4.5/5 Stars

American Panda is a truly authentic exploration of the cultural clash that happens for many young Asian Americans whose parents hold tight to their roots. The book is obviously deeply personal, and it resonates with the reader because of that.

What Fed My Addiction:

Cultural ties.
As I said in my intro, this book presents the issue of growing up in America, surrounded by American culture and values, and how that can be difficult with first-generation parents who were raised with a completely different set of values and cultural mores. Mei has always been a "good girl." She has tried hard to please her parents, and she sees the value in their deeply seeded Taiwanese culture. At the same time, she struggles to find herself when her parents' expectations start to clash with her own wants and needs. She has to decide if she will live for her parents or live for herself---a question that might seem simple from an outside perspective, but is anything but. Seeing the world through Mei's eyes, you can't help but sympathize with her and understand the struggle that she goes through daily to fit into two very different worlds.

Family ties.
Mei's relationships with her family truly take center stage in this book, and those ties are complicated, to say the least. Her brother has been cut off from the family for years, and Mei's feelings about that are difficult to parse. On the one hand, she was relatively young when it happened and she didn't feel like she had much control over the situation (not to mention the fact that the only perspective she got was her parents'). But now that Mei is older, she sees her brother and her family's banishment of him very differently. Mei's relationship with her mother is also a key component of the book, and it was beautiful to see that relationship transform as the book went on.

All the feels.
This book is funny, but it's also so much more than that---Mei's personal journey isn't always easy, and you can expect to get wrapped up in it in a hundred different ways!

What Left Me Hungry for More:

Not much focus on the romance.
The romance is actually much less a focus of the book than I thought it would be (which is fine but just surprised me). I just never completely felt a connection between Darren and Mei, but they were cute together! I also felt like the plot itself was a bit lacking in the middle of the book---it's more of a character-centric story than a plot-based one---but that was minor.

This is one of those books that I would encourage everyone to read because it gives such insight into a cultural perspective many of us might not otherwise experience, and it gives many YA readers who have experienced this cultural clash a glimpse of themselves on the page. I look forward to reading more by Gloria Chao! I went back and forth on my rating for this one a bit, but ended up settling at 4.5/5 Stars.

You know those books that make you cry both from happiness and sadness? That's this book. It was hilarious and heartbreaking and it's so rare to find a book that balances those two qualities as nicely as American Panda does. I really loved Mei and her awkwardness and her journey to find her own path. I just wanted to reach out and let Mei know she was amazing throughout most of the book. I loved the various complicated relationships this book explores as Mei reconnects with her disowned brother, tries to connect with her mother, and falls in like/love with Darren (who was absolutely adorable). There are a lot of side characters who really shine as well, and it's so rare for me to remember the names of side characters, but they were so vivid in this book. All the characters are so vivid and multi-faceted. I was hooked with Mei's narration from the very beginning and this book never let me down; I highly recommend it.

This book was phenomenal. It was, at times, funny, fluffy, but at the same time heart breaking and real in its exploration of the themes of parenthood. Don't necessarily expect only a cute panda story, and don't expect it to be black and white. This book is nothing like that. It can be hard, it can be emotionally upsetting, but it can also be uplifting, hopeful, and resilient. It was 100% my kind of book in its devotion to the truth, rejection of the black and white, and exploration of themes. This has been one of my most hyped up book and it lived up to the ALL the hype and more.

A funny, tender, story about families, particularly mothers and daughters, and staying true to oneself while also keeping in touch with our roots.

American Panda was a very cute, short read. Mei, our main character, is pressured into becoming a doctor despite her germaphobia. Following Mei try to keep with her family's traditions while venturing off was fun, yet Chao never sugar coated the seriousness of family issues and upholding traditions and honor. The beginning was a bit choppy in terms of scene transitions; I'd sometimes get lost and have to back track, but the story quite quickly found it's flow. I give this a 4 out of five stars.

Don't let the adorable cover fool you- American Panda was the first 2018 novel I've read, and it's also one of the most honest, interesting, and evocative books I've ever read regarding struggling to find your identity amidst the pressures of your family and culture. Gloria Chao's debut novel blew me away with its ability to tell a story that depicts the struggle of living between two cultures and generations so well. There's a lot to unpack in this contemporary coming of age story, and I can't wait to impress upon your why this story is worth reading no matter what type of family or cultural background you come from.

Family Feels

First and foremost, this book is about family- dealing with their expectations, developing an identity against theirs, growing within the confines that they've placed and perpetuated. Mei's life is defined and decided by her family and Taiwanese culture, no questions asked. Her obedience is as much a part of her personality as her her favorite food or beloved hobby, and it rules her behavior and sense of self even when her parents aren't around. Though I didn't grow up in a Taiwanese household, I did grow up in a fairly strict Latin household, and it was so refreshing to see Mei's culture and family play such a big role in her plot and character development, both for better and for worse, a huge shift from the stereotype of the ever-absent YA parents. From Mei's anxiety about "What will my parents think?" or "What if my parents find out?" to the sometimes tactless or crazy yet well meaning ideas and opinions that her family has, it resonated with my own upbringing and brought back the sharp feelings of pride and shame that I felt as a teenager whenever I wanted something different than what was expected of me by my relatives and/or culture. That feeling is such a pivotal part of being a young adult and growing up, and it's explored constantly and in many different shapes an scenarios in this novel.

