It’s a great example of the “show, don’t tell” dictum. What’s most impressive about the book is that it tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the Boxer Rebellion without ever coming across as pedantic or instructional - you unconsciously learn simply through reading the story. Yang’s comic is a compelling blend of historical fact and magical realism told in an accessible style that both informs and entertains. Gene Luen Yang captures the broad strokes of the historical event, from the Boxers’ perspective, in this book. Buy a Coffee for nat (bookspoils) with Īfter enduring a number of harsh setbacks including war and natural disaster, Chinese peasants in the late 19th century began an anti-colonial, anti-Christian uprising that grew and became known as the Boxer Rebellion (the Chinese militia practiced Chinese martial arts like kung fu which was known at the time as “Chinese boxing”, hence why they were referred to as “Boxers”). If you're interested in buying Boxers, just click on the image below to go through my link. However, I will continue with Saints- the parallel story to this volume- and hope I'll feel more attached by then. I ended up flowing with it because Gene Luen Yang storytelling skills are phenomenal.īoxers was an unexpected read in that I thought it was for sure going to blow my socks off, but ended up leaving me quite underwhelmed in a few aspects. So after some time it came down to the fact that I wasn't even that affected by another death in this graphic novel.īut I did love Bao's dreams, even if they weren't really well explained as to why they were suddenly happening. However, I was more than once disappointed with their personal growth aka there wasn't any because they were almost all killed off. Little Bao is fighting for the glory of China, but at what cost? So many are dying, including thousands of 'secondary devils'-Chinese citizens who have converted to Christianity.īoxers had a great setting with complex characters that made me compulsively turn page after page to find out what would happen next. Harnessing the powers of ancient Chinese gods, he recruits an army of Boxers-commoners trained in kung fu-who fight to free China from 'foreign devils.'Īgainst all odds, this grass-roots rebellion is violently successful. Set in China, 1898, Boxers follows bands of foreign missionaries and soldiers as they roam the countryside, bullying and robbing Chinese peasants.

But upon sitting down to write this review, I found that I hadn't that many positive things to discuss like I did with the author's previous work.

After having read and loved beyond words Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese, I was more than excited about picking up his other works.

Saints by Gene Luen Yang