The Stand-In by Lily Chu

Someone out there in bloglandia recommended The Stand-In by Lily Chu. Was it you? If so, thank you for the recommendation and someday I'll be better about writing these recommendations down instead of just ordering books on a whim like a crazed button pusher.

Gracie's having a go of it. She just lost her job after being sexually harassed by her creepy boss, she wants to move her mom into a better nursing home as her Alzheimer's disease is progressing, and she's feeling awfully alone and isolated. But it turns out that Gracie is a dead ringer for Chinese star Wei Fangli and Fangli offers Gracie the opportunity to stand-in for Fangli at public events in return for money that could really offer Gracie some relief.  Meanwhile, Fangli's super attractive friend and co-star, Sam Yao, will be her escort. The ony catch? Sam's kind of a jerk. 

Interesting characters: Oh, Gracie. She's smart and pretty, but she doesn't know it. She lets her former boss take up way more time in her mind than he should, is self-deprecating, and wants so badly for her mom to be proud of her. She's also always trying to get herself organized to do basic life skills, like learn a foreign language and exercise every day. She's torn about her identity as a mixed race Canadian. She's just...so relatable.

Sam's a pill early on, but we soon learn that he's publicity shy and shy-shy, despite his good looks and fame and fortune. He's sort of a caricature of the hot hero, so he's also bad at cards, but he has a glimmer of personality.

Believable conflict: Oh, sure. Sam thinks that Gracie acting as Fangli's stand-in is a dumb idea. He sort of holds it against Gracie, even though it wasn't Gracie's idea. Meanwhile, Gracie can't tell when Sam is being real or just acting and so she sort of overthinks everything he says and does. All of this was believable, even if the idea of looking like an exact match for a famous actress is a bit of a stretch.

Emotional tension: There's so much at play here. Is Sam being earnest? Is Gracie just charmed by Sam's fame and in it for the money? Are they ever going to forgive one another for their bad first impressions of one another? It's a glorious stew of complicated feelings. 

Happily ever after: I mean, this ending could have used some work. A long-distance relationship is not my ideal, but I'm pretty sure these kids will make it work.

Look, I really liked this book. I'd read a series of meh books and had started to think that maybe I no longer liked books. This really pulled me out of my funk and I enjoyed it a lot. I liked how the characters had hard conversations about hard things, like mental health, racism, and family tensions. I liked how Gracie wasn't perfect. I liked Toronto as a setting. I mean, yeah. It's a good book.

5/5 stars

Lines of note:

I pick up the book I'm reading and hesitate. I've never not finished a book, and although this one is trying my patience, I'm almost done. It might get better. I toss it in my bag. Then I take it out. New Gracie isn't going to waste her time on a book she doesn't like. I don't owe the book anything.

I put it back in. (page 63)

Ha. I DNF like crazy, but I do respect Gracie's indecisiveness here. 

"There's always an audience," he says dismissively. "You've had the privilege of being able to ignore it."
"What's that mean?"
"You can walk down the street and be seen but not noticed." (page 80-81)

Ha ha. Sam wants to be a middle-aged white lady!

I open the notebook to a fresh page and start to work. Of course, it goes well because life is like one of those stars you make by drawing a line up, down and to the sides. Love, health, wealth, family, and work sit on the angles, and if one goes well, it pulls to the side and the lines contract. Love and family life great? Bet you get fired. Excellent new job? Guess who's getting dumped. Everything hovering in equilibrium? Things are boring. It's like life doesn't have enough space to expand those lines so you can experience all you want at once. (page 229-230)

I like this as an analogy. I always feel like nothing is perfect in life, but of course, it everything were perfect, it would be boring.