Mei's story also focuses on the very important juxtaposition of both loving and resenting your family, and splits things into shades of grey that you start to see once you begin transitioning out of high school and into college. Yes, her father is unmoving and uncompromising in his expectations, but is it because of his own trauma from his childhood? Yes her mother often makes wildly inappropriate comments about people's appearances and career choices, but is it driven by her own fears of the consequences her children will face if they veer from the predetermined path? Mei's anxieties and inner turmoil over her family's wants and her own take up a large portion of the novel, but as Mei grows into her own personality and starts to recognize and pursue her own passions, she also learns jarring secrets and hidden details about her family's past that cause her to have to shift her perspective again and again, which honestly happens so often as you become an adult, and I applaud Chao for adding in these shifts in perspective and creating multidimensional characters.

Higher Education

American Panda takes place during Mei's freshman year at MIT, and I LOVED the setting. I'm always hunting for more YA books set in college (because that young adult stage lasts well into your 20s, trust me), and the personal touches Chao integrated about the campus really created a vivid landscape for the novel (I haven't been to MIT myself, but feel like if I ever went I would already know where some of the coolest spots were, like the walkway with the benches that play with and magnify sounds, and I could keep up well enough with the MIT vernacular). The novel also captures so many of those college firsts so well- that first dreaded trip to the on campus clinic, the first time not living in your house and realizing randomly paired roommates can be the WORST thing ever, the first time you come face to face with your planned career path and realize it is not the right path for you. I felt like I was reliving my not fantastic freshman year of college with Mei, but it also made me nostalgic to do it all over again.

Talking About the Tough Stuff

Given the cute cover and funny title, I was surprised to find that not only does American Panda has a huge amount of depth to its story, but it also tackles a lot of tough issues and doesn't shy away from the gross or uncomfortable aspects of being in college or learning about your body or even being pre-med. For instance, Mei's germaphobia is pretty prevalent to her character (and a key reason why she cannot go through with being a doctor), and it's mentioned several times throughout the novel- not just in passing, but it impacts Mei's day to day life and her relationships and is a consistent part of her personality rather than a character personality quirk. There's also quite a few scenes in the school clinic that reinforce the importance of personal hygiene and personal protection when living in a college dorm with hundred of other students or engaging in physical intimacy with others. The novel also deals with emotionally difficult topics too- the resentment and conflict when a family member that you love holds a belief that you find deeply offensive, the grief and conflicting emotions when a family member passes away, the feeling of bouncing between two cultures and never fully fitting into one (there's a scene in the beginning when Mei s unfamiliar with Star Wars references because she wasn't allowed to watch the movies growing up and her peers are shocked- it brought back all too well memories of constantly feeling behind on the times because I wasn't allowed to watch things like MTV or Boy Meets World or even the news growing up).

Straddling the Knife's Edge of Comedy and Tragedy

The novel's synopsis bills it as a "laugh out loud contemporary," and there were definitely some truly funny moments (even if they were born out of absurd family situations or Mei scrambling to keep all of her secrets straight). One scene that particularly had me in stitches is when Mei's mother demands to know the names of everyone in Mei's fictionalized study group (that she uses as a cover when she's practicing dance or teaching dance classes) and she pulls inspiration from the Kardashians- when her mother asked about Kim, Khloe, Kourtney and Kendall, I pretty much lost it with laughter (I love a good pop culture reference). Yet this humor is often used to counteract the seriousness/darkness of a lot of the plot elements, which include disownming, shame, anxiety, etc. and some pretty nasty family showdowns and scenes. Particularly intense is the relationship and associated scenes with Xing, Mei's older brother who was literally disowned by his parents for dating someone they didn't approve of. Chao's writing navigates emotional disasters and fallouts so intense to be hard to read, then sneaks in humor to provide levity when the family drama threatens to become too much.

Unique Touches

American Panda has some really unique formatting touches that really made the book stand out for me, and feel epistolary in nature. Each chapter starts out with a voicemail from Mei's mother, which are often hilarious or sad (or both) and really help breathe life into her character. There's also little notes from Mei at the beginning of certain chapters explaining things (such as why there's no chapter number four) and the cover font is carried throughout, complete with an adorable doodle of a dumpling (I think- the dumpling is a running metaphor in the story) at the beginning of each chapter. Even reading an e-galley, these unique touches really shined through.

Overall: I went in expecting to like American Panda, but it completely exceeded all of my expectations. It's a novel about family and identity and navigating through a strict culture and even stricter parents. It will resonate with any reader who felt stifled by their upbringing, or who wanted to deviate from the planned path, or who felt like they were straddling two cultures and/or generations growing up. It tackles culture and family drama in a brutal and blatant way that I'm extremely appreciative of, and I could not put Mei's story down, finishing it in under 48 hours during the work week, an extremely unusual feat for me. I can't wait to pick up my own copy and Chao is going to be a difficult 2018 debut novelist to beat.

*Review will be published on Goodreads, Amazon, and my book blog (girlinthepages.com) on 1/15/2018 to ensure they are published within one month of the book's release date, as requested by publisher.

Unable to read. File will not open on PC or Iphone 7 in a variety of apps. The downloaded file I received only contains 2 pages of HTML text and not the book.