The Stand-In

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. [em]Agent: Beth Davey, Davey Literary & Media. (Oct.) [/em]