history, and I see just how far society has come, and that humbles me so freaking much. I have no idea who I would have been if I had lived in our history. Would I have spoken up? Would I have fought? Would I have stood strong? Or would I have done what was expected of me? Dipping into this book made me ask questions like this--and many more--and is one of those books that I walked away from feeling like a better person. It also really delved into the harm that white women caused to people of color in their fight for suffrage. It didn't glorify the leaders of this movement, but showed them in all their dedication and ferocity AND their cruelty, callousness, and greed for women's rights above all other disenfranchised groups. And that is very uncommon. With a BA in English, I rarely heard professors talk about how white women harmed people of color, and when I did hear mention of it, it was always in a broad sense about the movement, never about specific people making choices that caused this harm and pain. That is so important to acknowledge. History should not be hidden.
This was such an incredible graphic historical account of women's suffrage in the US. I will 100% be purchasing a copy to have on hand for rereading because even though I took a while getting through it, I still feel like there's a lot I didn't fully digest. I highly recommend it.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deducting a star for the muddled first couple of chapters and occasional unclear wording, but it's a good overview of the complexities of the fight in the US for women and minorities (with particular focus on Black people) to win the right to vote, from the 1800s to the 1960s (disturbingly recent!), and touching on concerning trends emerging in the 2020s.

It shows the infuriating levels of sexism and misogyny women had to stand up against and doesn't shy away from the less positive sides of suffrage heroes, including those who either had a racist streak (arguing that educated white women should get the vote before uneducated Black men), or downplayed or shushed the 'colour' angle fearing that people couldn't handle two issues at once (before people recognized intersectionality of problems - turning away allies for fear of 'diluting' the message), or outright allied with white supremacists hoping that way they would get women the vote faster and then worry about the other stuff later.
Prominent figures featured include the expected, well-known white activists but also several Black activists like Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Ida B Wells, and Fannie Lou Hamer; Chinese-American Mabel Lee; and Indigenous activist Zitkala-Sa/Gertrude Simmons Bonnin.
The final quarter deals with efforts during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, after voting-rights laws had been passed in many (but not all!) states but were often obstructed or rigged with unfair hoops to jump through (like the literacy tests, only for POC, who had lousy schools, but not for white voters, who could very well be completely illiterate, who cares =_=) and in many areas mobs and prejudiced officials made it still dangerous for Black citizens to even try to register to vote.
The very end also mentions alarming shifts in the 2020s of certain political appointments and changes like hundreds of polling stations being closed (in which areas, hmm? =_=), highlighting the need to keep protecting hard-won rights and remove remaining barriers.

This graphic novel deals with the suffrage fight in the US, but I would still recommend it to readers from other countries as a good overview of the kind of sustained effort it takes to get social change, and the kinds of internal and external factors that can hamper the fight.

Content concerns: sexism, racism, talk of beatings and lynchings (not shown on-screen) and the Ku Klux Klan, talk of alcohol/alcoholism/Prohibition, corruption, talk of officially-sanctioned attempts to erase Indigenous culture

[E W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caitlin Cass’s Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race and Voting Rights in the U.S. is ambitious, inclusive, and efficient in its distillation of huge swaths of information—and of course, expertly illustrated (she is a New Yorker contributing cartoonist). I have read many accounts of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement, and I learned a few things from Cass’s book. There are also several laugh-out-loud moments in the beginning about women’s historically constrained roles and the sublimation of energy and creativity into dresses, hats, and completely frivolous social activity. The book will be appreciated by those who know the suffrage movement well and those new to the topic and looking for a quick survey. Cass covers familiar names and broadens the scope to include others whose contributions have received less attention, including Native Americans, Asian Americans, and African Americans. At least 20 pages are dedicated to Fannie Lou Hamer, perhaps the most sustained treatment of any individual in the book.

