Going Bovine by Libba Bray Book Review

Going Bovine by Libba Bray, the winner of 2010 Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature, is a story of an average underachieving teenager faced with an extraordinary burden which sets him on an extraordinary journey to save the world and himself. Both outrageously funny and heartbreakingly sad, this is a meaty, multi-layered book to sink your teeth into. Part video game, part road trip, and part Wizard of Oz, Going Bovine is a truly remarkable book.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray is a teenage anthem full of angst and growing pains. 16-year-old Cameron is coasting through life thinking of only himself, smoking pot in the boys' room, doing just enough to get by. He is doing a crappy job at his part-time job at Buddha Burger that his parents made him take. Despite his many shortcomings, Cam is a likable character who is easy to relate to. His less than spectacular act is amplified by comparison to his perfect twin sister, Jenna. Jenna is special. She is pretty, popular, a straight A student, and head cheerleader. Cameron is perfecting the art of flying under the radar avoiding all maturity and responsibility. Cameron's parents are college professors who can't understand their son's C- grades or his attitude. More and more, Cameron lets down his friends, family, and most of all himself.

Cameron first blames his hallucinations and sudden changes in behavior on a bad batch of weed but eventually his parents send him to the doctor. Cameron and his family receive life changing news when he is diagnosed with a rare and deadly form of mad-cow disease. He is admitted to the hospital and suffers tests, pain, and humiliation which gives his sardonic attitude a run for the money. Help arrives in the form of Dulcie, a hot punk angel with white wings, torn fishnets, and pink hair. Dulcie tells Cameron of the mysterious Dr. X who let the disease and dark matter in through a wormhole to other worlds and has the cure. Cameron then sets off with his dwarf roommate Gonzo on an incredible journey to find the mysterious Dr. X and close the wormhole, saving the world and himself. The journey is a puzzle connected to the jumbled milieu filling his mind with strong parallels to video games and Don Quixote which his mother reads to him in the hospital.

Cameron and Gonzo board a Greyhound in Texas and head to New Orleans to start their adventure. They fight monsters with a famous jazzman, save a yard gnome suffering indignities, try to solve the mysteries of the universe with a group of scientists, and join a happy cult as they wind their way to Florida. In Florida they attend a rockin' TV beach house party where what Cam thinks is his dream comes true. Will he make it back to the beginning in time? Can Cameron save himself? Fulfill his duties and have no regrets? Is it all just a hallucination?

Going Bovine by Libba Bray cannot be classified into a single genre. Like a teenage mind this book cannot be easily defined, it contains elements of mystery, adventure, drama, comedy, tragedy, and a touch of love story. Although this book is advertised for grades 8 and up, the complicated message laden novel may be better suited for upper grades.