Audio Book Review: Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Publisher: Listening Libaray
Publishing Date: September 22nd, 2009
Genre: YA
Hours: 15 hrs 8 mins
Narrator: Erik Davies
Source: borrowed from the library

Rating: 2.5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:
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.

My Review: 
I had heard so many great things about this book and I knew that it had won an award so I put a hold on this audiobook at the library.  I was really looking forward to this and I have to admit that I was a little disappointed.  It was fun and quirky and told a good story but for some reason I just couldn't connect with it.  It may be because I knew the entire time what the outcome of the book would be. 

***Spoiler Alert***
I think what I didn't like about this novel is that it was just one giant hallucination sequence.  The entire time I just kept thinking what is the point of the novel.  I don't know why this bothered me so much.  I usually don't mind if I know the ending of a novel but for some reason I really found it irritating with this novel.

Again, I don't think that my opinion on this novel means that everyone is going to dislike this novel.  I think that there are a lot of great things about this novel.  First of all, Bray is a great writer.  She can weave a story and create worlds that are so imaginative and full of satire.  I do admit to being pulled into the writing while listening to this audiobook. 
I also think that the cast of characters were hilarious.  You have a boy with Mad Cow Disease, a little person, and a talking gnome who are all on a huge road trip that may or may not involve aliens and angels.  The characters were well thought out and at times I found myself laughing out loud. I also like that this was told in the point of view of a male.  Most novels are told in the point of a view of a female so this was refreshing. 
The narrator of this novel does a good job of capturing the essence of this novel.  I didn't find him distracting and I thought that he put life into the novel.
Again with all these positive things to say for some reason I just didn't get into the novel as much as I was hoping to.  For this reason alone I gave the novel 2.5 stars out of 5 but I do think that many will enjoy this novel and I can see why this novel was given an award.