Customer Reviews
Airhead 
2008-08-29
Title: Airhead
Author: Meg Cabot
Rating: 4/5
Good:
Once again, I have fallen in love with Meg Cabot's books! Airhead was an extremely quick read, and I adore the way that Meg Cabot takes a story that is completely unbelievable and makes it real... and at the same time makes me fall in love with the characters and sympathize with the situations. I love how hilarious and fun this novel was, while at the same time it's completely serious.
Bad:
I can't really say that there's anything really bad about this book... except for the stereotypical view on the popular crowd... it seems like the snobby, bitchy, annoying girls are all the same, and it kind of bothers me. But then again, it doesn't bother me with Meg Cabot's books, since I don't really go read Meg Cabot for deep, insightful reading... it's all fluffy and fun. Perfect for summer reading.
Excellent speculative fiction story! 
2008-08-01
I'm not a typical Meg Cabot reader. I'm older than most and usually read and proof extreme horror. But I love imaginative stories, well-told, and Airhead certainly qualifies. It deals with the ramifications of a brain transplant and is very humorous. I'm looking forward to the sequel.
A fun, fast read 2008-07-24
Sixteen-year-old Emerson Watts thinks she has problems, but she hasn't seen anything yet. Sure, her Public Speaking teacher keeps waking her up during first period (when he isn't snoozing himself). And Em's popular classmate, Whitney Robertson, directs many of her mean girl witticisms at Em. Not to mention the fact that Em's little sister, Frida, seems to be turning into a mini-Whitney, criticizing Em's wardrobe, makeup and general uncoolness.
On the other hand, life as Emerson Watts is not without its good points. Christopher, her best friend in the world, is quirky and funny, and loves the same things she does. Sure, she passionately wishes that he also would love her, and not in a best friend way. Still, when Em and Christopher are not mocking the soulless popular kids at school, calling them the "walking dead," they're competing with each other on the computer games they adore.
Em's life changes (and that's an understatement) the day she accompanies Frida and Christopher to the grand opening of the Stark Megastore in their neighborhood. Em sympathizes with the E.L.F. (Environmental Liberation Front) group, which wants to boycott the store that has closed so many local family businesses. But her mom is concerned that starry-eyed Frida will manage to interest rock star Gabriel Luna, who will be signing his CDs at the opening.
Therefore, under extreme parental pressure, and despite her protests, Em escorts Frida to the crowded gala, along with Christopher. There, as they stand in line to get an autograph, Em is amazed to discover that Gabriel Luna actually is a fabulous singer and songwriter. He's also extremely handsome, and he dresses normally. In fact, Gabriel Luna is quite swoonable.
The rock star isn't the only famous person at the Stark Megastore opening. Teen supermodel Nikki Howard is there, as "the face of Stark." Nikki, attended by her best friend Lulu, wears a revealing evening gown and sky-high stiletto shoes, unleashing much snarkiness from Em and Christopher. Meanwhile, security guards are kept busy trying to prevent E.L.F. members from shooting paintball guns at the huge plasma monitors in the store.
Frida rushes off to get Nikki and Lulu's autographs, leaving Em arriving in front of Gabriel Luna, where she's at a bit of a loss for words. But she feels a bolt of electricity jolt through her when the singer smiles into her eyes. Just then, Em sees a plasma screen falling from the ceiling. Frida is immediately below it, so Em runs to push her out of the way...and then she knows nothing.
When Em awakens, she is in the hospital. Her parents are with her, but everyone is acting very strangely and looking at her weirdly. Em feels odd, too. Her voice is high and breathless. Her hands look slimmer and prettier, and (unbelievably, for nail-biting Em) she has a perfect manicure. She dozes on and off, awakening to find that famous rock star in her room offering her roses. The next time she wakes up, she's sure she hallucinated the Gabriel Luna incident, but the roses are still in her room.
Then things get really crazy. Two people kidnap Em, insisting she is actually Nikki. And when Em finally looks into a mirror, she sees Nikki's face. When she looks down at her body, she sees Nikki's figure. This can't be happening --- except it is. Em is now in the body of a famous teen model, which means she is ensnared in a tangly spider web filled with Nikki's men, friends and work.
