Sixteen year old Travis Ray Coates
dies. Before he dies, he agrees to have his head frozen using
cyrogenics. His head was the only part of his body that was cancer
free. Five years later, Travis wakes up with his head attached to
someone else's (more muscular) body. Life has gone on for 5 years for
everyone but Travis, and when he reanimates, he is expecting to pick
life up from where he remembers with his girlfriend, best friend and
parents. Of course, things have changed.
The divide between the past (which
Travis thinks should be the present) and the present is a struggle
throughout the book. For example, he still is 16, and since he was so
sick and missed a lot of school, he heads back to high school as a
sophomore; yet his birth certificate says he is 21. The reanimation
procedure has only worked for one other person, and they help each
other through things that no one else would understand.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The
characters were well written and well developed. It was fascinating
to see Travis interact with his best friend from 5 years ago and a
new high school friend. The writing was fantastic and what I thought
impressive was how the last words in every chapter flowed into the
next chapter and became the title of that chapter!
I never thought that I would put a book
about a boy whose head was put on another body in any genre but
science fiction, however, this book didn't really deal with the
science of it, but rather how to live life when everything around you
changes.
I highly recommend this book for all
lovers of Young Adult literature.
