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A review by keitacolada
American Panda by Gloria Chao
3.0
3.75/5
So let's just say I picked up this book for the romance and found that this book was actually not really about a romance at all, which is fine. This book centers on family and traditions and how to overcome the obstacles that come along with both. There are great messages about taking control of your own life as well as forgiveness (as seen with most of the characters). There is also this symbolism with the "panda' in which things are not always so black and white when it comes to people and how you shouldn't expect things to be that way.
That being said, something with this story just didn't click for me in that I felt a little disconnected and that's fine, that's just the way I read. I just found myself drifting off whenever they would gather at the restaurant and drop all of these sayings and I was just struggling to keep up. Good for the author though for putting in some Chinese phrases and words in there. The thing that annoyed me the most about this story though and that kept me from giving it a higher rating is the family. My GOD I wanted to choke them. I get it's depicting a traditional Chinese family, with traditional family roles, but that didn't make it less irritating??? There was only two good members of the family and that was the mom (who actually tried to mend the relationship) and Xing (who had to deal with the toxic family himself. The relationships Mei had with them were really genuine and nice while also conflicting which was an interesting aspect to the story.
((I don't know what else to say besides--- so much doctor talk my anti-germ self couldn't deal.))
So let's just say I picked up this book for the romance and found that this book was actually not really about a romance at all, which is fine. This book centers on family and traditions and how to overcome the obstacles that come along with both. There are great messages about taking control of your own life as well as forgiveness (as seen with most of the characters). There is also this symbolism with the "panda' in which things are not always so black and white when it comes to people and how you shouldn't expect things to be that way.
That being said, something with this story just didn't click for me in that I felt a little disconnected and that's fine, that's just the way I read. I just found myself drifting off whenever they would gather at the restaurant and drop all of these sayings and I was just struggling to keep up. Good for the author though for putting in some Chinese phrases and words in there. The thing that annoyed me the most about this story though and that kept me from giving it a higher rating is the family. My GOD I wanted to choke them. I get it's depicting a traditional Chinese family, with traditional family roles, but that didn't make it less irritating??? There was only two good members of the family and that was the mom (who actually tried to mend the relationship) and Xing (who had to deal with the toxic family himself. The relationships Mei had with them were really genuine and nice while also conflicting which was an interesting aspect to the story.
((I don't know what else to say besides--- so much doctor talk my anti-germ self couldn't deal.))