Scan barcode
A review by sophiedeo
American Panda by Gloria Chao
3.0
This kinda dragged for me. It took me nearly a week to read this which is pretty long for a YA contemporary. I liked the diversity, and the portrayal of a Chinese-American life. I'm half Chinese so I could relate, but thankfully my parents aren't as strict as Mei's are. I really liked the college setting but it felt a bit underutilised at times, but maybe that's because of Mei's culture.
I'm struggling with my thoughts on this novel. It is basically about Mei choosing between her over-protective, traditional parents who want her to lead a very specific life, and her desire to follow her dreams. And I'm not trying to be harsh, but that's a really basic plot and isn't that original. However, this is an experience that I assume is nearly universal in those who are first, second, third generation immigrants if not more. I have experienced this myself, so I'm not trying to dismiss it. I guess my point is, can plot lines or other aspects of books be elevated just because they are diverse? I read a review that considered the parental storyline to be a trope and I get it. A trope has such negative connotations so do we expect authors to completely remove this kind of storyline when it's so endemic to certain cultures?
I dunno, my take on diversity in YA at the moment is that it's important to get quantity out to the public first than worry about quality. Obviously you expect a certain level of quality, but that can be dealt with later. It's so powerful to be able to relate to characters in books, so I would rather excuse a few mistakes.
Anyways, YA contemporary is not the genre for me, so I would consider a 3 star to be pretty good. And I'm so impressed that Chao left her job as a dentist to become a writer. Kudos.
I'm struggling with my thoughts on this novel. It is basically about Mei choosing between her over-protective, traditional parents who want her to lead a very specific life, and her desire to follow her dreams. And I'm not trying to be harsh, but that's a really basic plot and isn't that original. However, this is an experience that I assume is nearly universal in those who are first, second, third generation immigrants if not more. I have experienced this myself, so I'm not trying to dismiss it. I guess my point is, can plot lines or other aspects of books be elevated just because they are diverse? I read a review that considered the parental storyline to be a trope and I get it. A trope has such negative connotations so do we expect authors to completely remove this kind of storyline when it's so endemic to certain cultures?
I dunno, my take on diversity in YA at the moment is that it's important to get quantity out to the public first than worry about quality. Obviously you expect a certain level of quality, but that can be dealt with later. It's so powerful to be able to relate to characters in books, so I would rather excuse a few mistakes.
Anyways, YA contemporary is not the genre for me, so I would consider a 3 star to be pretty good. And I'm so impressed that Chao left her job as a dentist to become a writer. Kudos.