Rating: 
Summary: Red Pandas Are Everywhere
Review: "Like The Red Panda" is about Stella Parrish and Stella Parrish wants to commit suicide. Don't dismiss this book as fodder for a lame after-school special; think of it as an insightful journey into the brain of a thinking, feeling teenager. They do exist. There might be more of a buzz about Andrea Seigel's age than her knack for describing a specific kind of high school existence perfectly, and that's a little bit disappointing to me. Sure, it's impressive that at 22 she completed her first successful novel (embraced with chick-lit critical acclaim), but what's infinitely more impressive is that she almost seamlessly crystallizes the concept of teenage intellectualism - a topic that, I think, is seldom written about with any honesty.
Ostensibly, some fool might be tempted to label Stella as the brainy girl who "has everything going for her." Winsome in her Catholic school girl uniforms, tucked away in her suburban existence, brilliantly bound for an Ivy League college career, Stella is finished with life altogether for a variety of heartbreaking reasons - reasons that amount to more than a safe place to sleep or a degree from a well-respected university. It's not a youthful illation; it's been carefully considered. The thing about Stella is that she's smart all around - smart enough to breeze/yawn her way through standardized tests, but also smart enough to process the dreary aspects of her life in an intricate way. She thinks more, she feels more... or maybe she feels less. At any rate, she knows that she wants to end her life and this countdown script details Stella's thoughts with humor, savvy, and soul. By the end of the novel, you know what "counts" in Stella's life and they're all the things that count in my life and probably yours too.
Some readers are going to have a hard time dealing with this character. They'll say she's selfish, they'll say she has nothing to whine about. I say, those people have no deep understanding of the human spectrum of emotion and have a narrow vision of what life should entail. If all you take away from this book is how upsetting the desire to end one's life is, you've missed many, many points along the way. Bravo to Ms. Siegel for getting it right both contextually and stylistically. This story reads effortlessly and would've appealed more to my teenage palate a few years ago than feel-good crap like "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul."
Rating: 
Summary: Unique.
Review: A girl in her final two weeks of high school makes the decision to kill herself. Includes many sharp observations about the world around her. An interesting read - not like anything else you've ever come across before.
Rating:
Summary: Like The Red Panda
Review: A quite good debut novel. Andrea Seigel does a fine job with her first person narration. The heroine Stella, like a female Holden Caulfield perhaps, is a sharp observer, and posesses a quick satirical wit. I want to compare her with Veronica, Winona Ryder's character in the film, 'Heathers'. With some exception, I believe, the best and most profound material from avant-garde women writers comes in their youth and twenties. This is the best time for their incisive commentary on the condescending patriarchy overarching society to shine; as well as the attacks endured by the innocent(?) young female psyche by the previous generation of matriarchal authority. In addition, she must deal with the predatory nature of her own peer groups. My instinct is the primary reason for this clarity is when she get older, the benefits of modern feminism and PC doctrine become appealingly apparent. To retain a rebellious outlook into early middle age contradicts the maternal instinct of community and family.
Rating: 
Summary: An Insult to Salinger and a True Disappointment
Review: After reading a variety of reviews that promised Stella (the angsty protagonist of this book) to be the next Holden Caulfield, I picked up Like the Red Panda expecting a masterpiece. What a disappointment. 17-year-old Stella Parrish is an uninteresting, self-righteous, overly cynical adolescent who is an extravagant exaggeration of a teenager's life. Author Seigel tries to create a character with whom intelligent, observant, and somewhat isolated young adults can relate, but Stella is anything but. What some reviewers must not realize is that The Catcher in the Rye is not the timeless piece of brilliance it is beause of its depressed kid plot; rather, Holden is a funny, sympathetic character whom every reader feels for and worries about. Stella is unlikeable, too wrapped up in her own agonizing to really observe anything else. Her story is melodramatic, further weakening the authentic truism that the loneliness of adolescence is something EVERYONE feels; parents who died via a cocaine/heroin overdose, a vitriolic, suicidal grandfather, and a harsh, uncaring, friendless world are contrived substitutes for real emotions that make up teen angst and are not unique to Stella . Seigel wants this book to be a saga of the teen age, the quintessential publication about loneliness and the absurdity of life. Clearly, however, it's been too long since she's been there, and has created a weakly-written, whiny novel about self-pity and self-induced misery. If a brilliant novel a teenager can relate to is what you're looking for, skip Stella Parrish and go back to sympathizing with Holden.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Andrea Seigal is a wonderful writer. One feels that the author has been through the things "Stella" has because she really hits home.
