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Five-Star Stranger
An exciting and “inventive” (HuffPost) debut novel about a top-rated man on the Rental Stranger app—a place where users can hire a pretend fiancé, a wingman, or companion of any kind—who finds out who he is by being anyone but himself.
Would you hire someone to be the best man at your wedding? Your stand-in brother? The father to your child?
In an age where online ratings are all-powerful, Five-Star Stranger follows the adventures of a top-rated man on the Rental Stranger app as he navigates New York City under the guise of characters he plays, always maintaining a professional distance from his clients.
But, when a nosy patron threatens to upend his long-term role as father to a young girl, Stranger begins to reckon with his attachment to his pretend daughter, her mother, and his own fraught past. Now, he must confront the boundaries he has drawn and explore the legacy of abandonment that shaped his life.
“A sharp page-turner about our culture’s commodification of everything” (Debutiful), Five-Star Stranger is a strikingly vivid novel about isolation in a hyperconnected world, and “what it means to love and be loved” (Rachel Khong, author of Real Americans).
Would you hire someone to be the best man at your wedding? Your stand-in brother? The father to your child?
In an age where online ratings are all-powerful, Five-Star Stranger follows the adventures of a top-rated man on the Rental Stranger app as he navigates New York City under the guise of characters he plays, always maintaining a professional distance from his clients.
But, when a nosy patron threatens to upend his long-term role as father to a young girl, Stranger begins to reckon with his attachment to his pretend daughter, her mother, and his own fraught past. Now, he must confront the boundaries he has drawn and explore the legacy of abandonment that shaped his life.
“A sharp page-turner about our culture’s commodification of everything” (Debutiful), Five-Star Stranger is a strikingly vivid novel about isolation in a hyperconnected world, and “what it means to love and be loved” (Rachel Khong, author of Real Americans).
240 pages, Paperback
First published August 6, 2024
281 people are currently reading
34667 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,571 reviews
June 17, 2024
This is not fluffy.
I feel like I should say that because the title, cover and description make it seem fluffy and light.
Instead, it’s bittersweet and poignant and it made me so sad.
I loved our unnamed Stranger and was intrigued by the people he met and situations he was in. But I kept hoping for unicorns and rainbows and it was unicorns with broken horns and bent rainbows instead.
The book definitely makes you think and gives you an overwhelming sense of loss much of the time.
Excellent and very unexpected read.
• ARC via Publisher
I feel like I should say that because the title, cover and description make it seem fluffy and light.
Instead, it’s bittersweet and poignant and it made me so sad.
I loved our unnamed Stranger and was intrigued by the people he met and situations he was in. But I kept hoping for unicorns and rainbows and it was unicorns with broken horns and bent rainbows instead.
The book definitely makes you think and gives you an overwhelming sense of loss much of the time.
Excellent and very unexpected read.
• ARC via Publisher
September 18, 2024
1.5 - 2 Stars
I kept waiting for the point of everything to become clear…but it never did. At least not fully. Instead, the book just felt sad (and not in a good way). The ending, if you can even really call it that, was abrupt and out of the blue. It just left you flailing. I love solidly ambiguous open endings in my literary fiction. But this just wasn’t done all that well, in my opinion.
The premise sounded so interesting…and I liked the writing style…but this was miss for me.
Favorite quote:
"I wanted to see if she would worry the way the teacher worried when recess ended and they couldn't locate a student who'd found a winning hiding spot in hide-and-seek. I purposefully chose places that were relatively obvious, both at school and around the apartment, because the thrill of being undetected was paltry compared to the relief of being found."
I kept waiting for the point of everything to become clear…but it never did. At least not fully. Instead, the book just felt sad (and not in a good way). The ending, if you can even really call it that, was abrupt and out of the blue. It just left you flailing. I love solidly ambiguous open endings in my literary fiction. But this just wasn’t done all that well, in my opinion.
The premise sounded so interesting…and I liked the writing style…but this was miss for me.
Favorite quote:
"I wanted to see if she would worry the way the teacher worried when recess ended and they couldn't locate a student who'd found a winning hiding spot in hide-and-seek. I purposefully chose places that were relatively obvious, both at school and around the apartment, because the thrill of being undetected was paltry compared to the relief of being found."
August 9, 2024
Justice for Lily.
