Having been such a big fan of Emergency Contact, seriously people, go read it, I was desperate to get my hands on Permanent Record. I am so thrilled the universe heard my pleas and so excited to be on the blog tour today for yet another fabulous Choi book!
Summary
After a year of college, Pablo is working at his local twenty-four-hour deli, selling overpriced snacks to brownstone yuppies. He’s dodging calls from the student loan office and he has no idea what his next move is.
Leanna Smart’s life so far has been nothing but success. Age eight: Disney Mouseketeer; Age fifteen: first #1 single on the US pop chart; Age seventeen, *tenth* #1 single; and now, at Age nineteen…life is a queasy blur of private planes, weird hotel rooms, and strangers asking for selfies on the street.
When Leanna and Pab randomly meet at 4:00 a.m. in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn, they both know they can’t be together forever. So, they keep things on the down-low and off Instagram for as long as they can. But it takes about three seconds before the world finds out…
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
The strongest part of Permanent Record that stuck with me, is that this book defied my expectations. Not only does this book start with a precious meet cute moment, but it’s not only about this love story line. It’s more than that. It’s a story about personal discovery, our own future, representation, and family. In a world full of expectations and chosen paths, the fear and pressure of not knowing what is next, what to do, can be crushing. That’s definitely one of the reasons why Permanent Record stuck with me – I’m in that exact moment now.
Because it’s universal, not only to one moment in time. Pablo is dealing with the transition after high school, the moments of adulthood and credit card debt, and those questions about our career. But it’s that feeling that keeps coming back to us as we look up from our path to wonder how we got there. Permanent Record is a book dedicated to personal discovery not only in the sense of our future, but also in the sense of our place within our family, with our heritage, and the expectations and disappointment within that. Not knowing which identity we can claim. Both Pablo and Leanna are biracial and their feelings of being in between are achingly relatable.
Throughout Permanent Record, we are asked about authenticity, expectations, and mistakes. What, of what we are seeing, is truly authentic? Is it just a matter of our perceptions and expectations? How to we fix, recognize, or remedy our mistakes when we’ve been seeing only what we want to see? Amid this world of social media and images, connections and disappearances, what do we hold on to at the end of the day? Being torn between knowing what you want to do and the terror of reaching for it.
Sometimes we become so caught up in something, we are swept away. Faced not with our best, but with the mistakes we’re bound to make when we can’t see beyond this moment. When we are piled underneath mountains, and we have a moment of clarity wondering how we got there. In this way, Permanent Record is story for all of us who question our direction. It’s full of hard truths when we’ve become complacent, or when things have become too hard. But it’s also a story about figuring out who we are.
Find Permanent Record on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound & The Book Depository.
About the Author
Mary H.K. Choi is a writer for The New York Times, GQ, Wired, and The Atlantic. She has written comics for Marvel and DC, as well as a collection of essays called Oh, Never Mind. Her debut novel Emergency Contact was a New York Times bestseller. She is the host of Hey, Cool Job!, a podcast about jobs and Hey, Cool Life!, a podcast about mental health and creativity. Mary grew up in Hong Kong and Texas and now lives in New York. Follow her on Twitter @ChoitotheWorld.
Tour Schedule
August 26th – Vicky Who Reads
August 27th – Adventures of a Book Junkie
August 28th – Utopia State of Mind
August 29th – Read by Tiffany
August 30th – Rich in Color
August 31st – Your Tita Kate
September 2nd – Books on Pointe
September 3rd – Andi’s ABCs
September 4th – Book Scents
September 5th – Twirling Pages
September 6th – Bookshelves & Paperbacks
September 9th – YA Bibliophile
September 10th – Mary Had A Little Book Blog
September 11th – Chasing Faerytales
September 12th – Nicole’s Novel Reads
September 13th – Mel to the Any
You always write amazing reviews, Lili! I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read this book or not, but now I think I will. I love books about personal discovery and family, so this actually sounds like something I would really enjoy.
Awwee thank you <3 yes! I have come to expect that now from a Choi book and this one was deff different than EMERGENCY CONTACT, but I liked that it surprised me!