Airhead

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be someone else for a change? In a book I read recently, Airhead by Meg Cabot, a girl named Em Watts actually does get that chance. Except, she doesn't want it. Em and her friend Christopher (who she likes) go to the opening of a Stark Megastore. Stark is like a mall, except it's one store, with a huge book shop, a store like target, a department store, and restaurants. However, they wipe out huge numbers of small businesses in order to build these megastores in every neighborhood. So, anyways, they are at the opening, and the Faces of Stark, a model named Niki Howard and a rockstar named Gabriel Luna, are there. Also there, however, are gang members from their neighborhood trying to destroy it. Anyways, a huge plasma TV lands on Em and the next thing she knows she is waking up in a hospital a month later, as Nikki. She had gotten a brain transplant because Nikki Howard had "collapsed" and gone brain dead at the exact same time. Coincidence? So Em wakes up, and she has to resume Nikki's life because she's living in Nikki's body. Em is a gamer. Not a model. The people at Stark (who funded the several million dollar surgery) force her and her immediate family to declare Em Watts dead, hold a funeral for her, and Em now has to continue Nikki's life as the Face of Stark, or else her parents will pay 2 million dollars and go to jail. Instead of that, Stark says that Nikki suffered from amnesia and doesn't remember anything from before the accident. This covers all of the problems with her not knowing anything about Nikki, modeling, etc. But what if you had to go from a non-athletic video-game-loving girl to a super attractive, extremely busy model, who has no known family, dropped out of high school and has million dollar paying photo shoots daily?  Well, you have to read the book to find out.

But the idea of having a brain transplant is so unique. Meg Cabot has two very opposite characters become one, which is strange, but fits very well. So well in fact, that sometimes it's hard to find the Em down under. I really like the idea, and it was carried out pretty well, however, there isn't really a main problem in this book, the problems don't come until later in the series. The books continue with Being Nikki, and Runaway.