REPORT CARD
bff charm: yay
swoonworthy scale: 8
talky talk: right on
bonus factors: weird science
relationship status: dishy girlfriend
the deal: dorky, video-game playing, science nerd and activist emerson watts is in love with her best friend, christopher. natch, he just sees her as a pal, but it’s still the two of them against the mean girls world. her little sister, frida, is a mean girl in training. when frida begs to go to the grand opening of the evil corporation stark megastore to get a hot new pop star’s autograph, em’s parents make her and christopher accompany her. and that’s where things get freaky — supermodel nikki howard passes out and em gets nailed on the head by a plasma screen TV (i KNOW, right?? crazy). em wakes up in the hospital months later … as nikki howard. and stark megstore is watching her every move. if she screws up and people realize em’s NOT really nikki howard, they’ll bankrupt her parents and little sister, and maybe even send them to jail! so how’s she going to get christopher — the one guy in the world immune to a supermodel’s charms – to fall in love with her when he thinks she’s nikki??
bff charm: yay
em’s confusion and dorkiness is way endearing. years of being thought an L-7 LOSER make her use her supermodel superpowers for good, not evil, so you never have to worry about her trying to steal your boyfriend (although nikki howard, before she had em watt’s brain transplanted into her body, totally would have). she’s also able to see the good in some of the craziest places, like nikki’s bff lulu collins (think nicole ritchie to nikki’s paris hilton). PLUS, she totally has an amazing closet full of clothes and would let you borrow ANYTHING!!
swoonworthy scale: 8
ok, so meg cabot totally got her start writing romance novels. the heat, whether between em and christopher, or em/nikki and any boy (nikki’s body just CAN’T resist boys!) is pretty sizzling. and that’s not EVEN talking about the weird triangle between em/nikki, christopher, and the old em (who everyone thinks is dead). of course em’s still in love with christopher — nikki’s boy-crazy body hasn’t changed that — but he’s in love with the dead her! but don’t worry — when it’s hot, it’s HOTT.
talky talk: right on
these aren’t literary masterpieces or anything, but meg cabot totally catches the right tone of high school. em’s a brainiac, but still confused and clueless, the socialites are just clueless, the mean girls are WAY mean, the sister rivalry is intense. i love meg cabot because she’s not afraid to let her heroines fly their dork flags HIGH, and drops in mentions of things like lifetime television. there’s a lot of fashion and lipgloss talk, and quite a few brand names thrown around, but it makes sense in context.
bonus factor: weird science
umm, BRAIN TRANSPLANT?!??!
casting call:
lea michele as em watts
lea michele from glee can totally pull off dorky, misunderstood em. i kind of want to cast her as em’s sister frida, too, because she can also do ambitious, do anything to be popular.
mischa barton as nikki howard
non-crazy-skinny mischa’s perfect for nikki — especially post-brain transplant. she’s gorgeous, but can play sweet and confused really well.
jamie davis as christopher
so his british accent won’t work for christopher, but jamie davis from hex (OMG have you ever seen this?!?? you TOTALLY should) can pull off the perfect combo of sweetness, aloofness and slightly crazy hacker criminal needed for christopher.
nicole ritchie as lulu
i KNOW I KNOW but i JUST.COULDN’T.HELP.MYSELF. i kept seeing nicole as lulu, and that’s no lie. although i guess you could throw in an olsen twin instead.
relationship status: dishy girlfriend
ok, so these aren’t books i’d want to date, they’re books i’d want to call up and take shoe shopping and on a sephora binge, and then to get mani/pedis and cake (what? you can eat cake anytime). plus, the total cliffhangers at the ends of the books — ones that leave you saying, “WHAT?!?!?? NO WAY!!!” — def. ensure i’ll be back for one more.
p.s. ok, i really just want meg cabot to be my dishy bff. we could watch lifetime and buffy and eat cake and do each other’s nails. please, meg??
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
any book that features a brain transplant, supermodels and lots of make-up talk is MY NEW BFF.
meghan, i’m really really glad you added a meg cabot book to the FYA collection cos i’ve never actually read any of her stuff and feel like kind of a poser. i mean, what kind of YA fan hasn’t read meg cabot?! it’s like saying you love 80s music without ever having listened to any cyndi lauper. that is stupid.
plus, who *hasn’t* dreamed of being a supermodel? sure, the real ones are always complaining about how “boring” it is and how you “can’t eat” and you get poked with pins and stuff but CRY ME A RIVER, ladies. you are INCREDIBLY GOOD LOOKING. and i don’t care what all of the self help books say: cos even if you’re ugly on the inside, being hot is AWESOME.
oh man now i really want to go on a sephora spree.
and what is this hex you speak of, featuring what appears to be my future husband?
