Book Review: Go Big or Go Home

In Go Big or Go home, another book by the author Will Hobbs,We find Brady Steele, a teenage boy living in the Black Hills of South Dakota,with a meteorite crashing through his bedroom roof. He later goes to sleep while holding it only to wake up to find that he has been drooling all over it the day before Brady's cousin, Quinn comes to visit. In the week that follows Brady discovers that he can do strange and amazing feats that shouldn't even be humanely possible. He quickly realizes that he can do this because he was infected by long dormant microbes living on his meteorite that activated when he drooled all over it while sleeping. Unfortunately, Brady's new found skills had a dark side. The microbes started to shut down to protect themselves from Brady's immune system. This meant that as the microbes shut down, so did Brady. Once his body went completely dormant everyone thought he was dead so an  autopsy was to be performed to find out how he "died" when Brady wasn't dead. Fortunately, Quinn, Brady's neighbors the Carvers, and the meteor scientist know this so the come and rescue Brady from the autopsy table. They bring him to a cave that Brady and Quinn found during the week that Quinn visited and hide him there. The scientist then says that vinegar will kill the microbes so he squirts some up Brady's nose and Brady is saved.

I think that the theme of Go Big or Go Home is that not everything is what it seems. I think that because when Brady got the "superpowers" from the meteorite, he thought that it was totally awesome. Then he finds out that it's not so good after all when his body starts shutting down because of that. Also, Brady thought that the Carvers' dog was mean when he stole Brady's meteorite, but later on in the book Brady befriends the dog who eventually saves Brady's life. Those are some reasons why I think that  the theme of Go Big or Go Home is that not everything is what it seems.

I would suggest this book to other 7th grade readers because I thought that it had a good blend of sci-fi and adventure. The reason that I really wanted to read this book was because Brady got the superpowers from the microbes and he was able to do a lot of amazing stuff like vault over the head of a charging buffalo. I also liked it because near the end of the book, when the bad side effects of the microbes start taking place, I couldn't tear myself away from the book. The only bad part of the book, I thought, was that the ending was a little too perfect with Brady's near death disappearing into very convenient happy endings. Aside from the ending, I thought that the book was really good and I think that you will like it too.
 
I got the picture from http://cmjhlibrary.blogspot.com/2010/12/davis-cohens-book-review-of-go-big-or.html