Don’t let the cover fool you. This is not a light, fluffy read that will make you feel like you are smiling and drinking a hot chocolate. American Panda tells the story of Mei, a 17 year-old who finds herself as a freshman at MIT. As well as starting at a new school, she is dealing with the fact that her brother has been kicked out of the family due to the woman he has decided to marry. On top of all that, Mei finds herself confronted with her culture and her parents who want her to go to school, marry a nice Taiwanese boy, and become a doctor. But Mei doesn’t want any part of that life. She wants to dance and avoid germs. She wants to date the cute boy she sees around campus.
This book is so out of my realm of experience but it was fascinating to get to read it and enter this world for a while. I have met Gloria and she writes from a very real place. This book walks through a lot of things she dealt with growing up and she allows Mei to say the things she was never able to. (She was a dentist, y’all.)
Gloria’s writing is wonderful and she has really created a three dimensional world that I enjoyed climbing into. Each character has a full range of emotions and a backstory. When she wants to be funny, she’s hilarious, and when she wants you to feel emotions, she makes you cry. So grab a hot chocolate and curl up with this book.
SequinBooks 