What’s Up With the Ending?

The ending of Going Bovine brings everything full circle, which is nice, though it also leaves us asking a few questions as well. Cameron has died and he's hanging out in the afterlife with Dulcie. Weirdly, the afterlife is a cleaner, less annoying replica of the Small World ride in Disney World. That's right—the same place he almost died when he was five.

But this time the Inuit boy is real, and the fish on the end of his hook is alive, and the snow is actually cold and wet. Cam is only momentarily caught up in these details, though, since Dulcie is there and all he wants to do is kiss her. When he does, there's music that plays in an octave he's never heard before, sparks fly, things explode, and the only thing Cam can say is "wow."

So what's next? Is he going to be with Dulcie and the Inuit boy forever? Is this his personal gateway to heaven? Is he even headed to heaven, or is it another dimension like the Drs. A,T,O and M conjectured?

Despite these questions, the open-ended finale is satisfying because it's uplifting. A few pages earlier we are still quietly weeping over Cameron's death, and by ending the way it does, the books leaves us reassured that wherever our main man is headed, he is happy.