The Stand-In

by Steve Bloom

Overview

The inspiration for the Netflix original film, The Perfect Date!

When Brooks volunteered to be a stand-in for Burdette's cousin who got stood up for Homecoming, it was with the noblest of intentions—helping a fellow human being, free of charge. But when he gets a tip of more than three hundred bucks, word spreads quickly and Brooks seizes the opportunity to offer his impeccable escort services to super-wealthy parents who want their daughters to experience those big social events of senior year.

Besides, Brooks could use the cash to hire a tutor to get admitted to Columbia University. So what if along the way he goes along with a few minor deceptions and cuts a few moral corners? What could be the harm?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781512410235
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/01/2016
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.40(d)
Lexile:	HL750L (what's this?)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Steve Bloom has written TV and movie screenplays for more than 30 years. The Stand-In is his first novel. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and their French bulldog.

Editorial Reviews

08/22/2016
A pity date with a friend’s rich cousin leads high school senior Brooks Rattigan into a lucrative line of work, escorting young women to formal events. His clients are generally high-society nerds and social outcasts, a stark reminder of Brooks’s blue-collar New Jersey upbringing and the future at Columbia University he’s desperate to secure. In his debut novel, screenwriter Bloom gives Brooks a strikingly irreverent narrative voice, weaving a tale built around standard rom-com moments. As a classic antihero, Brooks proves himself to be shallow and deceptive time and again. His infatuation with gorgeous Shelby Pace is the stuff of teenage fantasies, but he’s at his best with faux-date Celia Lieberman, who storms into his life like a cyclone. “Pretend you like me!” she pleads, worried her classmates will find out the truth about her date with Brooks. “I can’t!” he protests. “It’s beyond my range!” Heightened antics abound, but the jokes begin to languish as Bloom ticks off familiar boxes, including a makeover for Celia and a final scene of prom-night dance-floor harmony. Ages 13–up. Agent: Beth Davey, Davey Literary & Media. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

10/01/2016
Gr 10 Up—Brooks Rattigan has a plan: do everything in his power to get into Columbia University and out of Pritchard, NJ. When Brooks overhears a classmate trying to find a date for his cousin to homecoming, he offers to take her and becomes The Stand-In. He quits his job at the local sub shop, and what started out as a onetime gesture of goodwill becomes a lucrative business. The teen spends his weekends taking girls to their dances and parties in an attempt to make them feel special and build his college fund. Will Brooks be able to handle college applications, a stoner dad, a slacker best friend, difficult clients, and the girl of his dreams? This tale will resonate with young adults looking for a unique coming-of-age story. The interactions between Brooks and his dates provide humor, hope, and a bit of romance. Plotlines about relationships with parents and friends offer additional depth to the narrative. Some of the threads are resolved a little too neatly and easily. Frequent drug use, language, and sexual content make this a book more suited for older teens. VERDICT A purchase for libraries where realistic fiction and coming-of-age titles are in demand.—Ashley Leffel, Griffin Middle School, Frisco, TX

School Library Journal

2016-07-20
A smart-aleck teenager who yearns to escape his dilapidated New Jersey town becomes a high school escort in Bloom’s debut novel.Brooks Rattigan—a superficial yet hardworking letter carrier’s son in his final year of high school—is desperate to attain upper-middle-class comfort. After the white teen offers to take a schoolmate’s dateless cousin to homecoming and scores over 300 bucks from the girl’s grateful parents in the process, he decides to expand his impromptu dating service to secure his path to Columbia University. Soon, Brooks is in the stand-in business, offering himself to girls from affluent families for senior year’s most important social events. Complications come in the form of two girls: Celia Lieberman, a girl with overbearing parents, and Shelby Pace, a socialite goddess. Though the setup seems entertaining enough, the narrative fails to capitalize on its promise to dissect high-class society, underserving its satirical wit in favor of high-strung melodrama. As Brooks slips deeper into the evidently all-white world of the superrich, he finds it hard to balance his demanding, college-bound life with the lies he spins to fit in. Brooks starts off a likable character, but his progressively less-than-admirable behavior is exhausting after 200 pages. And that’s halfway through the novel. A half-funny, half-tired novel with a fine protagonist to half-root for. (Fiction. 14-17)

Kirkus Reviews

"The Stand-In has humor, romance, and a definite dose of fun, and is a good choice for reluctant readers . . . . This is recommended for libraries looking for books that will appeal to those who want both an easy and a fun read, and, perhaps, those looking for a male lead in a romance."—VOYA

From the Publisher