Book Review: "Five-Star Stranger" by Kat Tang

Our unnamed narrator (whom we come to know only as “Stranger”) works for the Rental Stranger app. You can hire him to be your guest for an event, make someone jealous, serve as wingman or pretend spouse/boyfriend/sibling, or use him for a variety of other purposes. He prides himself on his work and keeping his clients happy. (He wants to keep his five-star rating intact.)

“If I had a motto, this would be it: your happiness is my happiness, my guiding principle, my mission statement.”

Playing so many roles for so many clients leaves him little time to be himself. And that’s fine with him. His life when he is not working (a rarity) is a lonely one, full of guilt and grief, as well as pondering what’s real and fake in his interactions with his clients.

For a number of years, he has had a regular client, Mari, for whom he pretends to be her husband and father to her young daughter. One day a week, he picks the girl, Lily, up from school, helps with her homework, cooks dinner, and lately, puts her to bed before his “wife” comes home. But the charade is getting more and more complicated, as the woman is starting to resent him for how much more Lily likes him rather than her, and Lily is grown up enough to begin asking questions of her "father."

When another client starts to ask questions about his relationship with Mari and Lily, it forces him to evaluate what he derives from his work, and what he wants from his life. He reflects on his unresolved feelings toward his mother, and he wonders whom he really is.

This was a pretty cool concept, but I felt that Stranger was kept at arm’s length from the reader. At times, the story was sparse on details, and just as it started opening up a bit, it ended abruptly. But overall, it was fascinating and thought-provoking.

The book publishes 8/6.