Permanent Record
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4.3 • 28 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times bestseller!
“Smart and funny…warm and rewarding.” —Booklist (starred review)
“A compelling and quirky tale of love and negotiating early adulthood in New York City.” —School Library Journal
From the New York Times bestselling author of Emergency Contact, which Rainbow Rowell called “smart and funny,” comes a “captivating” (The New York Times) romance about how social media influences relationships every day.
On paper, college dropout Pablo Rind doesn’t have a whole lot going for him. His graveyard shift at a twenty-four-hour deli in Brooklyn is a struggle. Plus, he’s up to his eyeballs in credit card debt. Never mind the state of his student loans.
Pop juggernaut Leanna Smart has enough social media followers to populate whole continents. The brand is unstoppable. She graduated from child stardom to become an international icon, and her adult life is a queasy blur of private planes, step-and-repeats, aspirational hotel rooms, and strangers screaming for her just to notice them.
When Leanna and Pablo meet at 5:00 a.m. at the bodega in the dead of winter it’s absurd to think they’d be A Thing. But as they discover who they are, who they want to be, and how to defy the deafening expectations of everyone else, Lee and Pab turn to each other. Which, of course, is when things get properly complicated.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Mary H. K. Choi (Emergency Contact) has a knack for capturing that extremely confusing post-high-school, pre-adulthood stage. In her second novel, we meet Pablo, a character who instantly reminded us of that smart, hilarious friend who keeps making shockingly bad life choices. While working the overnight shift at a Brooklyn bodega, Pablo bonds with a girl over her impressive snack selection...before realizing she’s pop superstar Leanna Smart. As Pablo gets sucked into Leanna’s dazzling orbit, his problems (and bills) keep piling up. Permanent Record is a fun, binge-worthy read about the universal experience of trying to figure out who you are as a person and what makes you happy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
New Yorker Pablo, 19, is down and out of luck. He's dropped out of NYU, works the graveyard shift at a Brooklyn bodega/health-food store, and is over his head in debt. But on the night that charismatic pop star Leanna Smart walks into his shop, wearing a "Morticia-Adams-type dress" with white boots, he forgets his worries. The two are deeply attracted to one another, and he's soon involved in an intense, secret romance that has him jet-setting around the globe and putting his responsibilities, as well as his relationship with friends and family, on hold. Although the outcome of the whirlwind love affair is fairly predictable, Choi (Emergency Contact) provides a lively cast of characters, especially the members of Pablo's eclectic family: his highly driven Korean-American mother; his less-directed Pakistani-American father, whose latest endeavor is to become a playwright; and his scheming, enterprising middle schooler brother. If the conclusion of the novel seems rushed, the rising action filled with conflict, captivating events, and authentic-sounding, often humorous dialogue will win readers, and teens like Pablo, who are unsure who they want to be, will relate to his dilemmas. Ages 14 up.
Customer Reviews
Cutie main character!!!
I liked this writing style better than Emergency Contact (Choi’s first YA novel) and I loved the main character, Pablo. Overall I don’t think this had to be a story with a pop star love interest but I enjoyed the life lessons it relays.
Endearing, funny Pablo!
H.K does a phenomenal job of illustrating the real feelings and anxiety people experience every single day of life, but especially when we are transfixed by another person. The main character, Pablo, is lowkey a jerk, but is super cute and endearing and you find yourself rooting for him and laughing with him along the way. I actually prefer this writing style and version of storytelling to Emergency Contact. Overall just a super cute story with a really interesting main character.