All The Perfect Days by Michael Thompson | Audiobook Review
“That soft summary scent of Gen, orange blossoms and lemon. A smell he’d be quite happy to float in for the rest of his days.” – All The Perfect Days
Do we really need to know how many days we have left to start living them? That is the question lingering at the heart of All The Perfect Days by Michael Thompson. Romance, magical realism, second chances… I was so ready for whatever ride this was about to take me on.
I have to admit, after finishing this story I had to sit for a while, thinking over all the details, trying to find meaning in all the little things I noted down. What I found I resonated the most with was an orange.
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All The Perfect Days Synopsis (with spoilers)
Family GP Charlie Knight feels like he’s not making the most out of his life. He’s in his thirties, still in the small town he grew up in (where he knows literally everyone), unsure whether he’s staying there out of loyalty or fear. And just as he starts considering escape, he develops a wild gift: he can see exactly how many days his patients have left to live.
Charlie’s gift feels less like magic and more like a burden. When he sees the numbers, the world around him seems to lose all its color. Life turns into a countdown.
And then there’s Gen.
Charlie and Gen share a history; a complicated and unfinished romantic history. When he learns she has just eighteen days left to live, I audibly gasped.
Charlie, desperate to run away and make drastic changes to his life, drops everything. Not in desperation, but in recognition. He chooses to spend those 18 days with her. He chooses her warmth over career ambition.
All The Perfect Days Review
This story is such an intriguing concept and one that pulled me in immediately. The execution, however, felt slower than I expected. The first half in particular moved at a pace that sometimes made it hard for me to stay fully engaged.
However, the narrator did a wonderful job conveying Charlie’s emotions throughout!
What I loved most about this book is the way Charlie describes Gen’s scent. He calls it a soft, summery blend of orange blossoms and lemon. A scent he’d be happy to float in for the rest of his days.
That detail really did something to me.
While the numbers of impeding death strip color from Charlie’s world, Gen brings it back. She is warmth and light for him. Even on the morning she is supposed to be gone, when Charlie reaches for her and finds only a cold bed, the story does something beautiful. Before he sees her, he smells her.
The breeze. it carried something with it. Something familiar. Something summary. Like Orange blossoms and lemons, and drinking cocktails in the sun. A scent coming from next door. A scent he loved.
He recognizes her presence before his eyes can confirm it. I loved that choice. I loved that hope arrived not with a big and dramatic reveal, but with something as simple as scent.
All The Perfect Days Final Thoughts
When I was sitting with my thoughts and notes, audiobook stopped at 100%, my son proudly showed me this orange creature he had made. Two literal oranges glued together, a painted on smily face, and pipe cleaners for arms. Eventually, I reminded him we’d have to throw it away.
Panicked, he asked, “How long? Five days? Seven days?” I couldn’t help but smile and tell him to just enjoy all the days he had with it.
It didn’t seem real, this tangible metaphor from the universe, perfectly capturing the heart of this story.
After all, ignoring the countdown and savoring the present moment with an orange (or, rather, the scent of an orange blossom and lemon) is exactly what Charlie did.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
