I don’t get the impression that that was a deliberate choice by the author – you’re clearly meant to buy immediately into Emerson’s world view of smart people and self-obsessed zombies. The two dimmest characters end up being the most sympathetic, simply because they aren’t cruel and are always well-intentioned.

It’s hypocritical to criticise people for making sweeping social judgements and then spend a lot of your time calling a dead girl a slut. Even with her intelligence, she’s not a particularly nice person the story lampshades how she is so much less shallow and more considerate than the models around her, but is seemingly completely blind to her inner monologue of contempt and petty judgement. You can tell when someone has lost all their individuality because the character has a mainstream haircut.Įmerson gets to be both smart and attractive, but only because that’s the central conceit. Models are as vapid as the stereotypes, cheerleaders jockey for position and have no sincere moments. This is not the case in Airhead all attractive people are either stupid or cruel. Normally, you expect that a book that starts with a clear smart/attractive binary will be concerned with demonstrating the inaccuracy of that divide. I strongly object to the binary presented by the book, and it is presented completely straight-faced, with no sign of complexity or nuance. Despite throwing out interesting plot lines with wild abandon, the angle that Meg Cabot seems most interested in developing is not concerned with the immortal plutocracy, or the shadowy organisation controlling Emerson’s every move, but about how attractive people are the worst. There’s a corporate espionage plot, a science-fiction dystopia plot, a high school popularity plot. There are three separate romances that could have been developed. The potential plots that the book could have covered are vast and vary wildly. This book – the first of a series – is almost entirely set-up. There’s no resolution to any of the plot-hooks thrown out, not even an attempted resolution. There’s not much actual story in this book – the lead-up to the body-swap and the immediate aftermath are the major events.

When Emerson’s mind gets transplanted into the body of a world-famous, beautiful (and therefore vapid, selfish, and superficial) supermodel, she has to struggle with new social commitments, living a life she has no memory of, and everybody thinking that she’s dead. Because she’s clever, she’s not popular like the other girls at school, but at least she isn’t as shallow as them. Emerson is clever, not pretty, because everyone knows that you can only be one or the other.

Airhead novel