John Corey Whaley

2014 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST Travis Coates has a good head…on someone else’s shoulders. A touching, hilarious “tour de force of imagination and empathy” (Booklist, starred review) from John Corey Whaley, author of the Printz and Morris Award–winning Where Things Come Back. Listen—Travis Coates was alive once and then he wasn’t. Now he’s alive again. Simple as that. The in between part is still a little fuzzy, but Travis can tell you that, at some point or another, his head got chopped off and shoved into a freezer in Denver, Colorado. Five years later, it was reattached to some other guy’s body, and well, here he is. Despite all logic, he’s still sixteen, but everything and everyone around him has changed. That includes his bedroom, his parents, his best friend, and his girlfriend. Or maybe she’s not his girlfriend anymore? That’s a bit fuzzy too. Looks like if the new Travis and the old Travis are ever going to find a way to exist together, there are going to be a few more scars. Oh well, you only live twice.

Noggin

Melissa Palmer

Book #125 Read in 2014
Noggin by John Corey Whaley (YA)

The premise of this book is an interesting one. Travis is a teenager with cancer. He decides he wants to try experimental treatment which consists of his head being removed from his body and frozen. Eventually, doctors hope to have the technology to attach his cancer-free head to a healthy body. After five years, Travis wakes up and it feels as if no time has passed. His new body is healthy. But fitting back in to his life is not as easy as he thought it would be. Travis is still in high school and his friends are now in college. His girlfriend has moved on with other relationships. This book details the difficulty Travis has with getting his life back. Overall, a good read.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

The book has been sitting in my bookshelf for years, I was picking a book for my long bus ride, the cover caught my attention. I gotta say I didn't regret picking this book. This is my first time reading John Corey Whaley's book, I don't have any past experience to compared with, I could see some reviews from people who've read his previous work and didn't quite enjoy Noggin. For me, I truly enjoyed reading Noggin, it's both touching and enjoyable especially after reading some dense books lately. 

This is a story of a dying kid Travis Coates coming back to life after 5 years, thanks to the advances in cryogenic technology. Now attached to another dead kid's hot bod, Travis is trying to navigate back to his life while his loved ones, including his then girlfriend - Cate who's now engaged with someone else, have been through 5 years without him.

What makes me drawn to this story is that there are some things I can relate to this story from things that's happened in my life that I've been grappling with lately: 

• From Travis' point-of-view: You wake up one day and found out people you love have moved on with their lives without you, and you're still hopelessly hoping things will still work exactly the same with the girl you're in love with. 

• From Cate's point-of-view: You wake up one day with your boyfriend gone, you've made a lot of effort to move on with your live without him; and one day he came back to life and showed up in front of you while you're engaged with someone else. 

This is easily one of my favorite YA books I've read so far. Will re-read again. 

Ash Hoe

The book has been sitting in my bookshelf for years, I was picking a book for my long bus ride, the cover caught my attention. I gotta say I didn't regret picking this book. This is my first time reading John Corey Whaley's book, I don't have any past experience to compared with, I could see some reviews from people who've read his previous work and didn't quite enjoy Noggin. For me, I truly enjoyed reading Noggin, it's both touching and enjoyable especially after reading some dense books lately. 

This is a story of a dying kid Travis Coates coming back to life after 5 years, thanks to the advances in cryogenic technology. Now attached to another dead kid's hot bod, Travis is trying to navigate back to his life while his loved ones, including his then girlfriend - Cate who's now engaged with someone else, have been through 5 years without him.

What makes me drawn to this story is that there are some things I can relate to this story from things that's happened in my life that I've been grappling with lately: 
• From Travis' point-of-view: You wake up one day and found out people you love have moved on with their lives without you, and you're still hopelessly hoping things will still work exactly the same with the girl you're in love with. 
• From Cate's point-of-view: You wake up one day with your boyfriend gone, you've made a lot of effort to move on with your live without him; and one day he came back to life and showed up in front of you while you're engaged with someone else. 

This is easily one of my favorite YA books I've read so far. Will re-read again. 

Jeannette Ordas

For a pretty ridiculous premise, this book was a pretty wonderful read. Funny, smart and down-to-earth, especially considering the kicker.

Jeff James

Originally published over at Full of Words.

I wanted to like Noggin more than I did. It has a clever premise, it’s definitely funny, and it delivers on more than one genuinely touching moment. Unfortunately, despite everything the book does right, I just wanted to wring the main character’s neck after a certain point. During one scene late in the book I actually grimaced in horror at his stupidity.

