Can Cameron find what he’s looking for?
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.
I am on the home stretch of Molly Horan’s list of 15 Young Adult Books Every Adult Should Read. The next book I read from the list is Going Bovine by Libba Bray.
So I just finished this book, like two minutes ago and have a definite book hangover right now. I don’t even know how to process what I just read. The story was excellent, characters were brilliant and well thought out, the setting was great and the adventure was real. The book starts with your average kid who is just doing the bare minimum to pass through life. And then he learns that he is dying of Mad Cow disease of all things. The interesting thing about Mad Cow is that it makes you go a little crazy, like having hallucinations crazy. That is what makes the story so interesting, and in fact it made the story what it is.
The whole time I was reading this book I knew that the adventure was all in his mind and yet I still had hope that there was a cure for him at the end. It wasn’t until the last chapters that the book that I realized for real he was not going to get better and it wasn’t about finding a cure, it was about living life to the fullest. It made me want to go out and have an adventure because you never know what could happen to you. I thought this book was just great. It wasn’t cheesy or overly sad as it could have been, given the subject matter.
I both loved and hated when Cameron would slip in and out of his hallucinations. When he would come back to reality it sort of brought you back to the realization that he was dying and this grand adventure is all in his head. And that his family had to watch him die a slow agonizing death. That was hard. I also grew to love Dulcie. I wasn’t sure what the purpose of her character was at first, besides starting the journey. But she was more than a supporting character. She ended up being his peace in the end. And that is beautiful. I can only hope that there is someone that is there to bring us peace at the end of our lives. There was not I did not like about this book. Of course I hated that he died but really that was not a surprise. I give a big thumbs up to this book. Good job, Libba Bray.
4.5 Bards
Moving! 