Noggin by Beth Kephart
Reviewed by: Carey Gibbons, Reference Assistant
Genre: Young Adult Realistic Fiction (with a splash of sci-fi)
Suggested Age: Older teens and adults
What is the book about?: One day, Travis Coates is dead. And then he isn’t. Travis died of cancer when he was 16, but was also part of an experimental program that allowed him to cryogenically freeze his head and attach it to someone else’s healthy body. Doctors told him there would be decades between his “death” and new life, but science moves awfully fast. Travis wakes up five years later with a new body (but same head) that is far healthier and stronger than his old body ever was. Five years have passed for all of Travis’ friends and family – his best friend is in college, his girlfriend is engaged to someone else, and his parents seem a little… off. But for Travis, time has passed in the blink of an eye. He’s on a mission. He’s going to get back his best friend and win back his girlfriend (who never technically broke up with him in the first place, right?). However, things don’t quite work out the way Travis has planned – missing out on five years of everyone else’s life turns out to be a lot harder than he had thought.
My review: I loved this book. I say the suggested age is for both teens and adults because anyone who has ever been a teen can relate to Travis. Don’t let the light science fiction angle scare you away either. The cryogenics aren’t the point of the story, but a vehicle to get Travis into the awkward situation he’s in. Whaley gives Travis an honest and solid voice. He’s not preternaturally wise or kind. He does some dumb things and some mean things. His obsession with his girlfriend Cate swings back and forth between heartbreaking and creepy. Part of why I loved this book was because I didn’t know how I wanted it to end. I’m not going to lie – I sobbed through the last 3-4 chapters for a variety of reasons.
But I laughed, too. Although Whaley gives us a few flashback chapters where Travis talks about his life before he died, this isn’t a book about a sad sick kid being sad and sick. Yeah, we feel for Travis and some of those flashback chapters are like a punch to the gut, but they serve to enrich the current narrative and illustrate the fact that for Travis, five years felt like overnight. He doesn’t have the same concept of time that everyone else has.
This book was pretty great. Everyone has a real and distinct voice and the plot moves along at a nice clip. This is one of my new favorite YA novels and I have no problem seeing why it’s a National Book Award finalist.
Rating: 5/5
About FDL Reads
Welcome to FDL Reads, weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library. Librarians (and possibly some other guest reviewers) review all types of books, from children’s picture books, young adult favorites, to the latest adult thriller, and share their thoughts each week at fondulaclibrary.org. If the book is owned by Fondulac District Library (or another local library), you’ll see a direct link to the catalog entry and whether or not it is available. If it is checked out or at another local library, you will be able to place a hold as long as you have your library card and PIN numbers. As with any book review, these are our opinions…we disagree amongst ourselves about books frequently. We all have different likes and dislikes, which is what makes the world an interesting place. Please enjoy, and keep on reading!