John Corey Whaley

This is probably one of the single most powerful books I have read in my entire life. It made me want to laugh, to cry, to shake Travis silly. It takes a lot for a book to impact me on that level, most of the books I have read and love didn't even come close to making me feel how this book did. Travis Coates was an incredibly interesting character, a little thick at times, but that made him all the more interesting. His obsession with the past and placement in a future he didn't want made show more everything he did, no matter how small, something that seemed quite beautiful. He is the kind of guy I'd want in a best friend, honest and courageous, I couldn't look away even when his actions made me internally cringe. If you haven't already, now would be a great time to jump on the Noggin train, just so you know that once you've hopped on you have no chance of returning. show less

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
First I was duped. I thought that this book would be more paranormal with people are reincarnated into extinct birds and more. My mind raced with the possibilities, but that’s just me. I paint with broad strokes as a writer and my reading obsession reflects it. In contrast, John Whaley etches in human detail with a deft touch. There is reference to zombies but they stagger only in the id. There is one page where details lavishly describe the show more defiling of a grave that inched towards my expectations before reality quickly set back in. What feeds off the main character Colin Witter, his family, his Arkansas hometown of Lilly, is all too real, life in all its unfair roughness. The book however does fit this review column for it is indeed dark.

Colin’s life is harder than many. In his senior year he has to deal with a dead cousin and a missing little brother, Gabriel (biblical reference anyone?) and the emotional fallout that slowly eats away at his family and himself. He is resilient, think Holden Caufield on Prozac, possessing a bitter but unshakeable faith in the possibilities the future may hold. Trust me, his glass is more than half empty but he manages to keep hold of the empty vessel. He constantly muse the state of mankind with a list of book titles he’ll eventually write that mirror the author’s own chapter titles.

Part of his salvation (trust me, salvation, damnation, redemption, fate doled from on high, this book is rife with such metaphor) is a bird long thought extinct. It is here he uses a paintbrush better used on houses. The central image that creates a fervor in Colin’s hometown is the possibility that this giant bird, the Lazarus woodpecker (metaphor, see!?) may have reappeared in Lily. Its rebirth gives Lilly’s inhabitants something, possibly the only thing, to be excited about during their life sentence in the small town. Colin unleashes his pent up anger on it and everything it represents.

The B story is presented in an even more ham-handed fashion. As it intertwines with Colin’s journey it does has some plot reveals that justify its inclusion. Not a perfect novel but far closer than most in the young adult genre, plus, a little imbalance makes for good intellectual debate, correct?

DON’T skip to the end then read from the beginning (I never understood that habit anyways) for you will deprive yourself of a satisfying read. It’s all about the title of the book is my only hint. Read it. Have someone else read it and chat.

Plus bonus! You’ll learn a new (or old) curse word, Ass-hat!

THINK: Last Picture Show directed by David Lynch for an episode of The Twilight Zone
1st LINE – “I was seventeen when I saw my first dead body.” show less

In the remarkable, bizarre, and heart-wrenching summer before Cullen Witter’s senior year of high school, he is forced to examine everything he thinks he understands about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town. His cousin overdoses; his town becomes absurdly obsessed with the alleged reappearance of an extinct woodpecker; and most troubling of all, his sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother, Gabriel, suddenly and inexplicably disappears.
Meanwhile, the crisis of faith spawned by a show more young missionary’s disillusion in Africa prompts a frantic search for meaning that has far-reaching consequences. As distant as the two stories initially seem, they are woven together through masterful plotting and merge in a surprising and harrowing climax.
This extraordinary tale from a rare literary voice finds wonder in the ordinary and illuminates the hope of second chances. show less

Originally published over at Full of Words.

I wanted to like Noggin more than I did. It has a clever premise, it’s definitely funny, and it delivers on more than one genuinely touching moment. Unfortunately, despite everything the book does right, I just wanted to wring the main character’s neck after a certain point. During one scene late in the book I actually grimaced in horror at his stupidity.

Travis Coates starts out with a lot of sympathetic qualities. Noggin opens as he awakens show more from a surgery to attach his severed head to a donor body. In his former life, Travis was a sixteen-year-old kid with inoperable cancer. When it became clear that he was going to die, he volunteered for an experimental program with a chance to save his life.

The program worked, but that catch is this: five years passed while his head was cryogenically frozen. He’s still mentally sixteen, but his friends are in college and his parents lived with the grief of his loss for years.

That mental age ends up being Travis’ biggest obstacle. Everyone else has grown up and moved on, but he’s still petulant and selfish and unwilling to let go of the past. When he discovers that his best friend and girlfriend didn’t wait around for him to come back, he proceeds to blow up their lives and friendships with his behavior.

Travis spends most of Noggin trying to win back the love of his former girlfriend, Cate, who is now five years older than him and engaged to another guy. It’s obvious from the start that Travis’ quest is a huge mistake. He’s going to fail, and when he does, he’s going to ruin his relationship with someone he claims to love.

There’s probably a way to tell this story that would make it feel like Travis and Cate are star-crossed lovers, but I never found myself sympathizing with his wish to win her back. He just seemed like a pathetic asshole. His self-delusion lasts for so long and goes to such extremes that I lost all patience for his idiocy.

Travis is exactly the sort of “nice guy” who just won’t take a hint, and the Cate is so forgiving that she just keeps giving him the benefit of the doubt. When Travis makes a completely boneheaded “grand gesture” near the end of the book, Cate actually forgives him… and then a few chapters later he ignores her feelings yet again. I groaned aloud.

Honestly, I’m not sure I believe that Travis learns anything over the course of the book. Instead, it feels like he just decides to blame everyone else for not understanding what he’s going through.

Although I might be willing to give John Corey Whaley’s books another chance, I’m glad I’m done spending time with Travis Coates. show less