Going Bovine

Libba Bray

Sep 2009 · Sold by Delacorte Press

About this ebook

From the author of the Gemma Doyle trilogy and The Diviners series, this groundbreaking New York Times bestseller and winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for literary excellence is "smart, funny, and layered," raves Entertainment Weekly.

All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school—and life in general—with a minimum of effort. It’s not a lot to ask. But that’s before he’s given some bad news: he’s sick and he’s going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure—if he’s willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America . . . into the heart of what matters most.

From acclaimed author Libba Bray comes a dark comedic journey that poses the questions: Why are we here? What is real? What makes microwave popcorn so good? Why must we die? And how do we really learn to live? 

"A hilarious and hallucinatory quest."—The New York Times

"Sublimely surreal."—People

"Libba Bray's fabulous new book will, with any justice, be a cult classic. The kind of book you take with you to college, in the hopes that your roommate will turn out to have packed their own copy, too. Reading it is like discovering an alternate version of The Phantom Tollbooth, where Holden Caulfield has hit Milo over the head and stolen his car, his token, and his tollbooth. There's adventure and tragedy here, a sprinkling of romance, musical interludes, a battle-ready yard gnome who's also a Norse God, and practically a chorus line of physicists. Which reminds me: will someone, someday, take Going Bovine and turn it into a musical, preferably a rock opera? I want the sound track, the program, the T-shirt, and front row tickets."—Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

Ratings and reviews

Before he has ever had a first date or anything to really care about, sixteen year old Cameron is smacked with the deadly diagnosis of mad cow disease. His only hope of survival is taking a chance at becoming a lunatic on a fantastic journey. Dulcie, a punk angel guides him on a mission to save the world with Gonzo, a dwarf, and a yard gnome that comes to life as the Viking God Balder. These three set off across the country in search of the elusive Dr. X, a time traveler that has figured out how to save the world from imminent doom. Meanwhile Cameron runs from the Fire Giants and Wizard of Reckoning who are tracking him down to kill him. On the journey, he ends up visiting symbolic places and truly living his life. Peeks of the hospital interrupt Cameron's journey, and in the end he comes face to face with the Wizard of Reckoning. This fantasy in the near future requires the reader to suspend disbelief until the very end, but the outcome is sadly expected. Bray leaves loose ends for the reader to ponder. Bray writes convincingly as a disaffected teen, using "WTF", and "Really", with smatterings of profanity, and does such a good job that Cameron is borderline annoying.

It is a pretty good book but the end depresses me;just because it doesn't show the main character really learning its really in his head and I just don't think it would be a good book if the person did not exist. But I supposed that can be contradicted because there is a big difference between living and existing.

This book started out really good. I thought it was funny, quirky, and entertaining. Them at about a forth of the way in I quit reading it because the story slowed way down and it became confusing and uninteresting to me. I wouldn't recommend this one.......

About the author

Libba Bray is the New York Times bestselling author of the Gemma Doyle trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing); the Michael L. Printz Award-winning Going Bovine; Beauty Queens, an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist; and The Diviners series. She is originally from Texas but makes her home in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, son, and two sociopathic cats. Visit her at www.libbabray.com and at @libbabray on Twitter and Instagram.