Rating: 
Summary: It was O.K.
Review: I'm not understanding why this book is getting the rave reviews it is. "Red Panda" has a lot of unanswered questions, alot of plot holes, and not a ton of substance. Stella, to me, is not a fully developed charachter; I never understood her motivations. I'm tired of chick lit too, but this book is not the answer to it. The author is good, hopefully her next book she will be better. I just cannot rave about this book...too bland and dry for my liking. It is an easy read, so that's why I gave the book three stars. I got through it in a few days, and it was an O.K. book.
Rating: 
Summary: Honest, witty, and real
Review: I've read a lot of reviews that try to paint this book's heroine, Stella, as a twenty-first century female Holden Caufield. Aside from the obvious similarities (they're both teenagers on their way to suicide), I think that's really not an accurate comparison and will likely turn away many readers who would really enjoy this book. I didn't find the novel to be depressing or disturbing or (thank god) angsty; it was witty and honest and, above all, real. A blurb on the back cover by Joanne Greenberg, the author of _I Never Promised You a Rose Garden_, reads, "The topic of suicide is so complex that only a very careful writer can escape sounding trite or overwrought." I think it's more than being just careful, though. Not every person who's contemplating suicide gives away her treasures or shows decreased interest in sex, but unless you've actually been there, it is easy to believe all those things and fall into the trap of being "trite or overwrought." My sense is that Seigel has experienced a lot of what Stella writes about her farewell journal, simply because I also have and every word of it rings true: that you can see through the cracks in the universe and still carry on with your daily life until the moment you decide to stop. That honesty and authenticity create a novel that is truly novel - sharp, insightful, moving, and all of these from the voice of a 17-year-old girl.
Rating: 
Summary: Well Done Story of Alienated Teen
Review: Like the Red Panda is a well-written novel that should appeal to both older teens and adults. The novel is a journal of sorts that Stella Parrish has put together in contemplation of her last days of high school and her last days, she thinks, on earth. Stella is 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. As a narrator she is charming and tragic in the same sentence. Stella is one of those high school over achievers--going to Princeton after she completes all of her AP classes. Like the Red Panda can be bitterly funny at times--reading it is like spending time with a snide, observant and very funny teen--sort of like Stella. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: this book rocks
Review: Pay no attention to all the people whining about how "depressing" this book is. Here's what I liked best about LIKE THE RED PANDA: it never flinched. The narrator Stella stares you in the face, doesn't get the joke when some boy calls her Diane Court, feels everything as intensely as every teenager, even detachment, and yet her emotions are particularly hers... The secondary characters are as heartbreakingly spot-on as Stella. The voice, Stella's voice and the writer's, never feel forced for a moment and are compelling right up to the show-stopping finish. Anyway, I could keep rambling, but it's impossible for me to say too much without giving away key plot elements. Suffice to say this book is worth your time and you will not be disappointed or "depressed." (Well, not in a bad way.)
Rating:
Summary: A tour de force
Review: Reading about a disaffected, alienated high school student sounds dreary, but this novel is anything but. Stella, the main character, doesn't have any of the myopic, self-pitying strains that would make her story intolerable. She's a brilliant girl who has no real emotional connections in her life since her coked-out parents killed themselves when she was 11. For seven years, she managed to be a great success and is headed to Princeton, but 2 weeks before her high school graduation she decides she can't continue the masquerate that is her life and decides she wants to kill herself. The novel -- basically her journal --offers an amazing portrait of her inability to connect in any real deep way with the people around her. She's a perfectly drawn character you want to reach out and stop from her decision, but no one along the way seems capable of helping her. You'll be touched, not depressed, by this amazing piece of writing.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Reading the description of this book, along with its dreary premise, made me want to run screaming from the Amazon page. But something kept drawing me back to this book and I found myself purchasing it. I usually stick with a bestseller, like LIFE OF PI or BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, but thought I would give this new novel a try. The title didn't hurt any either as I was curious to find out what it meant. Suffuce it to say that I have NOT been disappointed. LIKE THE RED PANDA is a truly beautiful, disturbing, funny, heart-felt book and the author of this remarkable journey should be proud of her work. With insight into the human condition and a cast of characters that are at once believable and yet almost over the top, Seigel has given us a wonderfuly warped portrait of suburbia, much like Perrotta's LITTLE CHILDREN or McCrae's THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD. Both humorous and disturbing, this stellar novel can't help but pick up steam. Kudos to Seigel on this brilliant and wonderfully crated novel.
Rating:
Summary: suicide
Review: Stella is smart and strong and looks okay on the outside. But on the inside she's a deeply depressed and distraught, fragile young woman who wants to kill herself. There are lots of things wrong with her life, including the fact that she lost her parents as a child. This book shows with tremendous insight the problem of a teen's angst and people's inability to recognize when a teenager is crying out for help, to help that kid who needs it. A dark and psychologically engrossing tale.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Intellectual Journey! A Must Read!
