While companion volume Boxers tells the story of the Boxer Rebellion in China from a rebel's point of view, Saints chooses the perspective of Four-Girl (alias Vibiana), a Chinese girl who converts to Christianity and thus comes to be cast as a "secondary devil" by the rebels. The result is a less action-packed and patriotic, more character-driven and tragic narrative.What I love most about this book is its protagonist, Four-Girl, whose independent, logic-defying way of thinking and sheer will po...

This book was boring and it was about a Chinese girl getting converted into a Christian. Jesus and Joan keep making appearances the way Chinese gods made their appearance in Boxers. Too much of religious mumbo jumbo , not an interesting storyline or characters. Basically there was no point to this story. Meaningless book.

This book was good as well, but Boxers stands on its own, so I'm giving Saints 3.5 stars.

Another view of the Boxer Rebellion told by a young girl who is a bit touched in the head. Very weird.

She is born the fourth girl in her Chinese family, and since her grandfather refuses to give her a name, she is called simply Four-Girl. When she is awkward or misbehaves, her family call her a devil, so Four-Girl goes to the foreign devils to find companionship and becomes a Christian. As Four-Girl searches for her identity within Christian culture, she has visions of Joan of Arc, who appears to her to guide and encourage her in the faith. Four-Girl knows that she must find a calling, and learn...

One of the things that makes both Boxers and Saints fascinating is how the author treats religion.Boxers features a magical realistic element; the Chinese gods (who the characters know mainly through the opera) possess the Boxer rebels and help power their rebellion; when the rebels go to war, they feel that they are taken over by the gods and protected and driven by them. In the book, Gene draws the gods as they are taking over the Boxers and propelling them into battle. The pictures aren't jus...

Got this for our oldest son for Christmas 2016 and I borrowed it and finally got arround to reading it. It was an intresting read.

Even though this is a companion book to Boxers, make sure you read this one last. This is a lot shorter of a read, but Boxers gives you more meat to what is going on. I liked this book as well. I liked that we get a polar view to what was going on in the other book. The Boxers & Saints is a great historical fiction comic book, with a mix of mythology and magical realism.

Another qualified 3 stars since I don't think this work stands alone from Boxers. The end and especially the epilogue concern Boxers and recontextualize that book in retrospect. As far as reading order, I think that Boxers should be read first. Boxers sort of spoils Saints ending but Boxers itself is more interesting after reading Saints subsequently.It is hard to separate Saints from Boxers, which I had finished just the day before, but I think Yang does a much better job with the internal conf...

I was more than excited to start this companion graphic novel, which is told from an alternative perspective than the one in Boxers. And for the most part, it did not disappoint.China, 1898. An unwanted and unwelcome fourth daughter, Four-Girl isn't even given a proper name by her family when she's born. She finds friendship--and a name, Vibiana--in the most unlikely of places: Christianity. But China is a dangerous place for Christians. The Boxer Rebellion is in full swing, and bands of you...

I didn't enjoy this one as much as Boxers.

forgot to mention that I had read this sequel of Boxers immediately. No cultural knowledge has been acquired since it is still talks about the same period of time except in a different aspect ( from some girl who is Chinese and converted to Christianity).

This is the 2nd part of the Boxers and Saints story by Gene Luen Yang. It's set in China during the Boxer rebellion. It was pretty tough on the people there. We focus on 4-Girl in this story. She seems a little disturbed and she is seeing Joan of Arc. She decides she wants to be a 'foreign devil' and she joins up with a priest. We see what's happening a little more on the European side through 4-girl's eyes. I didn't enjoy this one as much as Boxers. I think it was difficult to relate to the cha...

I think Boxers is the book I wassupposed to read first, and my skimming of reviews says they liked that one better, but I loved this one, nevertheless. It's the story of Four-Girl, a girl who grows up in an abusive family that doesn't even NAME her, a girl who becomes a Christian against her family wishes during the Boxer Rebellion in 1898...She has visions of Joan of Arc, who becomes her guide through the process of deciding she wants to be a warrior in the fight... And of course encounters som...

Ending surprised me -- made me think harder about the intersection of Chinese & Western culture, religion, colonization & the Opium War, Chinese liberation, and whether there really is a "right" and a "wrong". Also had to Google Boxer Rebellion bc I'm an idiot and can't remember Chinese history. And then I got to thinking of modern day underground house churches in China, and if Chinese people still hold the same "secondary devil" or traitor sentiment towards Chinese Christians.

The Boxer Rebellion as seen through the eyes of a young girl. Four-Girl is the unwelcome fourth daughter of a single mother just trying to survive. She is already rejected by her grandfather who considers her a curse on the family. When she decides to become a Christian and starts 'seeing' Joan of Arc things really go from bad to worse. Gene Luen Yang has done a fantastic job of historical narrative by showing us how common people get swept away in uncommon times - highest recommendation.

I read Saints a few days after I read Boxers, the stories forming this intricate dovetail. Yang has told the simplified history of the Boxer Rebellion from two sides, two young people on either side of the conflict. It's a brilliant approach. I liked Four-Girl/Vibiana, and her telling of the events, as they weave with Little Bao's. I felt that Boxers was the stronger of the two stories - a little more background and heft - but I did enjoy this one too. Longer spoken review of this book and the c...

Boxers & Saints is an incredibly powerful piece of historical fiction told in the format of a graphic novel. The illustrations are potent and the story is heartbreaking. There are no winners; only losers. It is a story of revenge and intolerance. Gene Luen Yang has written an amazing novel that you will not forget.The images in both books tell a very strong story. At times, it is very graphic where I suck in my breath as I see the next image. Yang depicted all the intolerance of the Boxer Rebell...

Had to pick this up the minute I finished BOXERS, and couldn't put it down, either. This book is a glimpse into the Boxer Rebellion from the point of view of a young Christian girl, one of the ones called a Secondary Devil by the Boxers, since she follows the devil religion, but is Chinese. And, honestly, who can blame this child for going to the Christian faith? Her own family never gives her a name, because she is the unlucky fourth daughter, born on the fourth day of the month. Unwanted, unlo...

Just soooooo tragic. 4.5