August 12, 2024
This would’ve been given a higher rating if the ending didn’t suck 😭
August 1, 2024
3.5 stars
The premise of this contemporary fiction novel caught my attention as the main character works as a "rental stranger". Basically you can hire one of the people featured on the app and they will play a part. Some examples of that are a wingman at a bar, a date for the opera, a mourner at a funeral, or even someone posing as a family member. The character in this story has an excellent rating on the app and has been booked for various types of roles over the years.
Alright, the whole concept is fascinating in regards to the work especially the dilemma he has with one of his long-term gigs. It's fairly light in tone for much of the story ,but you get a sense as you learn more about the character, things will shift to a more serious note. The last quarter or so of the book is the weak spot in my opinion. I kinda get what the author was going for but the ending is rushed and not fully developed.
Not a perfect read, but it still held my interest even though the wheels fell off by the end.
Thank you to Scribner for sending me an advance copy! All thoughts expressed are my honest opinion.
The premise of this contemporary fiction novel caught my attention as the main character works as a "rental stranger". Basically you can hire one of the people featured on the app and they will play a part. Some examples of that are a wingman at a bar, a date for the opera, a mourner at a funeral, or even someone posing as a family member. The character in this story has an excellent rating on the app and has been booked for various types of roles over the years.
Alright, the whole concept is fascinating in regards to the work especially the dilemma he has with one of his long-term gigs. It's fairly light in tone for much of the story ,but you get a sense as you learn more about the character, things will shift to a more serious note. The last quarter or so of the book is the weak spot in my opinion. I kinda get what the author was going for but the ending is rushed and not fully developed.
Not a perfect read, but it still held my interest even though the wheels fell off by the end.
Thank you to Scribner for sending me an advance copy! All thoughts expressed are my honest opinion.
August 16, 2024
What was the point of this story?
The main character sucks. He’s vapid, void of any personality, and all around unlikeable. But not because he does anything, but rather because he just operates like a robot and has really no inner thoughts besides how to dress up for roles. And a weird hang up about sex. And his mom.
I kept reading and waiting for something to happen, some big lesson or conclusion that would make it all make sense, but instead he just bangs his mom’s old friend and doesn’t tell her his mom killed herself and then writes a letter. The end.
The main character sucks. He’s vapid, void of any personality, and all around unlikeable. But not because he does anything, but rather because he just operates like a robot and has really no inner thoughts besides how to dress up for roles. And a weird hang up about sex. And his mom.
I kept reading and waiting for something to happen, some big lesson or conclusion that would make it all make sense, but instead he just bangs his mom’s old friend and doesn’t tell her his mom killed herself and then writes a letter. The end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 29, 2024
This is a quiet, character-driven novel where not a lot happens, but you’re still given a lot to think about. While a few moments felt repetitive (especially with the book being short), I found myself absorbed by the never named man who’s the focal point and narrator. Known only to us as Stranger, he seamlessly changes faces and personalities based on what his clients need. This feels like an exposé into the human plight of loneliness, desperation for connection and acceptance, and the longing to be happy. How many of us would rent a stranger for a day or even repeatedly just to fill a void (a parent, a friend, a partner) that would make us appear to the world as whole or complete?
Stranger believes he is meeting this need while staying wholly unattached until his carefully plotted out world begins to crumble when one renter threatens to expose him to another (a child). He must reconcile his past with this present and come to terms with the reality of why he chose to take on the role of Stranger.
I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.
Stranger believes he is meeting this need while staying wholly unattached until his carefully plotted out world begins to crumble when one renter threatens to expose him to another (a child). He must reconcile his past with this present and come to terms with the reality of why he chose to take on the role of Stranger.
I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.
August 7, 2024
Plot idea: great. Execution: not great.
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September 18, 2024The novel Five Star Stranger by Kat Tang is about a rent-a-stranger's life. Need a date to bring to a wedding? A family reunion? This service is available to anyone via an app in the book's universe. We follow one such rent-a-stranger (the MMC) and some clients he works with. While I read 100+ pages of this book, I ended up DNF because the book feels more like the MMC's stream of consciousness and not like a real story. While I read approximately half of the book, I never felt any engaging story develop, and I called it quits to pursue other novels in my TBR.
August 25, 2024
"Five-Star Stranger" is not nearly as fluffly as the brightly colored cover may suggest. Imagine you need a +1 for a wedding, a wingman to help spark jealousy on a date, or even a pretend sibling — enter the Rental Stranger app, a site where you can hire someone to fill exactly those roles and more.
