Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Cameron's been experiencing some weird stuff lately - visions, hallucinations, pain in his body. His doctors eventually find the reason for all of this strange stuff: he has BSE, a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, better known as Mad Cow. His time is running out, but there might be a chance to save his life - at least, that's what the punkish angel tells him - that is, as long as he can track down a time travelling evil genius rogue doctor, whereabouts unknown. To aid him in this trip, he brings along a fellow high school student, Gonzo, a little person whose mother has made overcautious and a bit of a hypocondriac.

I fully admit that I didn't pick this book up until after it had won the Printz, because I'm a bit of a bandwagon jumper. I found the title a bit offputting for reasons I don't think I can fully articulate, and that's what kept me from picking it up. Once I did convince myself to give it a try, the first thing I noticed was that the book is long. It's a hefty book, and Libba Bray packs a lot into it. When reading it, I got the feeling that she knew exactly what she was doing when she wrote it; every word has been carefully chosen, every detail is there for a reason. It's a very well-crafted book, and it knows it, and it doesn't let you forget it. It took me awhile to get used to all of the...I don't know if 'quirkiness' is the right word, so I'll call it 'strangeness,' because this isn't the type of book that I usually read, and there is a lot of strangeness. I think my favourite part of the book was the beginning part, before Cameron is really sick, before all the strangeness, and Bray is setting up the family dynamic.

Here's a video with Libba Bray talking about Going Bovine:

Find it on Amazon.

Read it with:
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
Paper Towns by John Green
Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Wide Awake by David Levithan
Q & A by Vikas Swarup

Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes

Normal. That's exactly what Karl wants to be this year. If he acts normally, the school won't put him in group therapy. If he acts normally, he can pretend that he is normal. If he's normal, then the can be someone else: someone with a mother that he doesn't have to take care of, someone who doesn't have to work a half-dozen jobs, someone...normal. But then a new girl comes to school and it looks like she'll be part of the Madman Underground (the name Karl has given the therapy group). Between dealing with his mom, her cats, his best friend, and this new girl - not to mention all of the other problems at school and work - being normal is going to be a lot harder than it seems.

I hadn't heard much about this book before it was named a Printz Honor book, but that pushed it onto my radar and my reading list. I'm really glad that it did, because I really liked Karl's voice. There are hints in the book to Karl's unreliability as a narrator, which made me more interested in what he was saying (and what he wasn't). The book is set in the 1970s, so there's a bit of retro charm about certain things, but it avoids reading like "wow, the 70s were so different!" A lot of really heavy issues are presented in this book (abuse, alcoholism, death, and prostitution are just a few), and it's pretty weighty in terms of pages, too, but I found it more engaging than depressing.

Find it at IndieBound.

Read it with:
Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney
Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Crash Into Me by Albert Borris

Frank, Owen, Jin-ae and Audrey know each other from an online community; they have shared the stories of how they tried to commit suicide. They decide that they want to take a cross-country trip to visit the suicide places of celebrities - ending with their own suicides in Death Valley. But once they're out on the road, they realize that it might not be so easy to stick to the plan.

I've read a lot of really great reviews of this book, but I'm not sure that I had the same reaction. I found it hard to care about any of the characters or whether they would actually go through with their suicide pact. (I was particularly perplexed by the brief mention to Jin-ae - a lesbian - having heterosexual sex on the trip. This, to me, came out of nowhere and was really unnecessary.) Owen was by far my favourite character, I think because we spent so much time with him. Maybe I just wasn't committed to the book, or maybe I've been reading too many books with similar dark themes - maybe I'm just burned out on this type of book. I think I would have responded better to a short story of some kind, but since the book is about the journey, that probably wouldn't have worked (and it really isn't a long story as it is). I did appreciate how Albert Borris was able to convey the claustrophobic atmosphere of the car and the journey as well as the compassionate, knowledgeable tone that he writes with. I also really liked the message board conversations that alternate with the real-time narrative; I love the idea of how anonymity can help create open, honest discussions, and how you can be friends with someone you've never met in person.
Find it at IndieBound.

Read it with:
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman

Savvy by Ingrid Law

Mibs Beaumont is just on the cusp of turning 13: the age when she will get her savvy. Everyone in her mother's family has one. A savvy is like a special magical gift: one older brother can control water, another can conduct lightning, her mother's savvy is that she's always perfect, and her aunt can talk people in to anything. Mibs is looking forward to hers but when her father gets sick and has to be taken to the hospital, all of her family's plans are changed. Mibs becomes convinced that her savvy, whatever it is, will be the key to healing her father, and she's desperate to get to him as soon as possible. And that's the start of one of the strangest road trips in history.

I really liked the idea of a savvy. It makes perfect sense to me, in a not-at-all-making-sense way. People do often have certain traits that set them apart, and not always the most useful ones. It's a great concept for a book. The themes of the book aren't that new: mean people can be lonely too, you can't judge things by how they look, standing up for yourself is important, everyone has secrets. But Mibs' voice and perspective is winning, and the supernatural elements of the story keep it interesting. I really like the character of Will Jr., and his interactions with Mibs. Careful readers will not be that surprised by the novel's resolution, but that doesn't make it any less satisfying. I'm looking forward to Scumble, out this August.

Find it at IndieBound.

Read it with:
The BFG by Roald Dahl
A Very Fine Line by Julie Johnston
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Going Bovine by Libba Bray

The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

Four students are selected to represent the sixth grade in the Academic Bowl. They have been chosen by their teacher, who has seen something special in all of them. But when they beat the seventh grade, and then the eighth grade, she starts to realize exactly how special the group is. As we learn more about what brought them all together, she starts to wonder: did she choose them, or did they choose her?

I was on a quiz team in high school, so I loved that aspect of the story. I also really like stories where characters and events weave in and out - much likeLost, where characters would show up in other peoples' backstories and stories and events would end up being connected to so much more.

Find it at IndieBound.

Read it with:
Q & A by Vikas Swarup
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
The Dunderheads by Paul Fleischman
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

Paper Towns by John Green

Margo Roth Spiegelman has always been a part of Quentin Jacobsen's life - including the time, years ago, when they found a dead body. Since then they've been in different social circles, but Q has never been able to get her out of his head. Then, one night, just before their senior year is over, Margo takes him on a nighttime adventure spree - and disappears the next morning. Everyone else is ready to believe that she's run away (again), but not Q, and he's desperate to figure out where she is.

One part mystery, one part romance, one part buddy comedy, one part road trip - this book is made up of so many parts that could go terribly wrong, but it ends up being pretty perfect. It took me a few goes to commit to the novel, but once I found a copy without a girl's face on the cover, I was hooked (I found the other one distracting; the girl on the front did not fit my idea of who Margo Roth Spiegelman was). I shouldn't have let myself get distracted by the cover; I should have known that this, like Green's other books Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines, would be a book that I would just eat up with a spoon.

Find it on Amazon.

Read it with:
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Reality Check by Peter Abrahams
Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser
Gentlemen by Michael Northrop
13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher