Like the Red Panda is a novel by author Andrea Siegel. The story follows the main character, Stella, as she recounts the last two weeks of her senior high school year, and her life in Orange County, California. Stella is an orphan after both of her parents overdose on drugs on her eleventh birthday. Since she only has an elderly living grandfather, Stella goes to live with her foster parents, Shana and Simon Roth. Although Stella is intelligent, attractive and likeable, she has come to the conclusion that the monotony of life is not worth living.

When Stella moves in with her foster family, she also decides that this is the time to get to know her maternal grandfather, Donald. Donald lives in an assisted living facility. Stella starts taking the bus to visit Donald on Sundays so that she can skip out on attending temple with the Roths. Despite being related, Stella and Donald do not share a familial bond. In fact, Stella detests Donald. In the end, however, Stella realizes that she and Donald are more alike than they are different.

Stella writes down everything that happens to her during the last two weeks of her senior year. Not only is she memorializing these events, but she is also documenting her feelings because Stella intends on committing suicide. In addition to killing herself, Stella also assists her grandfather in ending his life with an overdose of drugs, just like her parents had done a few years prior.