It is now widely understood that white women suffragists advanced their cause at the cost of African American suffrage, and that our received accounts privilege certain individuals and events (though one must concede that certain women did, in fact, play disproportionate roles in the movement’s success). I applaud Cass’s restoring marginalized stories, but if the book has a weakness, it is the “haunting” motif of the title, embodied by ghosts throughout the book (for her, that “history haunts me” is the entire point of the book). The suggestion that these ghosts “echo” not only from the past to the future but from the future to the past seems odd. The introduction also explicitly acknowledges the intentionally disjointed approach of the book, a choice which nevertheless gets in the way of the story; it is possible to tell a cohesive story of disenfranchisement/ enfranchisement with continuity while also acknowledging the reversals of fortune, the flaws of those involved, and the ways in which some were sacrificed for the political expediency of others. In addition, the epilogue feels tacked on and already dated in its emphasis on a few current challenges to voting rights and the democratic process; these issues should deeply trouble all of us, but there have, alas, already been so many more challenges since the book was drafted! But I certainly agree with Cass’s point that others have put in their work, and there is more work to be done.

[Corky · Rating 3 out of 5]

White women were racist in their fight for the vote AND it's complicated is the premise this graphic novel sets forth to detail per the introduction. But, for me, it didn't deliver a good analysis of this issue.

Late in the book there is a speech bubble of the ghosts and thoughts that perhaps haunted Stanton ; "maybe we should have fought for black male suffrage first and all women after."

Which frames the central question that comes to my mind in discussions of early women's suffrage leaders - why must every conversation regarding Stanton & other leaders of her time solely focus on racism but the same isn't done to men of the same period regarding their sexism? These women were racist. And they prioritized their vote over that of black men. The reverse is also true.

I have much greater criticism and disappointment in leaders of the women's suffrage movement who after securing white women's right to vote didn't turn the energies towards the actuality of voting for people of color vs. the deceiving 'legality'. When you have been lifted up, it is your responsibility to see and help those who have been effectively left behind.

But do I blame early leaders for fighting their fight first? No. I do however blame them for engaging in racist speech and rhetoric. I also fault them for failing to see the critical role black women played in championing women's suffrage while being aware they might not immediately benefit.

Beyond the lack of analysis of why 'it's complicated' this graphic novel also lacked structure. Some women - particularly BIPOC women - were featured very briefly, like two pages, and out of context / timeline. It felt like more checking a box of diversity rather than digging in. The timeline got so convulved I had no sense of what period we were in with Stanton & Anthony popping in out of nowhere.

I appreciate the research and did give this 3/5 stars because it was interesting and I did learn a little, but it just didn't live up to my expectations.

[Hannah Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Women’s Suffragist movement in the U.S. has a long and storied history that’s fraught with problems and white supremacy. Suffrage Song not only tells the stories of the women involved with the Women’s Suffragist movement, but it also humanizes them. In addition, Caitlin Cass uses her pen to examine the wrongs done by many of these women in the name of the better good. Cass tells the stories of many women throughout the book, many of whom history has forgotten or would like to forget. Cass favors Susan B. Anthony, but she also spends ample time on other suffragist heroes like Fannie Lou Hamer.

With all the years I spent within the Mississippi educational system, I still didn’t know many details of Fannie Lou Hamer’s story until this book. Had it not been for one specialized class I took in college on the Mississippi Delta, I would likely not have known of Fannie Lou Hamer at all until this book. I enjoyed learning more about her and I’m infinitely grateful I rediscovered her story through this book.

Art:

While I loved the content of Suffrage Song, the art was more of a mixed bag. While I loved the pencil drawings and classic cartoon styles, the lettering was sometimes difficult to read. There was a lot of information packed into tiny cartoon squares, making it less accessible for newer and less-experienced comic readers.

Final Thoughts:

I think this would be an excellent resource for educators and home-school moms, especially those teaching upper high schoolers. However, due to its dense lettering, I hesitate to recommend it to teens who aren’t used to graphic novels and comics. If you are interested in the subject matter and enjoy graphic novels, I think it’s worth a read. For the information on Fannie Lou Hamer alone, it’s worth reading. I will definitely be seeking out more reads on Fannie Lou Hamer in the future.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy. All the above thoughts are my own.

