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.
I think I know what you mean in this review. I haven't read Going Bovine (although it's on my TBR list) but I sometimes have the same feeling about spoof or parody novels - I wonder what's the point. I think sometimes you really do have to be in right mood for certain novels.
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