Rating: 
Summary: A great book!
Review: I don't get why everyone is obsessed with comparing Stella to Holden. Like the Red Panda and Catcher in the Rye are two diffrent books. I think every one should stop comparing them and expecting something from the book before they read it...I don't know why everyone is so hung up on the Stella/Holden refrence. It is a very funny well written book.
Rating: 
Summary: Dark and Dramatic Debut
Review: I greatly enjoyed Like the Red Panda. It was a page turner, making me want to laugh one moment and cringe the next. It is mostly related in thoughts, leaving a unique taste in the reader's mouth due to the writing style. This first-person narrative is set in modern day and is alternately a dark comedy and just plain dark - which I like. The protagonist is a senior in high school who begrudgingly recounts the last two weeks of her senior year, mixed in with flashbacks. Her memories reveal her idyllic childhood, a world that was picture perfect until the day her parents died. This story shows you that how people view a person and how said person views herself can be devastantly different. I began recommending this books to co-workers and friends before I was halfway through it, and even moreso after I finished it. If you enjoy Like the Red Panda, you will enjoy novels by Sarah Dessen such as Dreamland and This Lullaby.
Rating:
Summary: a brave first novel
Review: I had somehow expected to be disappointed by this book, and then really wasn't. Stella is at once a sympathetic and admirable narrator. Despite her nebulous death wish that ties the story together, she can't help but notice intriguing details about the people who surround her in her mundane suburban-California world--happy-go-lucky "bad kid" Larome, gravel-voiced perpetual sidekick Ainsley, her adulterous yet heartbroken grandfather, her well-meaning principal with emotionally violent marital problems. Perhaps it is only after deciding to end her life that she is able to lower her defenses enough to appreciate their complexities, and tell a good story.
One aspect of the story that disturbed me was the ambiguity of the actual means of overdose. The author could have done more research here. Scenes like the death of Stella's parents have a glossy, jarring sense of unbelievability about them that seems out of place in the narrative. The book as a whole would have been more tied-together if this aspect had been better researched and planned out.
But all in all, this is a haunting book that will stay with you for a while.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Book
Review: I just finished this book earlier today and it is amazing. It is hard to explain how wonderful this book is. I was enthralled from the beginning and think that everyone should read it. Unlike a lot of "chick lit" this book can appeal to the masses. The main character has so many faces she is intelligent, funny, cynical, and she really grows on you. This is a fabulous book.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it except for the exhausting grandfather situation
Review: I love the way Miss Seigel writes, her cynicism is charming, she is the kind of person I would like to know. I loved this novel but could have lived w/o the interaction with the grandfather.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: I loved reading this book. I read it in one sitting, because it is totally engrossing. It's sort of structured like a diary, but not like some sort of /Anne Frank/ clone. It's more of a piece with the Zeitgeist that gives us the film "Time Code" or the series "24". The time period covered is brief. One useful effect of the diary device is that, since one writes diary entries from unreliable memory and not from the reliable omniscience that used to be so common in literature, settings and people are described briefly. At the same time, it seems that just the right words are chosen so that we can picture things thoroughly enough. I'm amused by the whole /Catcher/ situation with this book. I mean, I suppose the author brings it on herself with a couple of specific references, but let's keep it real, here. /Catcher/ was for me a despised high school Lit class assignment which I did my best to work around. College Lit courses I took used more pleasant books by people like Iris Murdoch. I guess these circumstances mean I am not in tune with the reverence people seem to hold for /Catcher/. If /Catcher/ makes people so pretentious that they don't appreciate /Panda/ then something is horribly wrong. As for having in this book the antidote to whatever's wrong with chick lit, I have no idea. The last book remotely in that category that I read was /Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart/ by Joyce Carol Oates so I guess chick lit could have gone off a cliff between then and now. Or maybe /Bitter/ was in fact chick lit staining the rocks at the bottom of the cliff and I just don't get it. So forget /Catcher in the Rye/, forget chick lit, buy this book, sit down and read it.
Rating:
Summary: Really Wonderful Book
Review: I loved this book. The author is spot on in her portrayal of honors high school students and the absurdities inflicted upon them and all teens. It hurts though - I mean, the book is really painful to read and the empathy it conjurs is often uncomfortable. I deducted one star for sometimes awkward storytelling, but overall it was like being vivasected (but, like, in a good way). I am a glutton for punishment and I think it's a fantastic book.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: I picked up this book randomly, at the bookstore. It was a complete coincidence, but I'm so glad I bought it. I just finished it last night, and I think it's my new favorite book. There are plenty of surprises in store, and it's quite satifying to read. So many parts of the book read my mind, and I was able to relate to. Overall, just a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Completely engrossing!
Review: I read this book in 48 hours because I couldn't stop. It's funny, it's sad, it's real, it's honest, its' convincing, creative, and insightful. You'll fall in love with Stella and wish you could call her up. Or at least I did. Where to go from here? Try "An Egg on Three Sticks", "Feeling Sorry for Celia", and "A Girl in Parts."
Rating: 
Summary: Kill Me Now
Review: I was half way through this book when I realized how much it was draining and depressing me. There are no redeeming qualities in any of the characters; they all seem to be disassociated, inept or flawed in some way. This bright young girl has NO ONE that she can count on to help her and it's awful and sad. The only thing I got out of this book was that it made me glad that 1) I am no longer a teenager and 2) I don't HAVE any teenagers. Is this how they really are nowadays?? I knew that I would be upset with the ending since she would either not kill herself or kill herself. I couldn't bear to read anymore, so I skipped to the ending and yes, I was upset. This is an awful book.
| 
