thebooknerdscorner 's review for:

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang

4.0

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I had high hopes when going into "Boxers" due to the fact that I love "American Born Chinese." I wasn't exactly disappointed by it, but it wasn't as good as I was hoping for it to be either. I still really like Gene Luen Yang's art style, so that didn't change, I just didn't love the story plot as much. The story follows a young boy called Little Bao as he rises up to fight the Westerns that have come to China spreading Christianity. I like how Yang tackled an aspect of history by combining it with magical realism, therefore making it more interesting to a different audience.

One of my favorite thing about "Boxers" is how it displays the Chinese as "the good guys" and the westerners as "the bad guys" while in reality war is never that simple. It shows Bao having to do some unsavory things in order to lead his troops to victory, but he is still predominantly the good guy. The script than switches in the companion novel, "Saints." The fact that the story is told again from a different perspective in the next book is probably the most interesting thing about this series. It was an interesting choice to do this for sure, but I am not sure if it was the best one or not.

Overall, I enjoyed reading "Boxers." It didn't take too long and I am glad that I read another book by Gene Luen Yang.