howlinglibraries 's review for:

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang

2.0

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I read American Born Chinese a while back and felt like I was the only person in the world who absolutely disliked it, so I didn't have any plans of picking up more of Yang's work (aside from the Avatar comics he's worked on, which I think I enjoy more because they aren't his original content). That said, when Boxers was assigned reading for my Children's Lit class this semester, I picked it up, hoping maybe I would have better luck. Sadly, nope, I think Yang's stories just aren't for me. I don't find his storytelling style entertaining, I don't care much for the artwork, and something about the over-arching tone of depicting the Boxers as "secret villains" from the start... I don't know. Yang is an own-voices author for the Chinese representation, but he's also a Christian, and that inherently gives his version of the story some bias that I don't feel qualified to comment on as a pagan white person. I'll just leave it at saying certain elements didn't sit well with me. I really wish I could find some own-voice reviews from non-Christian Chinese readers, so if anyone has any to offer, please feel free to drop links in the comments!