I was holding onto this series for a loooong time. I bought them in Summer 2013 (I think?) at a Scholastic bookstore I visited in NYC, and didn’t read them until 2018. That’s 5 long years of not reading those books, and then I read all three of them in one year!
I had been putting it off as they’re contemporary books, “girly”, and to be perfectly honest… I got them cause they were by an author I recognised, were signed, and my mum said she’d pay for them! Bad I know, I know. I was young! (16 in fact! I’m 22 now and yet that holiday feels like only a year or two ago!)
However, I finally got around to reading Airhead as I had randomly taken it to uni (probably because I realised that I needed to read it!) and ended up surprising myself and enjoying it a lot, giving it 4 stars. In fact, I gave all three books in this trilogy 4 stars across the board. They never quite hit the 5-star mark, but for a genre I avoided for a good 8 years that’s a damn good result.
We follow a teenage girl (Em Watts) who is nerdy and unassuming in looks, after an incident, and due to some stuff (isn’t is fun trying to avoid spoilers!) she wakes up in the body of a supermodel. Like seriously. And this book doesn’t just go for the cliche of going and doing loads of “cool” things (although of course that does happen a little), but it also brings up the identity crisis that would happen if this was to occur in real life. It makes it feel much more real with the panic of losing your family, your life, your lifestyle and those you love, whilst having to pretend to be someone you’re not.
The trilogy is a great length to follow a decent proportion of Emmerson’s life within this new body, and Meg Cabot managed to lay out the plot twists and action points really well throughout the series so that each book is engaging and interesting. The only complaint I would have about this series is that the sci-fi twist isn’t more prominent, but that’s purely from my reading preference and it’s actually a great contemporary read. There is a romance that progresses throughout the books, and I feel like the speed of that is done well also. It’s definitely not rushed and feels like it’s pretty natural.
All in all, this was a sweet, interesting and well-done trilogy which has great sciencey features along with an interesting psychological look at how someone would cope with this scenario. It is also a contemporary read, 100%, but maybe this would be a good one to give a go if you’re normally not into the genre? Meg Cabot tackled the subject very well and I personally found it super engaging. It’s made me more open to reading contemporaries in the future, so maybe I’ll have even more books for my tbr!
Have you read the series? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!
Abi of Pellinor 