An unnamed narrator is a professional "stranger," having excelled at providing services on the app for years. As we sink into his life and the various roles he plays, we gradually learn of his most important gig: playing the role of father to the child of one of his long-time clients. As his position in her life comes under scrutiny, the stranger begins to question who exactly he is outside of the roles he plays and what is important to him.
This is a quite, character-driven novel of self discovery, the story of a single character’s search for identity after a childhood of cold-shouldered trauma. While this is a solid debut novel, I do think it would have benefited from being opened up a little wider to explore more of the daughter’s personality and the moments between them.
An unnamed narrator is a professional "stranger," having excelled at providing services on the app for years. As we sink into his life and the various roles he plays, we gradually learn of his most important gig: playing the role of father to the child of one of his long-time clients. As his position in her life comes under scrutiny, the stranger begins to question who exactly he is outside of the roles he plays and what is important to him.
This is a quite, character-driven novel of self discovery, the story of a single character’s search for identity after a childhood of cold-shouldered trauma. While this is a solid debut novel, I do think it would have benefited from being opened up a little wider to explore more of the daughter’s personality and the moments between them.
April 19, 2025
THIS WAS SO SAD my heart hurt afterwards. TW for mommy AND daddy issues 🥲
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July 31, 2024Why I Love It
Suzannah Bentley
Have you ever wanted to be somebody else? What if you could get paid to do it? In Five-Star Stranger, a mysterious man with a troubled past makes a living as a rent-a-stranger in New York City. This novel feels like a delicious peek behind the scenes of New York’s most choreographed and convoluted social rituals and into the lives of the people whose lies rest shakily upon them.
Thanks to his Oscar-worthy acting skills, ingenious costume changes, and a pathological need to give people what they want, our nameless protagonist becomes highly sought after on the Rental Stranger app. Morphing seamlessly from Wall Street finance bro to harried English Professor to alcoholic deadbeat in the space of a single day keeps him too busy to take stock of his own life. But a long-term gig as father to a perceptive nine-year-old proves his most satisfying role yet as he forms a real bond. And somewhere amongst elementary school homework and trips to the park, “Daddy” breaks his cardinal rule: don’t get attached.
Five-Star Stranger reminds us that we don’t have to be alone to be lonely and that making other people happy isn’t always in their best interests, or our own. To be truly known is more difficult and vulnerable than even the most nuanced performance, but may ultimately be the only way forward. With its fast-paced zipping between clients, neighborhoods, and roles but also rich emotional plumbing, it left me surprised and delighted from beginning to end.
Suzannah Bentley
Have you ever wanted to be somebody else? What if you could get paid to do it? In Five-Star Stranger, a mysterious man with a troubled past makes a living as a rent-a-stranger in New York City. This novel feels like a delicious peek behind the scenes of New York’s most choreographed and convoluted social rituals and into the lives of the people whose lies rest shakily upon them.
Thanks to his Oscar-worthy acting skills, ingenious costume changes, and a pathological need to give people what they want, our nameless protagonist becomes highly sought after on the Rental Stranger app. Morphing seamlessly from Wall Street finance bro to harried English Professor to alcoholic deadbeat in the space of a single day keeps him too busy to take stock of his own life. But a long-term gig as father to a perceptive nine-year-old proves his most satisfying role yet as he forms a real bond. And somewhere amongst elementary school homework and trips to the park, “Daddy” breaks his cardinal rule: don’t get attached.
Five-Star Stranger reminds us that we don’t have to be alone to be lonely and that making other people happy isn’t always in their best interests, or our own. To be truly known is more difficult and vulnerable than even the most nuanced performance, but may ultimately be the only way forward. With its fast-paced zipping between clients, neighborhoods, and roles but also rich emotional plumbing, it left me surprised and delighted from beginning to end.
October 6, 2024
3.5 stars
This was such a unique premise. I was enthralled with getting to know the quirky main character and his job, something I’d not heard of but can definitely understand. The narrator, “Stranger,” has a host of jobs, and one of them, playing father to a young girl, has been a long term one; so much so, the child really does believe he’s her father.
