Given a terminal diagnosis (actually two of them) thirty-five year old Miguel Padilla decides he must accomplish something meaningful before death. He seizes on the idea of donating a kidney to save someone’s life.

Then he decides: why stop there? Why not donate… everything?

Why not indeed?
Started off great, then started to feel a bit weird. Giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The premise is great, the characters good, but the plot became too much for me and I started skipping pages to finish it. I kept thinking this was inspired by Springtime for Hitler in the Producers.

I enjoyed A Perfect Harvest, but I didn’t think it was quite as good as Heart Seizure, the first in this tetralogy.

It’s a good set-up: Miguel has a terminal diagnosis and decides that he wants to die by allowing a harvest of all his transplantable organs to allow others to live. This kicks off a colossal legal debate, plus all the usual irrational nonsense on social media...and the making of Miguel’s story into a musical.

Bill Fitzhugh is very good at satirizing all these things and he does it well here, with a good deal of wit and a very sharp eye for the hypocrisies and ethical evasiveness which surround the issue. I did, however have a problem with the narrative voice, that of a character whose involvement in the story doesn’t become clear for quite a while and which didn’t quite ring true to me. He addresses the reader directly quite often which can be effective, but this time I found it intrusive rather than adding to the story. The songs for the musical, while suitably tasteless, weren’t really quite as funny as they might have been, and some of the banter between Miguel and his friends didn’t work for me (although some of it was genuinely funny, to be fair).

I certainly wanted to read to the end of the book and there was enough here to round a 3.5-star rating up to 4, but I can’t recommend it unreservedly.

(My thanks to Farrago for an ARC via NetGalley.)

I started this book with anticipation, how would donating so many organs be done?
Miguel wants to give something of himself after a terrible diagnosis, it isn’t easy to donate all of your organs when you’re still alive!
The storyline has lots of humour and eccentric behaviour, for me I felt that it was drawn out and ineffective in keeping the reader’s interest.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A Perfect Harvest started off interesting enough; a guy diagnosed with two terminal illnesses at the same time decided to donate all his organs and seems like the only way to achieve that is to challenge the law. Then it took a weird turn and it was all about this musical based on his story. There weren't any depths to any of the characters, but it was filled with lots (and lots) of silly musical numbers. It's a quick, quirky read but if you are into weird musicals about organ harvesting then this book is for you!

Book Review for A Perfect Harvest

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I gave up on this book half way through. Its started off really well. A man given not just one terminal diagnosis b but two. Miguel then realizes he has nothing to show for his life. He comes up with a way to perform euthanasia by donating all his organs.
What happens then is a farce. Not a funny haha kind. The book for me just went on and on till i gave up. It had the makings of being a really good book but alas not for me.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC

Given a terminal diagnosis (actually two of them) thirty-five-year-old Miguel Padilla decides he must accomplish something meaningful before death. He seizes on the idea of donating a kidney to save someone’s life. Then he decides: why stop there? Why not donate… everything? This book is so exciting, it is funny, comedic but yet also plays on your heart strings. This is not the normal, type of genre I go for but I have thoroughly enjoyed it. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.