Going Bovine by Bray

I read this book because it received top honors for a teen book of 2009. The first chapter or so are an angry rant by a teen boy - Cameron. The language and the anger may be a hook for some teen readers but I am an adult who had trouble getting past this. The story changes when Cameron hallucinates that he is fighting fire giants - scary. At first it is believed he is doing serious drugs. Until he has a seizure and winds up in the hospital with a very critical condition. From here on, Cameron lives in an unreal world of fire giants and quests to find a strange hero, Dr. X to save him, led by a pink haired angel named Dulcie and accompanied by Gonzo, his dwarf, hypochondriac roommate. Even though we know the quest is in Cameron's unconscious mind it reads like a fantasy and is exciting, fast, easy to get involved in. This is a very modern re imagined Man of La Mancha retelling. It doesn't hurt to go to wikipedia and look up the summary of the musical to see the connections and differences. I quite thoroughly enjoyed this book and believe goth kids, manga readers and any one who likes quirky, extraordinary books will enjoy it too. JDW 2/10