Review: Stella Parrish is a senior in high school, and on the brink of the inception of the rest of her life (which includes Princeton University). However, she's not exactly interested. Stella is a vigilant intellect who realizes just how insipid and uninspired life is, and she simply doesn't want to deal with the tedious monotony anymore. While some are willing to write off her attitude as mere "senioritis," Stella analogizes herself to a star "dead long before we ever even realize it because of the time it takes for light to travel." She decides that the only solution is to commit suicide by the time her graduation rolls around. This novel is her account of her last two weeks of high school. As the dismal layers are slowly peeled away, we learn that there is more to Stella's decision than meets the eye. Her story is one of tragic loss and dispassionate existence, beginning with the death of her parents during her eleventh birthday party, and continuing with her caring but distant and naive foster parents. More than just a tale of disenchanted youth and teenage angst, this novel tends to veer into the profoundly philosophical realms of the (rare) deeply intellectual teenage mind. While Stella's peers are contemplating how to study for their upcoming final exams, Stella is pondering "just how useless perspective is, since it can always change." Stella approaches these themes with a dark humor and wry wit that is extraordinarily enticing, and will have the reader turning page after page to see what she has to say next. Andrea Seigel has an amazing way with words. She can be humorous, cynical, sarcastic, and contemplative all at the same time. The beautiful prose with which this book is written can be both enthrallingly poetic and caustically blunt and honest simultaneously. Stella is definitely a character that is easy to relate to, and that makes this book highly effective on a personal level. You, the reader, will find yourself travelling right there with Stella on her emotional roller coaster ride towards indifference, and you'll cherish every minute (page) of it and be saddened when it ends. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever felt dispassionate about his or her existence, as though there seems to be something lacking. Or to anyone who has ever felt alienated from the rest of their peers, or even society (which is probably everyone at some point in time). Anyone who "know[s] what it's like to surprise yourself with apathy in the afternoon when you woke up in the morning believing you cared." How about just everyone in general? If you can read at all, then you should pick this book up! This is definitely a novel I can see myself re-reading in the future, which I don't often do. Furthermore, I anxiously await anything else Andrea Seigel puts out. This is a great new author who demands attention!
Rating:
Summary: Watch what Seigel does next
Review: Stella's disenchantment with her fairy-tale surroundings is most evident when she turns a dark eye on other people. The book introduces a few unnecessary characters (the boyfriend, for example), but for the most part the characterizations of teachers and fellow students are spot-on. Then Seigel tacks on an out-of-nowhere emotional climax between Stella and her foster mother. The energy that suffused that scene was absolutely great, but I didn't know the foster mother well enough to understand where her rage was coming from. She was basically a non-entity throughout the entire novel, so I had no idea why she was so upset. The feeling I was left with: someone had to have a fight to advance the plot, and it was convenient to have it between these two. Andrea Seigel is a good writer - I think she'll probably be very good in three to five years. "Like The Red Panda" struck me as a bit immature. Character development is often sketched in (especially in the case of the foster parents, who seem little more than a collection of tics until the last few chapters). Also, she has a tendency to tell us too much and not show us enough; this makes some of the major characters, like Ahsley and Daniel, more plastic and convenient than they should be. I was going to complain that I had no idea why Stella wanted to commit suicide. Then I thought about it some more. That lack of understanding is common to survivors, and in hindsight I appreciate that the author didn't spell anything out. It's never that simple when it happens. Anyway, she's tackled a difficult subject with grace and humor, and her narrator is wise enough to know that love (and/or having a boyfriend) doesn't solve everything - it doesn't even make you happy. Seigel is a cold, sweet shot of whisky compared to the Pink Ladies of the "chick lit" clique. I'm a little surprised she got published. Glad she did.
Rating:
Summary: Dark and sharp
Review: Suicide is not exactly a funny topic. But new novelist Andrea Seigel tackles a strange death wish in "Like the Red Panda," and makes it funny too. Incisive, sharp-edged and smart, this look at the final two weeks of high school for a girl who is far and away the wisest person in her community.
Stella is brainy, pretty and wise beyond her years, about to graduate from high school. Up until this week, she was planning on going to Princeton -- now, she wants to die before she gets there. She deliberately flunks tests, ponders her teachers, and contemplates the absurdity of schoolwork (bouncing imaginary balls) and classmates (while befriending the class weirdo).
As the school year winds down, Stella visits her bedridden, emotionally abusive grandfather -- discovering that they have more in common than she thought. She also ponders the loss of her parents when she was eleven, an event that shaped her personality from then on, and the colorless life she has had with her nervous foster parents. In those two weeks, Stella decisely works on how to best leave the world, observing as it moves past her.
While "Catcher in the Rye" is referenced from time to time -- including the observation that you'd want to strangle Holden in real life -- Stella is a wholly different person. This story is a morbid comedy, where "Catcher" is more of an angry-young-man/coming-of-age tale. And it's that very mix of wit and darkness that makes "Like the Red Panda" so exceptional -- few authors could handle such a plot without making it trite or maudlin.
Rarely could cocaine/heroin ODs be considered romantic or amusing. But Stella ponders the weird romantic streak in her parents' deaths (their "hearts snapped in tandem") at her eleventh birthday party. She looks back on them -- and her life -- with a mix of honesty and affection. She's not heartless, just brutally honest about herself and the world.
Seigel does display some first-time difficulties -- she climaxes Stella's problems with her foster parents by having an awkward blowup. And Stella's relationship with her drug-dealing boyfriend seems tacked in. However, her prose is wonderfully written, with a sort of detached grace as Stella observes the little things, from sex to religion. Sprinkled in are wry observations, like the Jewish temple that her foster parents go to: services are held on Sundays, because "this benefited cross-religion plan-making on the weekends."
Stella is not a female Holden clone -- where Holden is resentful, she is quietly brutal. She's witty, wry and thoroughly engaging for smart, philosophical young women. Her foster parents are pale characters, especially when compared to her exuberant druggie parents. And her classmates and teachers are gifted with little quirks and oddities, but not to the point of being caricatures.
"Like the Red Panda" is an excellent first novel for Andrea Seigal. Rather than going into "angry young woman" territory, she opts for a funny, dark, strange journey into Stella's mind. While Seigel has some beginner's problems to iron out, her beautifully written debut is highly recommended.
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