Publisher:
S&S
Release
Date: 31st
July 2014
Edition:
UK paperback,
review copy
Other
Titles by this Author: 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. Five years
later, it was reattached to some other guy’s body and, well, here he is.
Despite
all logic, he’s still sixteen and everything and everyone around him has
changed. That includes his parents, his best friend and his girlfriend. Or maybe
she’s not his girlfriend anymore? That’s a bit fuzzy too. If the new Travis and
the old Travis are ever going to find a way to exist together, it looks like
there’s going to be a few more scars.
Oh
well, you only live twice.
I was excited to read Noggin from the moment I heard about. It
has a premise I’ve never come across before, the blurb promises a wonderful
style and the reviews are glowing; but I just can’t decide if I liked it or
not.
Whaley takes strange sci-fi
ideas – cryogenics and head transplantation – and uses them to craft a story
that is pure coming of age contemporary fiction. He manages to explore the
intricacies of identity, love and moving on with heart, humour and wittiness,
and yet I still didn’t connect with it.
I have to admit that I didn’t
warm to Travis at all. I know that he’s been through a lot - he did die – but he’s
just so selfish and whiney and arrogant. Which, I guess, is what lots of
sixteen-year-old boys brought back from the dead after dying of cancer would
be, but still. I had no point of understanding or empathy with him and I struggled
to get through the novel sometimes, even with the lovely style of writing that
Whaley has. Travis just made me cringe. This was expecially the case in his
efforts to get back the now 21-year-old girlfriend he had when he died. Everything
seemed childish and desperate and made me want to hide behind a cushion; I’m
really not good with cringey-ness. It put me off him entirely.
Noggin
is sharp,
witty, observant and so very strange. Some people will fall in love with it,
and others, like me, may be a little on the fence, but it definitely won’t be
forgotten by anybody.
Sophie
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