Stranger keeps boundaries from his clients, and I would say also from the reader. He shares some intimate thoughts, but he truly takes his time baring his past. It’s a quiet story, very focused on this main character. How did he arrive here? What scars is he carrying? This one played with my emotions, as something was always bubbling beneath the surface, and I was waiting for a shoe to drop.
I also enjoyed that it was a quick read and slim, but then, too, I wanted a little more from our main character, more reveals. And then I kind of felt like that was the point. He was still a stranger in the end - to me as the reader - and also to himself.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
This was such a unique premise. I was enthralled with getting to know the quirky main character and his job, something I’d not heard of but can definitely understand. The narrator, “Stranger,” has a host of jobs, and one of them, playing father to a young girl, has been a long term one; so much so, the child really does believe he’s her father.
Stranger keeps boundaries from his clients, and I would say also from the reader. He shares some intimate thoughts, but he truly takes his time baring his past. It’s a quiet story, very focused on this main character. How did he arrive here? What scars is he carrying? This one played with my emotions, as something was always bubbling beneath the surface, and I was waiting for a shoe to drop.
I also enjoyed that it was a quick read and slim, but then, too, I wanted a little more from our main character, more reveals. And then I kind of felt like that was the point. He was still a stranger in the end - to me as the reader - and also to himself.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
July 29, 2024
Ok, publishers. I thought we had a deal that if there is a cartoon cover with vibrant colors and a cheeky title we are in for a light, swoony read! FIVE STAR STRANGER was not light, nor swoony, but thought-provoking in its own melancholic way.
This debut follows the career of a man who spends his days being hired out by others. He has been a pretend fiance, a wingman, and even attended funerals. His most time-intensive client has hired him to be the long-term father for her daughter.
I liked my experience reading the book, but it also made me unexpectedly deeply sad. It explores the loneliness epidemic and the risks of being in true community with others. I’d certainly read Kat Tang again and will try not to be deceived by another chipper cover!
RATING: 3.5/.5
PUB DATE: August 6, 2024
Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This debut follows the career of a man who spends his days being hired out by others. He has been a pretend fiance, a wingman, and even attended funerals. His most time-intensive client has hired him to be the long-term father for her daughter.
I liked my experience reading the book, but it also made me unexpectedly deeply sad. It explores the loneliness epidemic and the risks of being in true community with others. I’d certainly read Kat Tang again and will try not to be deceived by another chipper cover!
RATING: 3.5/.5
PUB DATE: August 6, 2024
Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.
September 10, 2024
One star stranger. Book of the Month you can’t keep getting away with this
August 11, 2024
I think giving this book 2 stars is being generous.
August 20, 2024
Very much not for me!!
July 17, 2024
Ummm….
January 26, 2025
What a debut from Kat Tang! I enjoyed the lingering sense of unease throughout Five-Star Stranger and the fact that I never quite knew where it would go. Despite it being a shorter book, I had such a full sense of who all of these characters were by the end — and I'm still munching on how everything went down.
Content warning: Mentions of parental death (prior to book's events)
Content warning: Mentions of parental death (prior to book's events)
July 14, 2024
4.5-5⭐️
September 28, 2024
daddy issues and mommy issues all wrapped up in one really good book
December 11, 2024
3.5!
A really good debut that’s slim with a lot to say. I think the storyline was boring at times, and for me it started to come together more towards the end. I definitely want to read more from this author though!
A really good debut that’s slim with a lot to say. I think the storyline was boring at times, and for me it started to come together more towards the end. I definitely want to read more from this author though!
July 7, 2025
need a whole spin-off book focusing on lily🤞🏼🙏🏼
June 5, 2025
???
للحظة كنت سأترك مجموعة من علامات الاستفهام كمراجعة لهذه الرواية... لا قصة؛ لا أحداث ولا نهاية...
الفكرة مثيرة للاهتمام لكن ربما لو كانت تدعى: يوميات عشوائية لغريب تقييمه 5 نجمات، كان سيكون أفضل.
February 4, 2025
2nd read: 2025
Listened to the audiobook and it was pretty good. I enjoyed the print more.
1st read 2024:
I liked this one.
Abandonment issues, isolation, craving connections- all explored with subtle humor.
I'll be thinking about this book & the ending for a long time.
(Also hoping there will be an audiobook released)
I won an ARC copy & am super excited to read more from Kat Tang!
Listened to the audiobook and it was pretty good. I enjoyed the print more.
1st read 2024:
I liked this one.