Rating:
Summary: Well-written, often hilarious
Review: Andrea Seigel has done a pretty difficult thing in writing Like the Red Panda; while it's about an overachieving teenage girl who plans to commit suicide, all the mawkish cliches are avoided. Sentimentality is sidestepped in favor of some truly emotional moments, though the protagonist, Stella Parrish, tries purposely not to linger there too long.
As a character, she's very self-conscious (beyond the point of neuroses), and has a definite idea of the way things should be versus the way things are versus the way things used to be--and when things in her life don't match up with these ideas, she makes wry, often withering observations and moves on. It's not that Stella is some kind of overly precocious, wise-ass, all-knowing teenage genius who's too cool to have genuine feelings (although sometimes it seems as though she'd prefer to be and even strives to be that way); in fact, Seigel really succeeds at portraying Stella's love for her off-and-on boyfriend, her desire to make one good friend, and her grief for her dead parents.
The plot is interesting because you're never quite sure whether Stella is actually going to go through with killing herself or not; here, too, the author succeeds at depicting a certain kind of ambivalence about life itself. There are a lot of side plots with her boyfriend, a couple of kids at school, her grandpa and her foster parents, all of which pretty much fall into place by the end of the novel. The writing is sharp and witty, but still feels like it's been written by a teenager, and definitely had more than a few moments that made me laugh out loud. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: not for everyone
Review: but hey, what is? I just finished this book an hour ago. The last time I read a book was 3 years ago, but that was only for my English class. I've attempted to read various books since then, but have gotten bored with all of them before getting to the third chapter.
"Like the Red Panda" was EXACTLY what I needed at this time in my life.
I recommend it to anyone who has ever thought about suicide (not nesseccarily as something to do, just something to think about) and those of us who are humored and at the same time bothered daily by the transparency of this world and the people in it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book in every way. The structure was easy to understand but not boring, and the detailed character description affected me the most.
Anyway, this is my first book review and it probably didn't say much, but this is a smart book and smart people will enjoy it. :)
Rating:
Summary: Cuddle up with this one
Review: Frankly I don't see the Holden/Stella comparisons. This book stands on its own and shouldn't really be compared (good or bad) with anything. Basically this is the story of Stella, a well-to-do orphan living in foster care in a wealthy California town. She is bright, brilliant perhaps, but also alone and lonely. She explains that she has no friends, merely a large collection of acquaintances who all assume her other acquaintances are her true friends. While nothing like Dolores in the Wally Lamb novel, I was nevertheless reminded of that character. Reminded in the fact that Stella is multi-faceted and complex. This is surely one of the most original books I've come across in a while. Would also recommend: The Bark of the Dogwood and The Amateur Marriage
Rating:
Summary: I Never Lie
Review: Hey, I like my book, and my boyfriend says I'm my "own worst critic."
Rating:
Summary: It's not Salinger -- and that is a good thing!!!
Review: I bought this because I am personally sick of the chick lit that is out there. I can only read about "wacky girl fumbles thorugh life only to land dream man" so many times before I want to vomit. It was billed as the anti-chick lit and I was not disapointed. It was incredible. So what if at times it was depressing? At least this book makes you feel SOMETHING. Seigel's writing is astonishing and is one of the few authors out there who I am already anticipating the next book.
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