[Book Club of One · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caitlin Cass presents the long campaign for women’s suffrage in the United States from the 1800s to the present. Along the way we are introduced to many of the key figures of this movement and that they were complicated, human people, capable of holding ideals of equality alongside deeply held racist beliefs.

The book is structured some-what chronologically, with most chapters advancing a few stories in parallel. After an introduction detailing the authors rationale and personal junior to create the work the content begins with the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and a timeline of key events that are going to be explored in greater depth. From there the narrative unfolds, a chapter at a time, with biographies of important figures, transformational even and the scene setting of societal expectations.

In telling stories of multiple individuals, a multi-page ‘cast of characters’ begins on page 8, Cass moves beyond the single key figure to show that a wide range of people with different backgrounds and experiences took part in the movement for voting rights. Cass also shows how over time the movement strained, splintered and fragmented, with partial success although it is still under threat.

There is a lot of information to detail, and specifically choice to present it fragmented, Cass “wanted to recreate the experience of looking through the archives.” (Page 6). This goal is amply accomplished by insertions of news clippings and informational panels stylized as period advertisements (for example Godey’s Lady’s Book in chapter 1). However, there are a few sections that drag with a single setting and lots of dialogue (the beginning of chapter 9 in particular).

A well presented historical work that mostly keeps the reader engaged with varied art, locations and time periods. It both celebrates the accomplishments of the suffrage movement, while holding the leaders accountable for their comprises and problematic ideals.


I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who fight for voting rights are haunted by the ghosts who sacrificed their lives to create the modern day…

Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race and Voting Rights in the U. S. by Caitlin Cass is a fine quasi-anthology of the battle for women’s suffrage…though women’s voting rights are equally at home with voting rights in general.

Suffrage song has literal and metaphorical meaning.

An early chapter actually receeendes some of the “songs” sung by protestors akin to modern protest chants.

Meanwhile, the song could also be considering a long form hence of epic poetry with each successive generation continuing with a new “verse”.

The book covers the women’s suffrage movement as it relates to US Society, politics, culture, even economics, from the 19th to the 20th century.

The art is done in an innovative way ranging from political cartoons to newspaper strips to catalog ads. A subtle coloring element is added to hiligbt each “era” and group of activists that were part of the long term effort.

The intro hilights dozens of significant figures in the women’s liberation movement, though only a handful will get prominent “screen time” in this graphic novel.

At times, the narrative is a little scattered with the way it jumps around, but I was fine with the method.

The book unloads a lot of material on the reader (albeit in a pleasant colorful cartoony form), so I am sure even those familiar with the movement will learn something interesting.

[Toni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Fantagraphics Books for this arc.

I love aspects of this book; the arts, the introduction and parts of the layout. However overall I think it becomes a little too much.

I was ecstatic when I saw this graphic novel. As a historian I thought this was a perfect idea, and I still agree that the idea of this graphic novel is incredible but the layout isn't clear enough in my opinion. I absolutely adore the artwork and the version of this. In graphic novels I have always found a less is better approach works the best. I think just too much information was thrown into this. Some scenes within the chapters work very very well, and are clearer. i.e. page 91 works well and isn't too crowded, whereas pages 81- 85 are just too crowded and have too much thrown into them.

I believe the introduction of this graphic novel deserves its own thoughts. I thought the introduction was absolutely beautiful, yes it is a little too filled with words, but at points its overwhelmingness shows the author's anxiety and thoughts on the subject. I thought the introduction was so important because of the message it conveyed of yes the author's voice is definitely in the narrative, and that is SO important when it comes to historical things.

