About to die of leukemia, sixteen-year-old Travis elects to undergo a radical procedure: his head is removed and cryogenically preserved. Fast forward five years to Travis waking to learn he is the second person in history to achieve a successful head-to-body transplant. While the premise requires readers to suspend disbelief in a major way, the story succeeds as realism because of its focus on Travis’s perspective. To him, it feels as if he woke up after a single night’s sleep, but in actuality his former peers have moved into adulthood without him. Travis is unable to accept the news that his serious girlfriend Cate is engaged to be married, and is determined to win her back. And what is he to make of his best friend Kyle, who had come out to Travis shortly before his death but who now seems unequivocally heterosexual? Even Travis’s supportive and loving parents’ relationship has undergone a monumental transition during his absence. In many ways, adjusting to the reality of life in a new body is the easier of the challenges Travis faces. Accepting the changes in those he loves and finding his place in this new terrain requires a strong will to adapt that Travis only achieves with the support of everyone in his life, including new friend Hatton, and fellow head/body transplant, Lawrence. This original and thought-provoking premise stars an engaging teenager with a credible and humorous voice. (Age 13 and older)

2014 National Book Award Finalist
A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)

Travis Coates has a good head…on someone else’s shoulders. A touching, hilarious, and wholly original coming-of-age story from John Corey Whaley, author of the Printz and Morris Award–winning 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 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.