Airhead: Book 1 [Paperback]

Meg Cabot (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 15, 2009 | Series: Airhead (Book 1)

Meg Cabot expands her huge fan base with this slightly darker, more mysterious novel - without losing any of her signature heart and humor.

EM WATTS IS GONE.

Emerson Watts didn’t even want to go to the new SoHo Stark Megastore grand opening. But someone needed to look out for her sister, Frida, whose crush, British heartthrob Gabriel Luna, would be singing and signing autographs there—along with the newly appointed Face of Stark, teen supermodel sensation Nikki Howard.

How was Em to know that disaster would strike, changing her,and life as she’d known it, forever?

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7–9—Cabot delivers yet another fun and frothy piece of escapism in this far-fetched but rousing roller-coaster ride of a novel. The plot centers on a freak accident at the new Stark Megastore. Emma Watts has a huge plasma TV land on her just as Nikki Howard, supermodel and the Face of Stark, enters the store and suffers a brain aneurism. Stark, determined to keep their moneymaking "face" alive, embarks on a risky venture that they have been doing for years, unbeknownst to anyone else. Now Emma's brain is in Nikki's body and her life will never be the same. If Emma tells anyone, her family will be slapped with millions in medical bills. Cabot pulls readers in and makes them care about Emma, her family, her best friend, and her secret crush. No one in the cast is completely fleshed out but there is some character development. This book is sure to fly off the shelves and leave readers breathlessly awaiting the promised sequel.—Shari Fesko, Southfield Public Library, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Em is considerably more interested in playing computer games with her friend Christopher than in befriending the A-list girls who rule her high school. A freak accident mortally injures Em and leaves superstar model Nikki brain dead. After a transplant operation, Em wakes up in Nikki’s body and learns that she must keep her identity a secret and live her life as Nikki. Readers who are willing to swallow the brain transplant idea will find that the rest of the story goes down easily enough; there’s plenty to entertain readers with stars in their eyes as well as those who disdain the pop-culture glamour of Nikki’s life. Besides the juxtaposition of Em’s world with Nikki’s, there are elements of humor and glimmers of compassion for the rich and famous in this first-person story. Toward the novel’s end, “Nikki” enrolls in Em’s old school. Can the girl inside that too-perfect body reconnect with the boy she secretly loves? Stay tuned. Grades 7-10. --Carolyn Phelan --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Point; Reprint edition (April 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 054504054X
• ISBN-13: 978-0545040549
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #363,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write! Books for you, your sister, your best friend, your mother . . . . even for men with good taste!

Most of my time is spent over at my website, http://megcabot.com, so be sure to stop by!

UK, New Zealand, and Australia fans, visit http://www.megcabot.co.uk.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#77 in Books > Teens

#77 in Books > Teens

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too May 16, 2008

By TeensReadToo

Format:Hardcover

I can't lie; this had to be the oddest book that I have read by one of my favorite authors!

Emerson Watts is a pretty typical nerdy girl at a good school. She has one best friend, who she is secretly in love with (It is a guy, by the way.) But she is only typical until she goes to a store opening with her sister and gets injured in a very freak accident.

When she wakes up after about a month of being unconscious, she feels like she is someone else.

And she actually is.

This is not a paranormal book. She gets a brain transplant.

At the end of the book I literally said, "Get me the next book! NOW!" The ending is a total cliffhanger!

The characters are smart, witty, and a little weird, as with typical Meg Cabot books. A fun read, even though the beginning is a little hard to understand, and can be difficult to get into. However, it is definitely worth reading the whole thing, because it is truly hilarious!

Reviewed by: Taylor Rector

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Meg Cabot does sci-fi? June 30, 2008

By Kathryn Gaglione

Format:Hardcover

Really, I should have seen it coming. Meg Cabot is obsessed with Star Wars, watches way too much TV and has already done the psychic thing, the princess thing, the paranormal thing and the historical fiction thing. And with the popularity of Stephenie Meyer's The Host: A Novel, why shouldn't she jump on the body-snatcher bandwagon?

Emerson Watts loves to play video games, has never kissed a boy and refers to the popular crowed at her alternative college prep school in Manhattan as the Walking Dead. So when she wakes up as a $4,000-dress-wearing, boyfriend-stealing, high-school-drop-outing supermodel, she doesn't know how she can take over Nikki Howard's identity let alone walk in her stiletto shoes.

