Going Bovine

Bray, Libba. Going Bovine. 2009. 480p. ISBN 978-0-375-89376-6, Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves and as an eBook on Overdrive.

During a trip to Disney World when he was 5, Cameron Smith jumped out of the It’s a Small World ride to join the land of the Innuit. At the time, he and his twin sister Jenna were best friends and did everything together. That trip was the highlight of Cameron’s life. Now at sixteen, Cameron is a loser. He’s failing school, he’s high at least once a week, he has a lame job at Buddha Burger, he doesn’t have a girlfriend and he has no prospects whatsoever, and his sister Jenna hates him. She’s one of the popular and smart kids at school.

His parents are concerned about him, but the only thing that lights Cameron up is the Great Tremolo, a Portuguese singer who uses a recorder. The music is so bad Cameron can’t get enough of it. When Cameron begins to see hallucinations, he first ascribes it to the drugs he’s doing, but soon the fire giants that haunt him feel more real. A series of medical tests later, Cameron is discovered suffering from Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, otherwise known as mad cow disease. Always fatal, Cameron now finds himself in a hospital bed with no hope.

That’s when Dulcie shows up. An angel he saw at Buddha Burger, Dulcie tells Cameron that he must leave the hospital and take a road trip to find Dr. X. Dr. X discovered how to travel to other realities, and he unwittingly unleashed the fire giants on this world. Only Dr. X can provide Cameron with a cure. Accompanied with Gonzo, a high school acquaintance who occupied the hospital bed next to him, Cameron must now cross the United States looking for random events that seem out of place. Chased by men of the United Snow Globe Corporation, Cameron and Gonzo will rescue a Nordic god named Balder currently caught in the body of a lawn gnome, discover great music, find religion, meet the love of their lives (at least, they think), all the while with the fire giants and the Wizard pursuing them. Can Cameron find Dr. X before it’s too late?

A humorous and sometimes confusing book, Cameron never seems to know whether he is still hallucinating in the hospital or whether he is in fact traveling on the road. Fans of King Dork will appreciate the musical references and the contemporary language Cameron uses to explain away his mediocrity and his disease.