Going Bovine: Entry One

Life. What a beautiful thing. We exist through one of the most complicated processes known to man and sometimes we take that for granted. For our main character Cameron Smith; that sometimes is all the time.

The cover

He - like others his age - is an awkward, misunderstood, and drug-addicted teenager in Texas struggling through both high school and a social life. And just when he (and myself) thought it couldn't get any worse; Cameron is diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a disease that affects the brain and slowly makes the victim go insane. In other words, Cameron has the human equivalent of mad cow disease. And, to top it all off, there is no cure. Unless...

Cameron gets a visit from a messenger angel named Dulcie. Along with showing off her spoon-balancing skills, Dulcie revels that there is indeed a cure for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, yet it will require him to go on a cross-country journey through the United States to find a mysterious Dr. X and not only same himself, but the world from a wormhole that will arrive in two weeks. Cameron, with help from a short, video game loving, classmate who just so happened to have a hospital bed right next to Cameron, Gonzo, and later also with a Norse god viking yard gnome, Balder, go on a journey to save both himself and the world before he "goes bovine."

This book really reminds me of the timeless classic Don Quixote, in its over-the-top plot and presentation. In fact, Going Bovine even references Don Quixote by making it a school assignment for Cameron near the beginning. It truly is something special, and I could not wait to find out what trouble Cameron and Gonzo get in.