AIRHEAD is a funny, fast read with an endearing main character in an impossible (and yet extremely glamorous) predicament. Like the premiere episode of a gripping television series, it pulls the reader in, setting up an irresistible storyline. Plot points are not resolved by the end of the book, causing readers to yearn for the sequel, BEING NIKKI. Meanwhile, we can ponder the cliffhanger mysteries: Who is spying on Nikki's/Em's computer? What's the story with the Stark protesters? Which guy, of four romantic possibilities, will Em end up with? And will she ever get the hang of those grueling modeling shoots?
--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon
Great...until the ending 2008-07-16
You wouldn't think that I, who generally looks down on chick lit and romance novels, would be a big fan of Meg Cabot. But I really am, because she has such a funny and engaging style and also makes sure that the main plot of her books is more than a girl in love with a guy. And such is the case with Airhead.
I was actually very excited for this book, so excited that I sat down and listened to the book on tape (the actual book itself being unavailable to me from my local library at the moment) in one day, not being able to stop. Normally this doesn't happen with books on tape, as I use them as "background noise" while completing other tasks. But once I heard Airhead was a SCI-FI chick lit, I had to read it, and I found Em's story a hilarious and fascinating journey.
Until, of course, I got to the end, when I felt like I'd been dropped on my head. I'm very used to the basic layout of a Meg Cabot novel: they nearly always end with the main girl getting together with the guy. *SPOILER* Of course, this one DIDN'T. Rather, it ended with her bringing pizza to her parents, which, while a nice enough ending, wasn't quite what I was expecting. *END SPOILER* I personally liked Em's crush/best friend Christopher far more than any of the other guys in the book (yes, even the English singer-songwriter Gabriel) and I was really rooting for her to finally be able to be with him. Alas, it wasn't to be...at least not in THIS book. Word is, this is actually going to be a series, which is why I'm not giving it a lower rating.
In short, this is a fun book to read, especially if you are a nerd of the sort Em is and can easily identify with her and her new predicament. However, beware: this isn't exactly a stereotypical Meg Cabot novel. I await the next installment of Em's story with great impatience.
You're telling me this isn't "sci-fi"?? 
2008-07-15
At first I thought that Em would wake up in the end to find it all a dream and I knew that it would be a huge disapointment if that was to happen. But I had no idea the author was going to go in the Science Fiction direction. It was comical and cute but so far fetched that it was hard to really feel the character. As for the ending, waking up from a bad dream would have MUCH better than the chosen ending. I listed to the book on CD and when I heard "the end" I thought it was a joke, I couldn't even believe how it ended, with so many loose ends still hanging!
Don't get your hopes up, it's cute and witty but it sci-fi with an ending that makes you feel like you walked smack into a brick wall.
Enchanting YA Review: Airhead 2008-07-04
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? One bizarre accident later, and Em Watts, always the tomboy, never the party princess, is no longer herself. Literally.
Now getting her best friend, Christopher, to notice that she’s actually a girl is the least of Em’s problems.
But what Em’s pretty sure she’ll never be able to accept might just turn out to be the one thing that’s going to make her dream come true….
NIKKI HOWARD IS HERE TO STAY.
Meg Cabot does sci-fi? 2008-06-30
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.
Best Meg Cabot Book 2008-06-23
This book was great. It was filled with detail and hooked me on every chapter. I would recommend this book to everyone I know,and I would defenatly buy the sequal. GO BUY THIS BOOK!!!
Surprising but still good 2008-06-13
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.
Love it! 2008-06-13
I'm a big fan of Meg Cabot (and Ellen Emerson White, but that's a review for a different day!) They're both great writers of smart, interesting women and girls and this funny, fun book was no exception. I was afraid that the main character, Em, who replaces supermodel Nikki, would be disdainful of Nikki's shallow life, but Meg Cabot is such a talented writer that even Nikki is sympathetic (LOVE the bar scene!) and it's fascinating to read about Em adjusting to her circumstances. I highly recommend this novel for anyone over the age of say, nine or ten. In fact, I'm meeting my former boss for lunch today and I'm planning to make her read Airhead!
