Reviews tagging 'War'

Boxers & Saints 1: Boxers by Gene Luen Yang

4 reviews

sleepylit's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, War, Genocide, Violence, and Murder

handful_of_frogs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Death of parent, Death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, War, Xenophobia, Blood, Colonisation, Racism, and Religious bigotry

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It’s about the Boxer Rebellion. The protagonist Little Bao comes to lead a group that aims to overthrow foreign interests in China. It’s his coming of age story. It’s wonderfully told. It’s emotional, it’s inspiring, it’s surprisingly quite violent in its imagery for a book aimed perhaps initially at quite young readers. However, it aims to provoke discussion. In that sense it’s exemplary and a must read regardless of age. On to the companion book Saints soon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Murder, Religious bigotry, Violence, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, War, Death of parent, Gun violence, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Confinement, Classism, Bullying, Hate crime, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Slavery, Body horror, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Xenophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, and Toxic friendship

All the triggers in this book are in service of showing the reality of this war but in a relatively all ages friendly manner. This is a must read and will inspire a lot of discussion of the conflicting themes and belief systems shown through this narrative. Do not miss out on this book. On to the companion book Saints soon.

library_kb's review against another edition

challenging sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This can be a hard graphic novel to read--it deals with a tragic topic: the racism, stereotypes, and colonization that led to the Boxer Rebellion. I haven't read Saints yet, but I know that while this book follows the perspective of a rural Chinese boy who is against foreigners presence in China, the other book presents the other side of the conflict. This book definitely succeeds in having the reader understand some of the factors that led to such hatred of foreigners and any Chinese people who adopted Western religion (Christianity--though it seemed the hatred had less to do with the religion and more to do with its association with the Westerners) or ways of life. The art style is really vivid and fits well with the Chinese legends interspersed throughout--do be aware that there is a lot of violence and death depicted on page. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

Minor: Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Sexism