Boxers
Gene Luen Yang
“Boxers” and “Saints” are two companion books by the same author. They tell the parallel stories of two (fictional) teenagers involved in the Boxer Rebellion in late-nineteenth-century China–one a boy who is on the side of the Chinese nationalist boxers, one a girl who is a Chinese Christian convert, part of a group that incurred the wrath of the boxers.
The characters are both pretty interesting, and their imaginative relationships with Chin Shih-Huang and Joan of Arc (respectively) add a really cool quasi-fantastical element to the story. That said, some plot elements seemed out-of-character for the protagonists, and the ending was pretty sad.