A review by catalinamreads
Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi

3.5

This is the fourth book written entirely in a man's POV I read this year and I hope it won't be my last. I enjoy getting new perspectives on things, but I had my issues with Pab, the main character of this book. He was the type of man who drowned in self-loathing but did nothing to change his life and thought the whole world was out to get him. I've seen the same type of character in Good Material by Dolly Alderton, but at least Pab was only 19 or 20 years old so it was understandable. Most people don't have their lives figured out at that age.

I gave it such a high rating mostly because of the story, but I would've loved it if we had Lee's POV too because she was definitely an interesting character. I loved their relationship and how she somehow helped him along the way. The open ending was another reason why I increased the rating.

I wanted to like this book more and while listening to the audio, I kept hoping it would get better. I figured it would be a character-driven book mostly so I expected it to be slow. I enjoyed it, but in the end, it was too low-key for me and nothing I hadn't read about before. I think this book would've worked more as a coming-of-age indie movie.