Airhead (Hardcover)

by Meg Cabot (Author)

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
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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

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Point (May 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545040523
• ISBN-13: 978-0545040525
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #277,604 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	The Bibliophile (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

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 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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Compulsive Reader's Reviews, May 10, 2008

By	The Compulsive Reader (Big Rapids, MI, USA) - See all my reviews

Emerson Watts is not pleased when her mother forces her to take her celeb obsessed younger sister Frida to the grand opening of the Stark Megastore. She'd much rather stay home and read or play video games with her best friend Christopher. But when she's involved in a peculiar accident, Em finds that her life is changed forever. Soon she's living a completely different life, and is being watched on all sides, by friendly and not so friendly allies.

For those of you who have longed for a novel that is right up there next to Cabot's Mediator series, this would be it! Airhead exemplifies Cabot's trademark of writing inimitable and one of a kind plot lines, but rather than come across as unbelievable, her grounded, witty, and sharp characters make this fast paced novel plausible. Although more elaboration on certain characters before Em's accident would give them more depth, Cabot's fresh twist on the modeling world and carefully constructed dialogue make this book appealing to all. It spectacularly transcends the boundaries of teen genre, combining contemporary fiction, romance, humor, and science fiction to weave together an impressive first novel of what will assuredly be a breathtaking and brilliant trilogy.

[...]

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	TeensReadToo.com "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

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