Travis Coates starts out with a lot of sympathetic qualities. Noggin opens as he awakens from a surgery to attach his severed head to a donor body. In his former life, Travis was a sixteen-year-old kid with inoperable cancer. When it became clear that he was going to die, he volunteered for an experimental program with a chance to save his life.

The program worked, but that catch is this: five years passed while his head was cryogenically frozen. He’s still mentally sixteen, but his friends are in college and his parents lived with the grief of his loss for years.

That mental age ends up being Travis’ biggest obstacle. Everyone else has grown up and moved on, but he’s still petulant and selfish and unwilling to let go of the past. When he discovers that his best friend and girlfriend didn’t wait around for him to come back, he proceeds to blow up their lives and friendships with his behavior.

Travis spends most of Noggin trying to win back the love of his former girlfriend, Cate, who is now five years older than him and engaged to another guy. It’s obvious from the start that Travis’ quest is a huge mistake. He’s going to fail, and when he does, he’s going to ruin his relationship with someone he claims to love.

There’s probably a way to tell this story that would make it feel like Travis and Cate are star-crossed lovers, but I never found myself sympathizing with his wish to win her back. He just seemed like a pathetic asshole. His self-delusion lasts for so long and goes to such extremes that I lost all patience for his idiocy.

Travis is exactly the sort of “nice guy” who just won’t take a hint, and the Cate is so forgiving that she just keeps giving him the benefit of the doubt. When Travis makes a completely boneheaded “grand gesture” near the end of the book, Cate actually forgives him… and then a few chapters later he ignores her feelings yet again. I groaned aloud.

Honestly, I’m not sure I believe that Travis learns anything over the course of the book. Instead, it feels like he just decides to blame everyone else for not understanding what he’s going through.

Although I might be willing to give John Corey Whaley’s books another chance, I’m glad I’m done spending time with Travis Coates.

"Travis Coates was alive once and then he wasn't. Now he's alive again. Simple as that. The in between part is still a little fuzzy, but Travis can tell you that, at some point or another, his head got chopped off and shoved into a freezer in Denver, Colorado. Five years later, it was reattached to some other guy's body, and well, here he is. Despite all logic, he's still sixteen, but everything and everyone around him has changed."

Flavia Louise

3.25 stars
This book had a nice concept but wasn't executed as nicely as i would have liked it to. I wouldn't have picked this up without RivetedLit but I am happy I did.

Emily C Peterson

b.andherbooks

Instead of waiting to die from his terminal cancer, 16 year old Travis Coates instead decides to have his head cryogenic-ally frozen, hoping someday in the future he can return, healthy. Saying goodbye to his girlfriend, parents, and family, he goes to sleep.

Five years later, but in a blink of an eye to Travis, he's back with an awesome new body. Travis soon learns that five years is enough time for people to have mourned him and moved on. Caitlin his girlfriend is engaged, his parents make him go back to his old high school, and his best friend is still living a lie. Will Travis every get back to normal, or was this second life a big mistake?

Pretty cool concept, but Whaley was a little to light on the science for my personal taste (more please)! However, what I found most unrealistic (reattaching heads to bodies besides) was the fact they made poor Travis go back to his old High School a measly three weeks after "waking up." Way harsh. But, fun none the less.

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

I went into this book without reading the synopsis. A friend of mine had recommended it, so when I was offered the audiobook for review I thought, “why not?”.

Noggin was… well, pretty weird, honestly. The whole idea of it was a bit much. When I first started listening I was completely confused. A head transplant? So this kid gets sick and is dying… so they chop off his head, freeze it, and 5 years later end up attaching it to another teenager’s body? Hmm… a little farfetched for someone like me that has trouble with certain science fiction stories anyway. But since I had received this book for review, I continued on, trying my best to keep an open mind.

The story actually completely changed by the second and third chapters. The head transplant was completed, and the story began. It actually turned out to be a very sweet story. I really started to feel for Travis. He was still sixteen, yet everyone and everything else in his life had aged 5 years while he was frozen. His girlfriend had moved on, now engaged to be married. His young cousins were grown up. His whole life as he had known it was completely different. (In a strange way, this story kind of reminded me a bit of Taken. The whole dealing-with-life-aging-while-you’re-not-there thing.)

The romance, friendships, and family ties throughout this story was very refreshing. So often we see parents that are non-existent or not approving of their children’s choices and lives. It was really nice to see Travis’ parents so involved in his life, in making him better, and in helping him accept his new life.

Overall, a cute story, though slightly out-there are times, that was entertaining and fun.

(Thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio for the review copy!)

Find this review and others like it at Lost in Literature!

Noggin

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