Having been an obsessed fan of the Gemma Doyle Trilogy (one of the most inventive and beautiful stories ever written, but that's just my opinion.) I knew I had to buy Bovine. Actually, I knew about this book a year or so before it came out. (YouTube is a wonderful thing, and Libba Bray and Maureen Johnson make very funny videos.) That being said, I had high hopes for this fourth book of Ms Bray's.Going Bovine is a really kooky concept. Cameron Smith, the main character and story narrator, is dying of the human form of Mad Cow Disease. But in order to stop his death and find an ultimate cure for his sickness, he must go on a cross-country journey and save the universe from "The Wizard of Reckoning" and his "Fire Giants".It sounds extremely odd and bizarre and it is. But it's also so much more. The novel is laced with hallucinations and lucidity all at once. What is happening to Cameron could be a fantasy or it could be real, we aren't to know. I'd like to think it's all a dream, but I feel it's much darker than that. The boy is dying and that's the sad part.Cameron is such a vivid character. Libba Bray has the voice and mind of a teenaged boy down to a T. He's perfectly constructed, his thought process and his feelings are written flawlessly. He's also an outsider when the novel first begins. Cameron is pretty much friendless, he has a twin sister who's popular and basically ignores him. His parents are on the verge of a divorce (Dad's cheating on Mom with a younger woman.). The home front isn't a nice place and neither is school. He spends his time getting high and thinking about boning the mean, popular girl, Staci Johnson, whom he hates but his body betrays him on her hotness. In his sixteen years, Cameron hasn't accomplished much, nor has he made any worth-while teen memories.Enter Mad Cow Disease. There is no cure and quickly our Cameron is going insane, his brain becoming Swiss Cheese as every second passes. And then we the readers, meet the angel Dulcie. She's a punk-rocker with hot pink hair and fluffy wings (which she spray paints different patterns and designs, pretty rad if you ask me.) She tells Cameron that he must go on a road trip with a friend and find a man by the name of Dr. X and help him save the world from destruction. If he can accomplish this, Dr. X will cure Cameron and everything will be wonderful. However, this is no easy adventure, it's extremely hard and Cameron is stuck with Gonzo, a boy from school who's a hypochondriac. And insanely funny.Each chapter is vividly painted with a new thrilling experience in Cameron-Land. In going on this expedition, Cameron Smith creates a lifetime of memories in his own insanity.The book reminds me of a lot of different things combined into one gigantic anthology of awesomeness. A little bit of Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, The Wizard of Oz, and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher and the Rye (Cameron has a Holden Caulfield approach.). In fact Bovine has a big similarity to Catcher, both have two different variations of reality. While one thing is happening to Cameron, something totally different is happening in the real world surrounding Cameron. Very much like Holden's world.It's a great book. Libba Bray has written another modern-day classic. Thank you.
