Review: American Panda by Gloria Chao

American Panda is an incisive, hilarious contemporary about a Taiwanese-American teen whose parents want her to be a doctor & marry a Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer.

I received a finished review copy of American Panda from the publisher, Simon Pulse, in exchange for an honest review. Just as I expected to, I loved this debut novel.

It is much heavier in content than you’d expect with its delightful cover, but I still fell in love with it. American Panda is an incredibly important story from a Taiwanese-American woman about trying to find a balance in her life. Mei is torn between two cultures that she’s entirely enveloped in, her parents’ very high expectations of her and what she desperately loves to do.

It does need some content warnings for ableist language, unwillingness to wear glasses, fat-antagonism, being germophobic, discussion of STDs, yeast infections, cutting up cadavers, disowning, death of a family member and mention of suicide. Please be careful with your mental health if you want to read this, dear readers.

I am very much a member of Team Get Mei Some Glasses, Y’all. Or at least some contacts, but I feel like glasses would be better for her issues with germs. She mentions throughout the book that she only recognizes people by their silhouettes until they’re very close to her.

I loved that Mei wanted to work with her parents to find a way to honor their culture, but also to honor their children for who they actually are, because that is so important for Mei, Xing and Esther and their futures. I loved that it wasn’t an immediate change, and Chao did a fantastic job of showing the struggles that they faced, while also letting Mei grow into herself the way she needed to.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting a young adult college novel, to anyone wanting a novel that features an extremely relatable struggle for so many immigrants, to anyone wanting a lovely college story. Honestly, I’d highly recommend this to anyone, so long as the content notes above aren’t triggering for them.

Here’s the full synopsis:

"At seventeen, Mei should be in high school, but skipping fourth grade was part of her parents’ master plan. Now a freshman at MIT, she is on track to fulfill the rest of this predetermined future: become a doctor, marry a preapproved Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer, produce a litter of babies.With everything her parents have sacrificed to make her cushy life a reality, Mei can’t bring herself to tell them the truth–that she (1) hates germs, (2) falls asleep in biology lectures, and (3) has a crush on her classmate Darren Takahashi, who is decidedly not Taiwanese.But when Mei reconnects with her brother, Xing, who is estranged from the family for dating the wrong woman, Mei starts to wonder if all the secrets are truly worth it. Can she find a way to be herself, whoever that is, before her web of lies unravels? (Via Goodreads)"

Next: 5 reasons The Last to Let Go is a must-read

You can pick up a copy on Amazon, Indiebound, Barnes and Noble or your local independent bookstore!