American Panda - Gloria Chao

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⭐ 7.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

Another book written by an Asian-American author! This book revolves around Mei, who has super strict Taiwanese parents who are pushing her to go to medical school, even though she has a huge problem with germs.

By now I've read quite a few books with similar themes, so this one doesn't stand out too much. I still read a lot of reviews that said "This is the book I needed as a teenager!", so it might just be that I've read almost all of the books like this, which is kind of likely.

I do think it was funnier than most, and the romance was cute but not central to the plot. I know I'm not Chinese/Taiwanese, but I do know a lot of people with Chinese parents, and these ones seemed kind of overboard and too true to stereotype. She discusses Taiwanese culture a lot, and I learned quite a bit. Overall I found it to be fun and light in tone, but still dealt with big cultural and familial issues, which is right up my alley.

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