Noggin

Il ne m'aura donc fallu qu'une grosse semaine pour lire les trois romans publiés par [a:John Corey Whaley 4113638 John Corey Whaley https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1303709143p2/4113638.jpg] jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Après l'excellent [b:Highly Illogical Behavior 26109391 Highly Illogical Behavior John Corey Whaley https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447262135s/26109391.jpg 46054780] et l'étrange mais réussi [b:Where Things Come Back 8563789 Where Things Come Back John Corey Whaley https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1330581469s/8563789.jpg 13432259], j'ai lu cette fois Noggin, un roman au synopsis un peu déroutant au premier abord :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.On parle donc ici d'un adolescent de seize ans, Travis, qui était condamné par un cancer il y a cinq ans et qui a choisi la cryonisation de son cerveau pour essayer d'échapper à la mort. Cinq ans plus tard, la procédure a miraculeusement réussi et Travis se réveille, sa tête attachée au corps d'un autre adolescent mort récemment. L'idée de départ de ce roman est très étrange, et j'avais clairement peur que le livre se transforme en long délire morbide.En fait, c'est tout le contraire. L'idée de départ n'est qu'un prétexte pour raconter une belle histoire. Travis est parti puis revenu, mais la vie de ses proches a évolué en cinq ans : ses amis ont grandi et ont quitté le lycée, sa petite amie Cate est désormais fiancée, son meilleur ami Kyle qui venait de lui faire son coming-out juste avant sa « mort » est en couple avec une fille, et ses parents semblent l'avoir attendu patiemment pendant cinq ans, même s'ils ont complètement vidé sa chambre. Travis doit retrouver sa place dans tout cela, et ce n'est clairement pas aussi facile qu'il l'aurait pensé.I was a quiet kid who would blush easily when he got too much attention and always walked with his head down and his hands in his pockets. Usually I was sitting in class thinking about something funny to say and never being brave enough to speak up and say it. In my mind I pretended I was too mature and intelligent to clown around with my classmates, but even I knew that wasn't totally the case. I just wasn't quite sure how to be one of them.Il est assez difficile de parler de ce roman sans en dire trop. Il s'y passe finalement peu de choses mais c'est joliment écrit et plaisant du début à la fin. C'est d'abord une jolie ode à la vie mais c'est aussi un beau récit sur la mort, le deuil des amis et de la famille. Il y a quelques beaux passages dans le texte, et des scènes très touchantes dont je ne dévoilerai rien ici pour laisser le plaisir de la découverte aux futurs lecteurs.It made me realize that no matter how often you see or talk to someone, no matter how much you know them or don't know them, you always fill up some space in their lives that can't ever be replaced the right way again once you leave it.Noggin est un roman que je vous recommande chaudement, c'est une jolie lecture, un peu naïve par moments, avec beaucoup de beaux sentiments qui peuvent déplaire parfois, mais le récit est plaisant et les personnages sont attachants. J'étais peut-être dans le bon état d'esprit pour plonger dans ce livre, mais j'en ressors ravi.They kept on like that for a while, and we laughed and told jokes and made fun of one another. But that's why they were there, I guess. Even though I was almost gone, they were still there to remind me that I wasn't quite dead yet. And to be honest, I wouldn't have minded just closing my eyes right then and letting go. Wouldn't that be perfect? Just dying right there with your two best friends helping you remember everything you loved about being alive?And that's how, five days before having my head sawed off my body and carefully placed in a cryogenic freezer in the basement of the Saranson Center for Life Preservation, I got to have the best day of my life. Isn't that something? Isn't that the greatest thing you've ever heard? I bet most people don't even get one person who cares about them that much. And me, I got four of them.Yeah, maybe I got a bad deal the first time around. Sure, it wasn't fair to be dead at sixteen. But you know what? At least I got to live every single second before they finally turned off the lights.

For such an interesting premise, this was a remarkably boring tale.

I thought this was lovely and funny. A worthy exploration of the concept–Travis Coates was a 16-year-old kid dying of cancer. His head was cyrogenically frozen and 5 years later, medical technology had advanced to the point where his head could be reattached to a donor body. (NOTE: there is a certain type of reader who will probably want more medical detail than is given. The concept is pretty glossed-over, and I am 100% fine with that.) To Travis, it's as if he went to sleep and woke up the next day, but everyone else–his parents, his best friend, his girlfriend–has had 5 years to mourn his death. Plus, Travis is kind of famous–he's only the 2nd person in the USA to have been successfully brought back to life with this procedure. The kinds of negotiations that follow are funny and heartbreaking. I hate to say it's a [b:The Fault in Our Stars 11870085 The Fault in Our Stars John Green https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1360206420s/11870085.jpg 16827462] readalike, but, uh... it kinda is.

Thought this would be a bit more sci-fi with the opportunity for a little absurd humor...but instead it's a rather maudlin tale of a dying teen who doesn't die and then spends a great deal of time thinking about when he was dying. Definitely a teen read - I probably would have really liked this book in high school.