Going Bovine

Crazy stuff!

This really did nothing for me and seemed really long.

I can see why this won the Printz: for creativity alone. At the end, I honestly couldn't decide whether I liked it or not, but it was still a fascinating page turner where I was constantly impressed with Libba Bray's writing, language, and imagination. I wouldn't put it in a junior high (too many drugs, sex, and fucks) but I would surely give it to high schoolers, and recommend 8th graders to find it. This is a great getting-boys-who-don't-like-to-read to read book.

This was hallucinatory and weird.

A weird story about a HS student with a terminal disease who has to come to terms with who he is and who he wishes he could be. And getting the chance to be that person, even if it's not exactly how one imagined it would happen.

I want to like this book. The thoughts and concepts explored in this book are questions that I've had before: What is happiness? Why do difficult things happen to people? Why is this life unfair and what does it all mean?

However, the book itself is just not entertaining or funny enough for me to recommend this or rate this better. It just wasn't for me and I think there is a better way that these questions and themes could have been explored.

I loved this.

While this book has an interesting premise, it did not do enough to hold my attention. I thought that this book would be about how a boy's delusions from the human version of Mad-Cow-Disease would help him to become a more responsible adult. This idea is not unfounded. We see in the first few chapters that he, Cameron, is irresponsible, missing work and not working to help his parents around the house. Then, it takes the mysterious turn of becoming a hero's epic journey,with him and his friend's attempt to save the world. Many of the supporting characters might have been interesting in a different context, but with this plot,they were uninteresting. Cameron's friend who is afraid of death, Gonzo, annoyed me to no end. And the lawn Nome who is supposed to be a Norse god just seems out of place. The ‘evil' presence that occasionally confronts the pair of them didn't seem like a true villain to me. It just seemed like he stood there saying “Oooooo look at how scary I am!!!”, which I thought was just lame.
Overall, I suppose that this proves that just because this book won the Printz award, doesn't mean it is one I will enjoy.