While this book was interesting, and Nikki's best friend Lulu is definitely a stand-out character with her philosophies on love, skin care and house-keeping, I just didn't really buy it. I mean, come on, a music mega-story paying for a body transplant so they don't have to find a new spokes-model? It's a stretch, even for the author who brought us a princess in hiding, a kick-boxing ghost shrink, Arthur reincarnated, a lighting-struck person-finder and an unlucky teenage witch. Not that it was really a bad book, just not up to par.

Plus, can we please get a completed series sometime soon? With Princess Diaries, Volume X: Forever Princess (Princess Diaries) and com/Queen-Babble-Gets-Hitched-Cabot/dp/006085202X">Queen of Babble Gets Hitched (Queen of Babble) looming in the distance, two more books promised for the Heather Wells Mystery series, the unfinished Jinx series, the unfinished Avalon High series, her new middle-grade Allie Finkle series and who knows what other series rolling around in her head, do we really need a sci-fi version of America's Next Top Model?

But if you want a light read that is classic Meg Cabot, you can't pass up this book. Her books are always filled with characters that are quirky and relatable, romance and teenaged angst that keep YA lit lovers coming back for more, and dialogue that will inevitably win you over. Read more ›

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprising but still good June 13, 2008

By iiiiReader VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am a real fan of Meg Cabot (though I didn't care as much for the regencies she wrote as Patricia Cabot.) I didn't realize when I pre-ordered this book that it was intended for her younger age group series.

Even though it focused around high school, I found that I still enjoyed the book. I was a bit shocked at the accident, fully expecting that it would be more of a "Freaky Friday" plot. Accepting the consequences was a bit difficult and why I rated it a 4 instead of a 5. I still wish somehow it could come right at the end and knowing that it can't makes it a little less enjoyable for me.

Apart from that, I found the humor to be as enjoyable for someone my age as for a teenager. I will consider buying more from this series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars 'Different' but Still Good! May 31, 2008

By Runa VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

**SPOILERS BELOW**

Well, I now get what people meant when they said this was 'different' from Meg's other books. I really can't say if that goes under good-different or bad-different. I loved Em (come on, coolest name EVER XD) and Christopher, but the book focused wayyy too little attention on the latter. Instead, most of the attention was given to Nikki's new model friends, which was just...dumb, didn't seem to contribute to the plot, and bored me. I'd hoped that Christopher would make a reappearance much much earlier and was quite saddened when I found out that that wouldn't be the case. I also wanted a bit more resolution--I realize that there'll be a sequel, but even one book does need to tie things up, and this doesn't do that AT ALL, it doesn't feel like a complete novel. Annnd one last nitpicky note, I know Meg would never do this intentionally, but much of what was written seemed to push the ideas that models are more than just selfish & spoiled robots, and you know that got on my nerves. Nevertheless, I can't wait to read more about "Nikki"'s new life, and I really hope we get more geekily-adorable Christopher in the next book. (And here's hoping he grows that gorgeous hair back!)

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Okay, but not up to par June 8, 2008

By B. Hodgkiss

Format:Hardcover

I enjoy reading just about all of her books. They are funny, light, and well-written.

This, one, however, just went no where. It was boring, and it just didn't have the spark or fun of previous works. The ending was extremely unsatisfying, and absolutely nothing happened. Seriously.

Here is just about everything that happened: Em Watts getts into an accident, has her brain transplanted into a model. This confuses her for a while. Then she goes to live as a model with the models best friend. She is in love with her best friend who thinks she is dead now that she is in a new body.

That is all that happens. Their wasn't resolution to anything, Em wasn't a particularly funny, wise, interesting or anything character.

Also, It seemed like the book wanted to have a 'point', or try to say something, about looks, and society's judgement of people, being different, and how you have to be pretty to fit in, but at the end it just seemed like, "Yeah, being pretty is AWESOME! I'm way cooler now that I am pretty! Everyone wants to be my friend and I can have any guy I want. And now I like wearing pretty clothes, because I am pretty!" Uh, yeah, I buy that.

It was a quick read, but not satisfying in any dimension. I'll get the next one out of the library.