After a ballsy plan to attend NYU goes awry, Pablo ends up working at his local 24 hour bodega serving New York's finest yuppie customers. With student loan bills piling up at an apartment he can barely afford, and with no idea where to go next, Pablo is barely skating by. The one thing he has going for him is the mildly successful Instagram account where he pairs shoes with obscure snack foods. Every day for Pab is more of the same, until wildly successful pop star Leanna Smart stumbles into his bodega in the middle of a snow storm. Her life is a tornado of private planes, crazy fans, and lonely hotel rooms. When Pab and Lee are thrown together by complete chance they know it would be crazy to let their brief encounter go beyond just one night, but you know how it goes when you're young and dumb.
I hit a roadblock a few chapters into this book, and because I started it so long ago I can't remember exactly why. The story got off to a bit of a slow start in order to set the tone and dig into the many problems facing Pablo when we meet him; without sugarcoating it, he's a bit of a mess. I've yet to see a story handle what it's like to be 20 with immense debt looming over your head and dealing with crippling self-doubt the way Permanent Record does. There's an important conversation happening about the "prestige" of attending college and what it truly means to fail. Sure, this is a YA romance of sorts, but not in the traditional sense. Mary H.K. Choi presents two flawed and imperfect characters with their own needs and desires that will frustrate the hell out of you (mostly because they're human). In a lot of ways, Leanna and Pablo fit into the stereotypes they represent perfectly, but Choi creates moments to challenge those preconceived notions. As a reader you get to see them at their highest highs and lowest lows. The biggest disappointment of this book was the romance. Maybe it was my mistake for assuming the connection between Leanna and Pablo would be the most important part of the story, so if you're looking for a feel good love story then this isn't going to fit the bill. There's no way to make it not sound cheesy, but Permanent Record is more of a story about learning to love yourself, flaws and all. We get an unobstructed view into the chaos of Pablo and Leanna's lives as they try to figure out what is going to make them happy at the end of the day. Their story may have played out more believably as a friendship instead of a romance considering how little time they actually spend together throughout the book. I appreciated the narrative turn this book took in the direction of Pablo finally figuring out what he wanted to do and taking responsibility for his reckless decisions, but it was too little too late for me. I couldn't bring myself to care much about Pablo and Leanna unfortunately. Both of them were living in their own fantasy worlds which contributed a lot to their existing problems. There were more than a few times when I wanted to pull my hair out due to the forced romance and ridiculous decisions between the two of them. If Pablo would have started to come around closer to the halfway mark this would have been a stronger story about turning setbacks into opportunities. It took over 3/4 of the book for me to feel sympathy for Pablo and my feelings toward Leanna are still very up in the air. The secondary characters are definitely a redeeming factor in this story though. Pablo's roommates are the kind of friends you'd love to have and his family was lovably absurd during the moments they shared. Overall, I give this a 3/5 stars. The story was fine and it was a quick read you could take to the beach (I just happened to shelve it for many months before I wanted to pick it back up again). I didn't hate it and I didn't love it, but there were aspects of the story I really enjoyed even if it was only briefly.
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