[Norman Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

2025 Eisner Award winner - Best Reality-Based Work

This is a nice, concise summary of the efforts to gain the right to vote in the United States, both by women and by Blacks. The book mainly focuses on individuals, so some of the information is repeated as those individuals' stories overlap. The main message is that these (mostly) women suffered imprisonment, beatings, and other awful treatment in their quest to gain equality. It's easy to forget that the Constitutional Amendments that grant voting rights to Blacks and women are only a little over a hundred years old. And, as the epilogue points out, some (many?) of those and other hard-won rights are in serious jeopardy now. Do we have the same fortitude to fight for our rights today as the women profiled in this book?
The artwork in this book is loose, with lettering that is inconsistent, so that takes away from some of the power of the book. But I hope one is not reading this book for the art! There is a powerful message here and I hope that it reaches the people who need it, particularly young people who are threatened by an authoritarian regime (and its effects) that could last for years to come.

[S.Matt Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suffrage Song covers the history of voting rights for women in the United States. The author anchors the narrative with a few central figures but covers a lot of unsung advocates and lesser known stories in the book's 235 pages.

As other reviewers have noted, the book is episodic. In this respect, it's like a quilt of American history, covering a variety of stories in its squares. If you're looking for a straight story, this isn't it. Even though many of these events happened years apart over the course of several decades, what they share is unique to the history of suffrage. I personally think the episodic nature of the book makes it easier to read.

The author doesn't flinch in portraying how progress was inhibited along the way through racist and prejudicial thought. In fact, that's a large part of the history, baked into it. Heroines of the suffrage movement are portrayed as flawed characters which makes for compelling reading.

Lastly, the mini-essays which introduce and conclude the book are masterpieces in how to contextualize history.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race and Voting Rights in the U.S.’ by Caitlin Cass is a non-fiction graphic novel that seeks to uncover the thorny history around voting rights.

The book takes on a pretty big scope, exploring the intersection of race, gender, and class in the fight for suffrage. The triumphs and failures of the movement are discussed as well as the ways history got things wrong. It introduces readers to a diverse cast of historical figures, from well-known suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul to lesser-known activists like Zitkala-Ša and Mabel Ping Hua Lee.

At 264 pages with small panels, it’s a pretty daunting read for a graphic novel. I liked the content, but I feel it could have used better editing to help with overall cohesion. The narrative jumps around and at times feels a bit repetitive, but I applaud the attempt. The illustration style was good and I appreciated the use of color-coding to denote different historical periods. I liked the use of ghostly figures to represent the ongoing struggle for voting rights.

[Meredith Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.25/5 stars) Overall, I enjoyed this graphic novel about the history of women's suffrage in the USA. Cass includes the leaders you usually think of when you hear about women's suffrage (e.g., Susan B Anthony and her ilk) but also does a good job of including BIPOC leaders and their stories. There were leaders that I learned about that I hadn't heard of, like Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, also known as Zitkala-Ša, which of course prompts further investigation. I also appreciated sections talking about more recent history included newsprint and headlines from the time that are primary sources. However, it felt like the story was a bit disjointed and the panels were very small in some cases and hard to read, even on my large desktop monitor. There are also a few misspellings, which are hopefully caught by an editor before publication.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Brandon Westlake · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a lot of young people (and, quite frankly adults), the story of women's suffrage is something left out of their history classes. Cass's book does a great job making a complex historical event a little more understandable, and includes some feminist philosophy along with it. The story doesn't just focus on the usual historical personalities, but presents a wide array of characters and ideas.

I think there is some humor that may go over some readers' heads; there are some philosophical jokes that I thought "oh that's clever" and showed my wife, who really didn't seem to understand the significance from outside of academia and the humanities in general.

However, I don't think that should hold readers back. In fact, I think it might picque some people to do some more exploring about feminism and gender in general, and that can't be a bad thing if you're wanting to truly understand the intellectual backbone of the women's rights movement.

[Heatherjoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 menh. Too much jumping around in the timeline and too much packed in to really work for the graphic novel format. Some sections tell stories well but others I read on repeat trying to figure out how it tied into the whole or made sense in the narrative.

