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A review by wrentheblurry
Boxers by Gene Luen Yang
4.0
I'm a fan of Yang's, and I've been looking forward to this title and the companion book, [b:Saints|43798|The Feast of All Saints|Anne Rice|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348444787s/43798.jpg|2926011]. At the same time, I had no prior knowledge of the Boxer Rebellion. Boxers is intense, deep, moving, and it motivated me to read more about the rebellion. In the back matter, Yang provides a list of titles for further reading.
Boxers follows Little Bao's journey with the rebels, first with the Big Sword Society. We see why Bao joins the movement, and we watch his rise in the ranks. Some humor and a bit of romance is sprinkled in, but mostly this is a harsh story with lots of murdering of people simply because they were foreigners or Chinese Christians.
The artwork, as ever, is perfect. Once in a while I found the layout of the panels confusing, and I needed to backtrack to determine what was happening. When this occurred, it felt like small bits of the story had been skipped, and that's one of the reasons I didn't give a higher rating.
If you have interest in reading this, I suggest you also read [b:Saints|43798|The Feast of All Saints|Anne Rice|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348444787s/43798.jpg|2926011]. The two work well together, though I believe reading Boxers first will provide more background and information, and give you some solid call-back moments during your reading of Saints.
Edit--My 12 year-old son also read both Boxers and Saints, after a warning from me about how violent they are. He's sensitive to that, yet a huge graphic novel fan, so he finished them. He says he would give them both 3.5 stars because they "are just too violent for my tastes, even though the violence is based on history." These aren't books for kids, though my sensitive boy did fine. Use your own best judgment.
Boxers follows Little Bao's journey with the rebels, first with the Big Sword Society. We see why Bao joins the movement, and we watch his rise in the ranks. Some humor and a bit of romance is sprinkled in, but mostly this is a harsh story with lots of murdering of people simply because they were foreigners or Chinese Christians.
The artwork, as ever, is perfect. Once in a while I found the layout of the panels confusing, and I needed to backtrack to determine what was happening. When this occurred, it felt like small bits of the story had been skipped, and that's one of the reasons I didn't give a higher rating.
If you have interest in reading this, I suggest you also read [b:Saints|43798|The Feast of All Saints|Anne Rice|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348444787s/43798.jpg|2926011]. The two work well together, though I believe reading Boxers first will provide more background and information, and give you some solid call-back moments during your reading of Saints.
Edit--My 12 year-old son also read both Boxers and Saints, after a warning from me about how violent they are. He's sensitive to that, yet a huge graphic novel fan, so he finished them. He says he would give them both 3.5 stars because they "are just too violent for my tastes, even though the violence is based on history." These aren't books for kids, though my sensitive boy did fine. Use your own best judgment.