“Weepingly funny.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Delightful.” —Buzzfeed

“Charmed my socks away.” —David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author of Children of Appetite and Mosquitoland

Four starred reviews for this incisive, laugh-out-loud contemporary debut about a Taiwanese-American teen whose parents want her to be a doctor and marry a Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer despite her squeamishness with bacteria and crush on the Japanese classmate.

At seventeen, Mei should be in high school, but skipping 4th about American Panda quality was section of her parents’ grasp plan. Right now a freshman at MIT, she actually is on course to fulfill the others of this predetermined potential: turn into a doctor, marry a preapproved Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer, produce a litter of infants.

With everything her parents have sacrificed to make her cushy life possible, Mei can’t bring herself to tell them the truth—that she (1) hates germs, (2) falls asleep in biology lectures, and (3) has a crush on her behalf classmate Darren Takahashi, who is decidedly not Taiwanese.

But when Mei reconnects with her sibling, Xing, who is estranged through the family for dating the wrong woman, Mei begins to wonder if all the secrets are truly worthwhile. Can she find a way to become herself, whoever that’s, before her internet of lies unravels?

From debut author Gloria Chao comes a hilarious, heartfelt tale of how, unlike the panda, life isn’t always so black and white.