OMG, i can’t believe you haven’t read meg cabot!! you’ll LOVE her. she’s the greatest!!! and you totally made me LOLZ about the supermodel thing. you’re SO RIGHT. luckily, em is cool enough to be hot on the outside and true to herself on the inside.
um, yeah, Meghan. Now not only do I want to read this book, but I HAVE to find Hex! What’s wrong with a British accent? If I ruled the world all cute boys would have one.
And, um, nail painting, Sephora shopping, and cake eating? Can I come?
These books are amazing! Did you read the second one, being nikki? it gets even crazier with the science-y, brain transplant stuff and their are CRAZY twists. Also meg cabot is pretty much a god in my book. Not only are her books awesome (i swear the princess diaries was written about me. if i was a princess. which i am) but i met her once and it was the highlight of my life! (ok just my weekend but still.) She is the nicest author ever.
jenny and pd — hex is a british TV show about a boarding school (!!) and witchcraft and ghost best friends and hotttt demon-possessed boyfriends. NICE. you can only get season 1 on dvd right now (SAD), but i keep hoping they’ll either re-air it on bbc america OR release it on dvd in the near future.
and everyone is invited to the cake/sephora/makeover party! it’ll be SOO fun!
and talya, yes i finished being nikki yesterday and I’M DYING for the third book to come out!
OH MAN. Meghan! I was totally going to review these. ha ha ha, okay so I hadn’t called them but I was just straightening my bookshelves the other day and was like, “ooh, note to self, the airhead series!”
So, needless to say, I agree with EVERYTHING YOU HAVE WRITTEN. I realize that what I’m about to write is going to SOUND like an insult, but I actually mean it in the best possible way: meg cabot is, like, my literary mac and cheese. warm and totally satisfying and the best comfort reading around. You aren’t going to strain your brain muscles – or your heart muscles – reading her books but they’re the very best recipe for a bad week – a bottle of wine, a hot bath with Lush products, a new Meg Cabot and the aforementioned mac and cheese (which you may want to eat before the bath unless you’ve got one of those fancy bathtub trays and also don’t have any issues about the germs that are in bathrooms).
P.S. I LOVE CHRISTOPHER SO MUCH. CHRISTOPHER MARRY ME!
P.P.S. I don’t really like Hex all that much. But I agree that Jamie Davis was one of the better aspects of it.
sorry erin!!! since you’re also a meg cabot fan, 1. i’ll TOTALLY call you if she ever shows up at my house for a slumber party and 2. we should coordinate reviewing her from now on! you have dibs on the next MC review, how’s that??
also, i can see what you mean about hex. WARNING: it gets really dumb in the middle, but i thought the last 4 eps on the DVD (1st 4 of season 2) got WAY better, so it still gets my vote.
just an fyi, the third (and final i think) book in the airhead series called runaway or runway or something, is coming out may 2010, so boo because that is far away (although it is closer then the final hunger games book, which if i manage to get my hands on an advanced copy, will get to jenny who will get it to all of you, but don’t count on it.)
talya DO NOT EVEN BRING UP THE IDEA OF AN ADVANCED COPY UNLESS IT WILL HAPPEN. my nerves cannot handle it.
Meghan, DEAL! I’ll bring the chocolate chip cookie dough (unbaked, of course, cause we keep it real) and the Ouija Board!
ok then all i will say is i got catching fire in may, so i will try to get the new one if i can. no promises. but if i have to pay 90$, go to new york for three days, and wake up at 6am (which is basically what i had to day last time) it will TOTALLY BE WORTH IT
ERIN! you guys!! this will be the BEST slumber part EVA if we get meg cabot to come. or get an ARC of the third airhead book. or if just you guys were there!!
checking in to let y’all know that i just finished “airhead” last night and it was super duper fun!!! the weird science! the role playing adora-nerd! the glam clothes! I LOVE IT ALL!!
and yes, i already have a copy of “being nikki” in my bag because i am v. good at library strategery.
the only thing i didn’t like about the book (and this is a v. v. small thing) is how dated it is (or will be). like, all of the mischa references? girlfriend is trainwreck right now. i get why authors want to pepper their books with fun pop culture, but i kind of hate it when they do that cos i prefer my YA to be, well, kind of timeless.
other than that, it was fabulous. ok well also i totally hate frida. but anyway! yay my first meg cabot!
yay for meg cabot! you’re totally right about the culture refs, and i have to warn you meg cabot does this often (but i lurv her anyway). and frida TOTALLY sucks — in fact, em’s whole family kind of sucks. i CAN’T WAIT for the third book … i don’t do well with cliffhangers!
My daughter has read these books and loves them! She tells me about them and I’m usually like “Whhaaa?? Brain Transplant, eh???” I really wondered about this Meg Cabot lady and why my 13 year old daughter was reading it, but then I picked up the book and started flipping through it and so yeah, now I want to read it. Someday. Will probably wait till book 3 is out and then I’ll read them all back to back. Too bad about the dated pop culture references. I agree, those can be annoying.