Noggin by John Corey Whaley
Book of the Week: 4 May 2015

A story about a teenager undergoing a head transplant might suggest a science fiction thriller or even a black comedy but Noggin is neither of these. It is a thoughtful exploration of what would happen if the world had moved on but you remained the same.
Life was going well for Travis Coates. He had a best friend called Kyle, was doing well in school and had fallen in love with a girl called Cate. But this was before he fell terminally ill. There was one ray of hope – undergoing the experimental process of having his head cryogenically frozen in the hope that a donor body would be available in the years to come. Travis expected to wake in the distant future but when he does come round, he finds only five years have passed. His ecstatic parents are delighted he has survived, but he has a brand new body that belonged to someone else, his friends are now twenty years old and his girlfriend is about to marry someone else. Travis has to adapt to a world that has changed far more radically than he imagines.
If you have enjoyed books such as The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, The Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss or Before I Die by Jenny Downham you might find that you like this too.
John Corey Whaley’s website is here