Would you hire someone to be the best man at your wedding? Your stand-in brother? Your husband?

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—a place where users can hire a pretend fiancé, a wingman, or an extra mourner for a funeral. Referred to only as Stranger, the narrator 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.

Five-Star Stranger is a strikingly vivid novel about the commodification of relationships in a gig economy, isolation in a hyperconnected world, and the risk of asking for what we want from those who cannot give. This is the story of a man who finds out who he is by being anyone but himself.

I had no idea what to expect going into this novel, but I ended up really liking it! It is a powerful look at the complexities of human connection and the lengths we go to live a life that looks perfect for the public while battling with issues of self-worth and loneliness when no one is looking. Tang’s writing is sharp, witty, and painfully honest as she delves into the life of a man who is more comfortable pretending to be someone else than confronting his own inner sadness.

The book focuses on an unnamed man who has made a career of hiring himself out to perfect strangers to play a part in their lives. Need a wedding date? Done! Need someone to pose as a relative? He’s on it. Need someone to pretend he’s your new boyfriend who is absolutely smitten with you to make an ex jealous? He’s your guy! But his most rewarding job has probably been pretending to be a young girl’s father. The girl’s mother is a bit down on her luck and has trouble finding/keeping a man. To hide the truth from her friends and family, she hired the stranger to act as her husband and father to her daughter. She pays him monthly, and all he has to do is pretend that he is a long-haul truck driver who is only at home one day per week. So far, this has worked out well, but as time passes, he develops a strong bond with the young girl. He knows that even though he’d love to be her real father, he never will be, and at some point, he will need to move on.

As the stranger grapples with the consequences of his actions and the emotional toll of his work, I desperately wanted him to find happiness. What makes this story really shine is Tang’s ability to weave together themes of identity, abandonment, and redemption in a way that feels both fresh and poignant. The novel is a meditation on the masks we wear in our daily lives and the toll that pretending to be someone we’re not can take on our mental and emotional well-being. The concept of putting on a mask has become all too prevalent these days, and it really messes with one’s head.

The character of the stranger is both enigmatic and relatable. His struggles to maintain a facade while yearning for something real perfectly sums up what it’s like trying to find a connection these days. Tang’s exploration of the things people will do to make a buck and the ways in which it can distort our relationships is both timely and thought-provoking, offering a stark commentary on trying to find intimacy and connections in the digital age. Peppered throughout the narrative, we get a look at the stranger’s younger years and how being raised by a single mother who was both disconnected yet overly protective messed with his self-worth.

Overall, I found this to be a captivating, thought-provoking, and, at times, heartbreaking read. Tang’s writing is both lyrical and powerful and pulled me in from the first page. This is a short, sweet little book that carries quite a punch. It shines a light on the way in which we make connections in the digital age and questions the lengths we will go to avoid facing our true selves.

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