A review by eacolgan
Saints by Gene Luen Yang

4.0

Although much shorter than, and with just as abrupt and weird an ending as, its companion volume, I actually liked Saints a lot more than Boxers. I connected with Vibiana much more than with Little Bao-- which isn't to say I didn't like Little Bao as a protagonist, because I did. But I found Vibiana's struggles much more familiar, and much more emotively written. Her identity issues, starting first and foremost with not even having a real name, moving forward into believing she's a devil, the whole devil face thing dealing with the issues of how she's seen-- figuratively and literally-- by the people around her, finally finding with the Christians that she is seen in all ways and accepted, even if they don't truly know the heart of her... I think that's the tragedy of this half of the story, honestly, that the only person who knows Vibiana and inspires her is a dead saint.

I really was interested by the dual themes of vision in these books-- that both these kids are visited by spirits and ghosts, that both are "called" to look outside themselves for a purpose, that both feel lost until these visions give them a goal. I wish more had been done with Vibiana's story-- it is much more passive than Little Bao's, but I feel like some of the story of the Society's growing legend could have been told from Vibiana's POV, and that her later years could have been fleshed out a lot more. IDK, I really wanted more from her story than I got. But I liked what I did get quite a bit. Looking forward to discussing this at book club tonight!