Permanent Record by Mary H. K. Choi

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pablo is an NYU drop out and is now working the graveyard shift at his local bodega, selling overpriced goods to the posh neighbours. He's in over his head with debt, dogging credit collectors' phone calls and letters, and doesn't know how he's going to come up with his next rent payment.

During a snowstorm, at 5:00 a.m., pop sensation Leanna Smart wanders into the shop. At first Pablo doesn't recognize her, she is by herself with no entourage in sight. There is instant chemistry and soon the two are involved in an intense relationship that has to be kept on the down-low—Pablo puts everything on hold to be with Leanna.

But then the world finds out...

Permanent Record is a character study and comment on society's warped obsession with celebrity culture and social media. True to Choi, her characterization is the perfect combination of complex and endearing. Pablo is an interesting, layered, and dynamic character with an affinity for creating unique pairings of junk food. With Lee, we get a glimpse of celebrity—how the public obsesses over them, the relentless machine of the paparazzi, and how image is everything no matter how fake. And in this artificial world, Pab and Lee's relationship is real and actually quite beautiful.

New York City is so much more than the setting. It becomes a living, breathing character in this story. Choi's sweeping descriptions of the city capture the grit and beauty—even if you have never been to NYC, you can visualize it because of her writing.

Choi strikes the right balance of teenage angst and awkwardness against a beautiful love story. Readers will love this cast as well as this whirlwind affair. Congratulations, Mary, on another fab book!

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. Mary's debut novel Emergency Contact was a New York Times bestseller.

Choi grew up in Hong Kong and Texas and now lives in New York. 

Emergency Contact by Mary H. K. Choi

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Although her grades were decent, and she had a boyfriend (albeit a not very attentive one), Penny Lee found high school to be incredibly mundane.  Penny wants to be a writer and is looking forward to going to college, even if it is only an hour away.  Maybe she can writer herself a new life, one that is not only more interesting, but one without an overbearing mother that dresses too young and tries too hard to be her friend.

Sam is a mess.  He sleeps on a mattress on the floor of a spare room over the coffee shop where he works.  Sam is an aspiring filmmaker that can't afford to finish school and he is also struggling to get over a bad break up.  

When Sam and Penny meet through Jude who is Sam's ex-niece and Penny's new roommate, their first encounter is incredibly awkward.  In spite of that, the two exchange numbers and eventually text their way to a relationship where they share everything with each other.  It is much easier to type their fears, dreams, hopes, and anxieties than to say them face-to-face.  Sam and Penny become each other's "emergency contact".

Choi pens some quirky, awkward, and angst ridden characters that at times seem too old in the way they conduct themselves, but it totally works.  She adds just the right element of conflict and the pace of the story is spot on.  This book is in the same vein as Eleanor & Park and I can see why fans of Rainbow Rowell also like this book so much.  Both authors have a flair for this genre and write complicated, yet endearing characters that stay with the reader long after the last page.

My only criticism is with the timing, I'm a little confused.  Jude met Sam when she was seven.  She had an iPad.  iPads were introduced in 2010, so if she is seven in 2010, she would be 15 in 2018.  How is she old enough to go to college? Did I miss something?  

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. Mary's debut novel is Emergency Contact. 

Choi grew up in Hong Kong and Texas and now lives in New York.