Abandonment issues, isolation, craving connections- all explored with subtle humor.
I'll be thinking about this book & the ending for a long time.
(Also hoping there will be an audiobook released)
I won an ARC copy & am super excited to read more from Kat Tang!
September 14, 2024
I thought this might be my first 5 star book since March. But unfortunately the ending wasn’t for me. But I still enjoyed it.
April 18, 2025
I can actually see this being a real business. I'm sure the ethics are crazy complicated, and I have no idea how it would even be regulated (I'd like to think it would be, given all the crazy complicated ethics). So I was immediately drawn to the story, because I like a story that debates ethics.
That's what's happening in my mind on the outer edge of the book, but at its core is a very sad man who has spent his life trying to atone for something that he blames himself for, even though it wasn't his fault (it will never be his fault, no matter how much he blames himself - my therapist calls this cognitive distortion "personalization"). As a result, he spends his entire adult life trying to find closure in something he will never find closure from. He is such a sad, sad man.
In some ways, he reminds me of Tinker Grey from Amor Towle's Rules of Civility, and because the ending is open-ended, I can kind of imagine him the same way in that photo that Katey finds years later. I can even imagine Lily coming across that photo (of the narrator) in the same way someday, looking at his face and seeing someone she recognizes but doesn't recognize and then writing her story. In fact, I would love to know Lily's story from here onward (but only as an adult, because I don't really love child narrators).
I think the book could've gone more into his weird relationship with his mother. I'd have appreciated knowing why his mother felt the way she did about sex and then passed it down to her son. There's definitely a back story there that could also be explored. (Ha! I've just given Tang a prequel and a sequel 😂.)
I read through some of the lower rated reviews to try to understand why I might've liked this book so much more than they did. I get it. Lily is an innocent victim, an unintended consequence, whose life might have been screwed up by the fact that her "father" is the protagonist. And the protagonist is so, so, so sad and empty hearted, though he's trying and starting to learn he needs to fill that up a bit. But I think it's a bit unfair only to blame him. He is, after all, just making a living, and it was really Mari's decision to hire him. Plus, for him to take the drastic action he does toward the end, I think that shows growth and maturity. I hope he stays on that trajectory, and I hope he gets a lot of therapy. His mom really screwed him up!
The only minor detail I couldn't quite figure out was why he was always so broke. I know he said he was trying to save up for home ownership, which is stupid crazy expensive in NYC, but at $150 an hour working full-time and sometimes more than that would've put him at $315,000 a year...well, that's a lot more than I made at the peak of my career and I would still have been able to afford a NYC coop (NYC has coops and condos, and they are very different ownership structures - coops are affordable and condos are not really, but they are still valid forms of home ownership). Was he holding out for a condo? I don't think so....
Rounding up to 5
That's what's happening in my mind on the outer edge of the book, but at its core is a very sad man who has spent his life trying to atone for something that he blames himself for, even though it wasn't his fault (it will never be his fault, no matter how much he blames himself - my therapist calls this cognitive distortion "personalization"). As a result, he spends his entire adult life trying to find closure in something he will never find closure from. He is such a sad, sad man.
In some ways, he reminds me of Tinker Grey from Amor Towle's Rules of Civility, and because the ending is open-ended, I can kind of imagine him the same way in that photo that Katey finds years later. I can even imagine Lily coming across that photo (of the narrator) in the same way someday, looking at his face and seeing someone she recognizes but doesn't recognize and then writing her story. In fact, I would love to know Lily's story from here onward (but only as an adult, because I don't really love child narrators).
I think the book could've gone more into his weird relationship with his mother. I'd have appreciated knowing why his mother felt the way she did about sex and then passed it down to her son. There's definitely a back story there that could also be explored. (Ha! I've just given Tang a prequel and a sequel 😂.)
I read through some of the lower rated reviews to try to understand why I might've liked this book so much more than they did. I get it. Lily is an innocent victim, an unintended consequence, whose life might have been screwed up by the fact that her "father" is the protagonist. And the protagonist is so, so, so sad and empty hearted, though he's trying and starting to learn he needs to fill that up a bit. But I think it's a bit unfair only to blame him. He is, after all, just making a living, and it was really Mari's decision to hire him. Plus, for him to take the drastic action he does toward the end, I think that shows growth and maturity. I hope he stays on that trajectory, and I hope he gets a lot of therapy. His mom really screwed him up!
