It was pure serendipity.
Slogging through my first draft of Book 1 (which I was convinced was a masterwork but later learned was crap), I found the Houston Writers Guild and joined a critique group. As I read through the work of the other four authors, I smugly thought: Okay, I’m better. Yep, better. Is this even in English? And then I read Alex Perry’s draft.
Holy smokes. I’m out of my league.
Alex was working through her drafts of Pighearted, and they were great. Funny, poignant, imaginative beyond belief. No one in the group was surprised when she got picked up by a major publisher, Little Brown and Company.
The book is billed as a mid-grade (8-12 years, 3rd – 7th grade). I’m much older than that, even if I’m not necessarily more mature, and I loved the book.
Putting it through the Feral-o-meter, the story comes in at a whopping 9. Why not a 10? I don’t know. I’ve never given a 10, and this is the first 9 to hit the blog.
The premise is that in the near future, Jeremiah, a twelve-year-old, has a fatal heart condition. The doctors genetically modify a pig by adding some human genes to make the pig’s heart a better transplant option for Jeremiah. They get more than they bargained for.
Perry’s tale alternates points of view between the Pig (J6) and the Boy (Jeremiah). The Pig is a hoot.
Jeremiah’s family have to raise the pig to full-grown to get the heart the correct size for the procedure. Jeremiah’s younger sister forms a close bond with the pet while Mom and Dad try to make sure that everyone understands that J6 is Not A Pet. They know what will happen to J6 after his heart is harvested.
From a science perspective, the story is a strong 7. Perry did her research and made the tale as true as possible, while pushing some of the consequences. Her Author’s Note makes it clear that there are ethical questions that go beyond the science.
In 2017, scientists injected human cells into fetal pigs. This year, doctors transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a 57-year-old man with a fatal heart condition. The concept behind Perry’s book is not fiction.
I know she’s working on some new stuff and I can’t wait to read it. Check her out at alexperrybooks.com