Saturday Read: Going Bovine, by Libba Bray

When I first saw “Going Bovine” on Amazon.com, to be honest, I was a bit scared of the cover. A creepy cow carrying an equally creepy garden gnome? Needless to say, along with feeling frightened, I was also intrigued.

“Going Bovine” tells the story of Cameron Smith, a 16-year-old loner and somewhat loser at his high school. Cameron starts seeing visions one day of fire giants and other things that clearly aren’t there. His parents think he is “disturbed” and bring him to a therapist, but when that doesn’t work they finally cave and go to the doctor’s office. Cameron is diagnosed with Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. For the majority of you going “huh,” it is also known as Mad Cow Disease.  A terminal illness.

Cameron is immediately admitted to the hospital, where his hallucinations continue, including visits from a punky angel named Dulcie.

One of Cameron’s classmates, a little person named Gonzo is also admitted to the hospital and placed in the same room as Cameron. Shortly after this, Dulcie comes to Cameron and tells him that he must go on a roadtrip to find someone named Dr. X. He has created a time machine and is the one who brought the fire giants and all of Cameron’s hallucinations back to Earth. Dulcie tells Cameron that Dr. X also has the cure for his disease and that when they find him, he will be saved.

Cameron convinces Gonzo to go on this roadtrip and they embark on a journey of a lifetime. Along the way, they pick up Balder, a Norse god in the form of a yard gnome; 3 rowdy college students going to the YA!TV party house; a group of evil Snow Globe makers; a band named after physics principles; and a trumpet-playing hero.

OK, so the trip is clearly a hallucination, but the entire journey was entertaining, thrilling and hilarious!

Libba Bray is a funny, thoughtful and accomplished writer. She seamlessly integrated Cameron’s life into his (mental) adventure and the entire thing really drew me in. In addition, she created a character that is at once both hard to love and hard not to. This book definitely pulled at my heartstrings and made me grateful for my life (a mark of a good novel!).

All in all, I was completely impressed by “Going Bovine” by Libba Bray and LOVED it. Despite it being 480 pages, I plowed through and enjoyed every minute. The ending, as well, is simply magical and made me tear up. If you’ve read it, you know what I mean.

Kudos to Bray for writing such a fabulous novel and I hope everyone will pick it up, regardless of the fact that it resides in teen section.