By: Lily Chu
This is a hard book for me to review. There are several things I really enjoyed about it, but there were these other parts that I just….did not. Which is frustrating. TO ME. I think this book had a strong base for an idea but, in the end, it just did not reach its full potential and so I am just disappointed. You could have been such a good, little book-y-book The Stand-In.
Gracie Reed is an only child, burdened with the extremely sad task of caring for her aging Chinese mother who is suffering from Alzthimers. As a Canadian immigrant, and likely in response to assimilating to a new culture, her mother raised Gracie to try and blend in with the masses by refusing to speak Mandarin at home or of her life in China. As Gracie’s dad passed away several years ago, Gracie tries to provide her mother with the best care, and so she is saving money to have her placed in a better treatment facility. Unfortunately, her work life is becoming untenable. Her boss, Todd, is sexually harassing her but she cannot provide an employment lawyer with any substantive proof and she cannot quit without having a job lined up because of her mother’s health. When her boss terminates her unless she succumbs to his advances, she is at her wit’s end.
While visiting her favorite coffee shop, a paparazzi takes her photograph. It is jarring and uncomfortable, but she forgets all about it, until she sees her photograph in a celebrity tabloid. She has been confused for the Chinese megastar, Wei Fangli. A few days later, Fangli and her handsome costar, Sam Yao, Oscar winner and former PEOPLE’S Sexist Man Alive, track her down with a proposition: Fangli is exhausted and will pay Gracie to act as a double for her at upcoming events for the two months she is in Canada. With no steady paycheck to rely upon, Gracie accepts Fangli’s offer. But, in attempting to pretend to be Fangli, she must also deal with Sam, Fangli’s rumored long-time boyfriend, who is less enamored with this plan than Fangli and Gracie.
I enjoyed how this book, while a light read, did weave in some darker subject matter. The portrayal of Gracie and her stress of taking care of her mother’s illness was extremely poignant. Alzthimer’s is such a terrible disease and it required the roles to be flipped, where Gracie is now the caregiver for her mother, as opposed to more typical parenting dynamics. I think the guilt and pressure Gracie placed on herself made perfect sense and helped form a lot of Gracie’s motivation. The depiction of her boss’s sexual harassment, I think, was also well done. While, of course, there are instances of overt sexual harrassment, it also comes in the smaller, quiter moments where someone is invading your personal space, or innuendo, which is harder to physically prove and also makes the victim second guess herself. While the character, Todd, was a caricature, this depiction was, sadly, accurate as hell. I also approve of the mental health representation. When Gracie realizes that Fangli is not actually tired from overworking herself but is suffering from depression, something she also has experience with, allowed Gracie to encourage Fangli to seek help for herself, I thought it made for stronger characterization of Gracie and Fangli but also acted as representation for something many readers of this book might also be experiencing.
For the most part, I liked Gracie’s character. I thought she was funny and a thoughtful friend. She maybe gave advice better than she actually took it from others, but that seemed natural to her personality. She was a very likable character, and you could see why the other characters would be drawn into her orbit. I think my main issue is the very quick change from the meek person from her experience with her boss to immediately, and I mean, immediately, standing up to herself with Sam. I felt a little whiplash. That just didn’t seem very natural.
And while I am on the topic of Sammy, I had several reservations about him as a character. Like, in the beginning he is a straight up dick to Gracie. I can see that he is frustrated with this situation– I mean, he has to do all the work, not Fangli, but like, Fangli is who he is ultimately mad at, not Gracie. PLEASE BE A DICK TO THE PROPER PERSON. Gracie didn’t approach Fangli and try to take advantage of her by wrangling money out of her?? He kept calling her hungry for fame and I was like, what? This isn’t a tacky reality show– she is pretending to be your friend at specific events requested of her? The goal would be for no one to know who she is? It is literally the point? He accuses her of not putting in the effort and I am like, what in the world do you want her to do? She was already watching her movies and looking up past interviews, photos, etc.!!! There isn’t some usual way to go about this very normal job and she was just messing it up? It was just so dickish, and while he does apologize, there needed to be more groveling. We then quickly move into a storyline about this partnership where he is “invaluable” to her? Say what? And the most I really gleaned from his personality is that he tells terrible, dad jokes. Okkkkaaayyyy. I think I was turned off that he was acting terribly toward her, and she kept mentally focusing on his smoking good looks– which, good for him and for her eyes, but it all seemed superficial. When he seemed wary of her motives for being with him, I was like– yeah, dude. That is probably spot on, here. ALSO. In the end, when Gracie found Sam talking with her ILL mother in her assisted living space, I almost lost my mind. No. No. No. That. Is. Creepy. Sam. In his last interaction with Gracie, she had clearly asked him to leave her alone. I get why maybe he wanted to at least talk with her again so he had the opportunity to fully share his feelings, but visiting someone’s mother who is suffering from Alzthimers and keeps confusing you with her dead brother IS NOT THE MOVE TO MAKE. I just think there was a lot of TELLING ME that these two were compatible WITHOUT SHOWING ME that.
I mean, a bit of an eye roll for the shockingly revealed convenient secrets in the end, but as I have said before, I am willing to accept an extreme coincidence in the plot of a romance novel, but man, it just needed to be executed better?
I do, however, hear the audiobook of this is extremely engaging by the amazing Phillipa Soo, so maybe that would have helped me??
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟/5
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-stand-in-lily-chu/1139900773?ean=9781728242620
Audiobook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-stand-in-lily-chu/1139900773?ean=9781713645924