Airhead by Meg Cabot Book Review

Airhead by Meg Cabot
(Scholastic, Hardcover)
Rating:

Emerson Watts has always been a tomboy. She'd rather stay at home and play video games with her best friend than go with her sister to see some silly model at the new SoHo Stark Megastore. But Em has to babysit her sister, which means tagging along to the mall. Then disaster strikes and after a bizarre body switch-a-roo, Em's life is suddenly all about fashion and the next hot party.

I love Meg Cabot and to quote Trashionista, one of my favorite book review sites, she is absolutely barking mad. But I mean this in the nicest, best, please write another book about Em Watts, kind of way. Em Watts is like me, except I don't play video games. Em Watts is nothing like Nikki Howard, America's top teen model. So when I read that Em's brain is implanted in Nikki's body after a horrible accident, I said Really? Is that possible? Yes, Meg Cabot did her research and this has happened with monkeys. So we're talking about technology that is out there. Anyway, let's forget about the crazy sci-fi plot for a second. Airhead is seriously readable. I couldn't stop. Em is a likable character (hey, she even has my name!). And her predicament is scary, exciting, and believable. It is the first book in Meg's new series so several plot details are left open. There's a little bit of mystery, such as why Em can't tell the world that she now has Nikki's body. There's a little bit of friendship because Nikki's clueless friends are the only people that believe her crazy body-swapping story. And there's a little bit of love because Em is completely in love with her best friend Christopher but has never told him. Yes, Meg Cabot is a genius and Airhead is a great book even if you're not into body-swapping (which, um, most of us probably aren't).

For more fun, read Meg's Diary. She posts often and it's random and full of laughs.