Summary
16 year old Cameron is barely making it through High School, while his widely popular twin sister Jenna ignores him as much as she can. Cam's dad is a professor at the University, who he suspects is having an affair with his T.A. and his mom is a hands off, community college English professor. Cameron's favorite and best memory is of when he went to Disney world and nearly drown in the "Its a Small World" ride. Despite his seemingly mundane life, Cam is given some shocking news. - he is going to do. He is diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob variant BSE which is commonly known as Mad Cow Disease. Enter a possible angel hallucination Dulcie who tells Cam, while he is in the hospital, that he must go on a quest, despite dying, to save the world within two weeks. If he saves the world, he also saves himself. His hospital bed mate is "Gonzo", a fellow student at his high school, who is also a dwarf, obsessed with games, and has a constant fear of death brought on by his over protective mother, who Cam convinces to go on the quest with him. They escape from the hospital for a wild cross country road trip. They must follow a series of very vague clues, which may not be clues at all. They first arrive in New Orleans and meets Junior Webster, jazz musician extraordinaire, and the Wizard of Reckoning for the first time. They narrowly escape, while the wizards claims Webster's life. Webster tosses Cam his trumpet before dying. They then begin to travel to Florida, for a huge spring break party. While spending the night at a motel, Cam walks to a nearby gas station, which ends with him being invited to a party by two new acquaintances. At the party he stumbles on a yard gnome, who surprisingly begins speaking to him and reveals that he is Balder, a Norse god, who is meant to be on the journey with Cameron in order for himself to make it back home. He joins the gang and continues to Florida. Along they way they pick up three college hitchhikers on the way to the spring break party. The three kidnap Balder as they part ways, which Cam and Gonzo do not realize until about an hour after the fact. They race back to get Balder and get caught up in the spring break festivities. They eventually get Balder back. Throughout the entire trip, Dulcie has shown up to help aid Cameron although most of the time he never saw it as help. He eventually realized he was falling for her. That night at the hotel Cam loves his virginity to one of Jenna's (his sister) friends, and then shortly after makes love to Dulcie. The next morning Cam remembers that he was supposed to reconvene with Gonzo, who bursts through the motel door brandishing a brand new mohawk, and a boyfriend. They attend a concert at, where Cam subsequently ends up saving the world from the "Fire Giants" which appear throughout the book and are causing the end of the world. He travels to Disney world where he encounters the Wizard of Reckoning who turns out to be himself. Cam blows the trumpet that Junior Webster gives to him before he dies, and the wizard collapses into himself. As this happens, we flash back to the hospital room where Cameron passes away. The last chapter we find Cameron floating through space with Darcy which we can assume is his version of the afterlife.
Review
There are a number of different characters and points in which I have left out of the summary. All in all I believe the book itself, considering it is written for adolescents, deserves a 7.5/10. It is a modern take on the classic Don Quixote, which was regularly referenced in the novel itself. I personally think Bray told the story brilliantly in that approaching the subject of death and dying among a younger audience is a toughie. I think its incredibly easy for a teen to relate to. There is strong language in it (we see "fuck" often), there is sexual references and experiences, and there is drug and alcohol usage.
Throughout the book we figure out that the trip is a hallucination of Cameron's dying mind. It was argued recently that the act of his death was too short, done in just a page, however, I personally feel that because we had flashes to the hospital room and Cameron's pain, we experienced more than just a page of his death. Plus, it would have been a completely different book if it only followed his death from the disease.
The book addresses the subject of not only living in the moment, but also of appreciating things differently. We need to begin to value simple pleasures in order to actually live life. Before being diagnosed, Cameron is going through life, not actually living life. Through the road trip, he actually begins to experience life and its simple pleasures along with its complexities outside of his little world.
Bray skirts over all sexual experiences though, which could or could not be a big deal. For example, Gonzo turns out to be gay. How many teens do we know, would find out that their very good friend is homosexual, and not even ask one question? I am definitely not saying the choice should be questioned, but more as they would at least be a little inquisitive. Another instance is when Cam looses his virginity, there is literally no detail in regards to it. I understand it was written for teens, so we do not need for intense detail. I personally believe that Bray intentionally did this to influence teens that sex and sexuality may not be such an important subject considering the main theme is life.
I think the novel was beautifully researched. There are SO MANY cultural and religious references. I did find out however, some of the translations were not exactly correct, however the factual cultural and religious references were spot on. There were Hindu, Islamic, and Buddhist references, among many others. So with the exception of the translations from a different language, I thought that aspect was great.
Final
7.5/10
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