The only minor detail I couldn't quite figure out was why he was always so broke. I know he said he was trying to save up for home ownership, which is stupid crazy expensive in NYC, but at $150 an hour working full-time and sometimes more than that would've put him at $315,000 a year...well, that's a lot more than I made at the peak of my career and I would still have been able to afford a NYC coop (NYC has coops and condos, and they are very different ownership structures - coops are affordable and condos are not really, but they are still valid forms of home ownership). Was he holding out for a condo? I don't think so....
Rounding up to 5
September 1, 2024
Um, there is already a non-fiction book detailing the interview answers of a rental stranger called Rental Person Who Does Nothing. This concept already exists in real life, from young Chinese women renting 'boyfriends' to stem the intrusive questions during Chinese New Year to 'grandparents' being rented in Japan. What it says about our society, the commodification of familial connection, its ramifications as well as the epidemic widespread loneliness is not addressed adequately in this fiction novel.
No sane mother would allow her prepubescent daughter to be picked up at school and spend hours alone with a male stranger. I struggle to understand the rationale behind employing a stranger to masquerade as the daughter's father long term, the kid or teenager (depending on when she finds out) is going to be so messed up. Not to mention the rental stranger's odd delusions of integrating himself for real into the family.
I am also confused about the mother's financial situation, she is a single mother struggling to make ends meet and yet has money to rent this stranger for weekly services for a decade?! The rental stranger seems to be more well off than her.
There are odd judgy calls on which clients he is willing to go out on a limb for, based on his internal moralistic sanctimony in spite of his own made-up arbitrary 'rules.' The whole book comes across as working class people = good, decent, hardworking in contrast to wealthy people = jerks, 'rapacious', undeserving of any compassion, perhaps at best to be pitied due to their empty lives.
I need to stop reading books by twenty something year old authors, they regard someone in their mid-fifties as ancient. Didn't like the protagonist much, going on and on how 'professional' he was and coming to the conclusion that 2.75 ⭐️
CW: Death of parent, Racism, and Suicide
No sane mother would allow her prepubescent daughter to be picked up at school and spend hours alone with a male stranger. I struggle to understand the rationale behind employing a stranger to masquerade as the daughter's father long term, the kid or teenager (depending on when she finds out) is going to be so messed up. Not to mention the rental stranger's odd delusions of integrating himself for real into the family.
I am also confused about the mother's financial situation, she is a single mother struggling to make ends meet and yet has money to rent this stranger for weekly services for a decade?! The rental stranger seems to be more well off than her.
There are odd judgy calls on which clients he is willing to go out on a limb for, based on his internal moralistic sanctimony in spite of his own made-up arbitrary 'rules.' The whole book comes across as working class people = good, decent, hardworking in contrast to wealthy people = jerks, 'rapacious', undeserving of any compassion, perhaps at best to be pitied due to their empty lives.
I need to stop reading books by twenty something year old authors, they regard someone in their mid-fifties as ancient. Didn't like the protagonist much, going on and on how 'professional' he was and coming to the conclusion that 2.75 ⭐️
CW: Death of parent, Racism, and Suicide
August 19, 2024
Stranger for hire....At what point does flawless boundaries with clients begin to blur and finds oneself emotionally attached to his pretend daughter.
February 7, 2024
This was a very well written in depth character study… but not at all the wholesome, funny novel I was expecting based off the endorsement quotes on the cover. Instead, I found Five Star Stranger to be a depressing and anxiety inducing journey of self discovery. The relationship between Stranger (our unnamed protagonist), Lily, and her mother, Mai, was by far the highlight of the story. Paid by Mai to pretend to be Lily’s father from a young age, Stranger struggles to maintain a professional distance as he reckons with his past and Lily’s future. This was SUCH an interesting concept and I was disappointed that it didn’t feel like the central focus of the novel, at least not until the novel’s end. For the majority of this book, we follow Stranger on his bizarre rental stranger jobs, meeting random clients and getting to know Stranger through his detached and almost cruel thought processes. Although I enjoyed learning about Stranger’s relationship with his mother and how his past informed his personality, I never felt truly compelled by his character except in relation to Lily and Mai. I wanted more content of the 3 of them interacting… Overall, I liked this book but I didn’t love it. Looking forward to reading more from Kat Tang in the future though!
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