Rent A Boyfriend, Gloria Chao
Genre: Young Adult Romance
Themes: toxic masculinity, toxic family dynamics, emotional abuse & sheep’s in pjammas
★★★ ★★
5 delicious mooncakes for Gloria Chao, you go Gloria Chao.
This book is lovingly baked with a strained family dynamic, the power of choosing yourself and of course mooncakes. Rent A Boyfriend had me riding emotional tidal waves, especially with Chloe’s relationship with her parents. No child should ever have to feel like they need to lie to their parents about who they are or who they’re with to appease them. I felt heartbroken for Chloe in every instance her mother tore her down for who she is, for projecting her own fears onto her. Although, I am white, the emotional abuse hit home for me and reminded me of my own relationship with my mother. I found myself rooting for Jing Jing/ Chloe and for the blossoming romance between herself and Drew. Somehow, their love and connection felt authentic and true despite the element of the lies it was built upon in the beginning.
Chloe is such a human character. Her two worlds are split between her fake self to appease her parents and her true self as Chloe who studies economics and desperately wants her parents to accept her. It felt extremely real for Chloe to be torn between these parts of herself and not being able to really know who she is without the parental drama. Over all, I loved her character and I was able to sympathise and relate to her.
I believe that Drew spends his time helping young Asian women appease their families in the midst of their complex drama because he has a family shaped wound that he doesn’t believe can be healed. I really loved how dorky and awkward Drew is and I absolutely loved his connection with Chloe.
I am unable to speak on the Asian rep as I am not part of the community but I genuinely feel for anyone has ever felt the way Chloe did and were treated in such a horrific way. I found the way Chloe’s parents valued their reputation and money over their daughters happiness to be completely appalling.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets The Farewell in this incisive romantic comedy about a college student who hires a fake boyfriend to appease her traditional Taiwanese parents, to disastrous results, from the acclaimed author of American Panda.
Chloe Wang is nervous to introduce her parents to her boyfriend, because the truth is, she hasn’t met him yet either. She hired him from Rent for Your ‘Rents, a company specializing in providing fake boyfriends trained to impress even the most traditional Asian parents.
Drew Chan’s passion is art, but after his parents cut him off for dropping out of college to pursue his dreams, he became a Rent for Your ‘Rents employee to keep a roof over his head. Luckily, learning protocols like “Type C parents prefer quiet, kind, zero-PDA gestures” comes naturally to him.
When Chloe rents Drew, the mission is simple: convince her parents fake Drew is worthy of their approval so they’ll stop pressuring her to accept a proposal from Hongbo, the wealthiest (and slimiest) young bachelor in their tight-knit Asian American community.
But when Chloe starts to fall for the real Drew–who, unlike his fake persona, is definitely not ‘rent-worthy–her carefully curated life begins to unravel. Can she figure out what she wants before she loses everything?
Bookish Rising 