4

Permanent Record

Mary H.K. Choi
Book
August
2024

Review:

There's something about this book I just can't describe. Like it is so peaceful and true while also being widely unrealistic. I wanted to kill the main character to satisfy the nostalgia of the Story. His constant screw-ups annoyed me, but that was what made it great. We grew together within the book. His life figured itself out, and while it definitely wasn't a happily ever after, it was a happy ending. He doesn't get the Girl or the fabulously glitzy life, but he gets to be proud of himself. He gets to be flawed. I truthfully have never read a book that made me feel this way before. A book that was a life.

Trigger Warnings:
Anxiety, Depression, Alcohol Consumption, Recreational Drug Use, Cancer Mentioned, and Financial Difficulties

Synopsis From Book:

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…
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