Holy Cow by David Duchovny

Published in hardback by Headline on 3rd February 2015. My thanks to them and Bookbridgr for my review copy.

Elsie Bovary is a cow and a pretty happy one at that. Until one night, Elsie sneaks out of the pasture and finds herself drawn to the farmhouse. Through the window, she sees the farmer's family gathered around a bright Box God - and what the Box God reveals about something called an 'industrial meat farm' shakes Elsie's understanding of her world to its core.

The only solution? To escape to a better, safer world. And so a motley crew is formed: Elsie; Shalom, a grumpy pig who's recently converted to Judaism; and Tom, a suave turkey who can't fly, but can work an iPhone with his beak. Toting stolen passports and slapdash human disguises, they head for the airport ...

Elsie is a wise-cracking, slyly witty narrator; Tom dispenses psychiatric advice in a fake German accent; and Shalom ends up unexpectedly uniting Israelis and Palestinians. David Duchovny's charismatic creatures point the way toward a mutual understanding and acceptance the world desperately needs.

My Thoughts:

I was intrigued to start reading this book as soon as it arrived through my door. Anything a little bit different or quirky is enough gain my interest right way. 

I found this to be a quick read, I probably got through the whole thing in a couple of hours. It is quite a short book. This is a hard book for me to review because whilst there were certain aspects that worked wonderfully, there were other things that left me feeling confused.

First of all lets talk about Elsie. She was fiesty, fiery and didn't hold back on her opinions. There was an equally delightful cast of supporting characters. Shalom the pig was actually my personal favourite. The interaction between all of the character was wonderfully entertaining.

Whilst I found parts of the narrative particularly witty, the subliminal messages about humans being bad etc began to grate on me towards the end. It felt to me to become very much like I was being preached to.

I also found it difficult to ascertain who or what the target audience was for this one.

I think if it is read as a short book and taken as a bit of fun it works fine. 

About The Author:

David Duchovny is a television, stage and screen actor, as well as a screenwriter and director. He is probably best known for playing the character Mulder in The X Files.