Most of the sections with Fannie Lou Hamer really do shine so I want to give credit there.

The book is pretty heavy on the shame/guilt as motivation (including the symbolic future ghosts of Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hammer guilting Susan B Anthony on her deathbed). I have to imagine there are better ways of telling the story of women’s suffrage while acknowledging racism in the movement; the facts are there but this is so blunt it leaves little room for the complexity of being human in a time and place.

Last, when I went to look up more detail on one story, I learned that details that were stated as fact (about the abusive childhood of Victoria Woodhull) are speculative and debated with scant evidence.

[T · Rating 2 out of 5]

More like 2.5 stars. I very much appreciated the inclusion of BIPOC suffrage leaders and their stories. Because, as the book points out, so many names have been lost to history.

However.

There are a couple of misspellings that need to be fixed (p164, lower left box | p182, middle left box). There could be more that I just didn’t catch due to the fact that several sections were just difficult to read (particularly the one starting on p 162 - that was an eye chart). Because of these errors, it was difficult try and take this book seriously. Spelling errors of any type automatically make something much more juvenile in tone and this book does not need that vibe.

The “ghosts” look like sperm. If this was a style choice, it feels patriarchal, be it blatant or subconscious.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for providing a free copy of this title for review.

[Gabriel Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC given by Edelweiss+ for Honest Review

2.5 stars rounded up

Suffrage Song is a well meaning graphic novel cataloging the efforts of the suffragettes during the time when women were not able to vote. I say well meaning because it does itself and injustice by being to overzealous about all the information trying to be put in.

Cass admits at the beginning that her journey into the history of women's rights essentially is through white-guilt, and while it's refreshing and admirable to admit that, it still added a weird vibe.

The illustrations are overall consistent but the text is SO HARD to read! With the hand drawn script as well as the tiny font it's just really a let down for anyone with impaired vision or reading disabilities.

A worthy endeavor that falls flat.

[Ashley Gerst · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this more than 5 stars, I would!

Caitlin Cass delivers a strong, poignant message given today's current political climate. She does this with care and devotion to history, research, and the graphic novel / illustration medium.

I have watched Cass's passion for graphic novels, political history, and women's history grow through the years.

Even beyond the historical accuracy, her attention to detail in color, illustration and texture is unmatched. This book is one of the highest quality graphic novels I own! Complete with gold foil and fold outs to help explain historic events and large amounts of data in unique ways.

I highly recommend reading this, especially now as we will exercise our rights to vote in the upcoming 2024 election!

[Lisa Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other reviewers complain that there is too much in here, but I loved that about this amazing graphic nonfiction history of the women's rights movement in the US. I learned about people I didn't know about before, and the stories were so compelling that I was looking up people to see how their lives ended up because I was so concerned for what they were going through.
The best part of this book is the snark, which I think is completely appropriate regarding this subject. How did this even go on for so long? How is this still something we have to fight about? The book ends on a note of hope that people are waking up.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

[Kira · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

I really loved this book. It was an excellent way to both tell the amazing history and work the suffragist did for women's right to vote while still acknowledging that those same women were incredibly problematic. Showing that you can both be proud of the work they put in but disappointed that they were willing to compromise their beliefs to gain a small amount of change. I also love that in the end she discussed our current world and the kinds of work we need to be doing now to ensure that all people have a say in our democracy and ensure voting rights for all.

[Hermusings · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was more infographic than comic book. You can see how much time and research the author placed into this book. She dives deep into some well known characters (Susan B, Stanton, etc) however the gold here is the multiple stories of everyday women. This felt well rounded as slavery, universal suffrage, white supremacy and intersectionality are also discussed.
However, as I stated in my original sentence, this felt like an illustrated textbook. Incredibly informant yet maybe something I would have loved to have read more within a class setting than now.

Thank you to NetGalley and Fantagraphics Books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.