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When sixteen-year-old Emerson Watts learns the truth about Nikki, the teen supermodel into whose body Emerson's brain was transplanted, she finds that there is only one person to turn to for help--especially since her loved ones seem to be furious with her.Tags
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As the third book in a trilogy(?), this review will contain spoilers for the previous two books. Just a head's up.
Forced into a "vacation" with Brandon Stark, Em is desperate to get away from the millionaire playboy and figure out what secret Nikki learned about Brandon's dad that caused him to remove her brain from her body and replace it with Em's. Equally pressing is Em's concerns over how to get Christopher to forgive her for leaving with Brandon and actually be her boyfriend. While juggling these two big issues, she also has to deal with her parents, her sister, and the fact that she's going on live national television in diamond underwear on New Year's Eve.
I've been waiting to get my hands on the final book in the Airhead series show more for a few months now, and I wasn't disappointed when I finally got my turn with the library's copy. Meg Cabot is a fabulous YA author mixing romance, humour, and making the concept of brain transplants a realistic plot point. The characters continued to develop realistically and Cabot tied up all of the plot and character points to my full satisfaction. A fun bit of fluff that is thoroughly enjoyable and a nice resolution to the series. show less
Forced into a "vacation" with Brandon Stark, Em is desperate to get away from the millionaire playboy and figure out what secret Nikki learned about Brandon's dad that caused him to remove her brain from her body and replace it with Em's. Equally pressing is Em's concerns over how to get Christopher to forgive her for leaving with Brandon and actually be her boyfriend. While juggling these two big issues, she also has to deal with her parents, her sister, and the fact that she's going on live national television in diamond underwear on New Year's Eve.
I've been waiting to get my hands on the final book in the Airhead series show more for a few months now, and I wasn't disappointed when I finally got my turn with the library's copy. Meg Cabot is a fabulous YA author mixing romance, humour, and making the concept of brain transplants a realistic plot point. The characters continued to develop realistically and Cabot tied up all of the plot and character points to my full satisfaction. A fun bit of fluff that is thoroughly enjoyable and a nice resolution to the series. show less
I had some doubts going into this with the way book 2 set everything up, but I should know better than to doubt Meg Cabot, because this was a fantastic finale. Everything is brought into a close and while I don’t know if we can call it a “happy ending,” I was very satisfied with the ending all around.
I especially love how Cabot is able to write books with female characters who are complex and love makeup and fashion while also being super smart and resourceful. She turns the “ditzy, pretty girl” stereotype on its head, and I am so here for that. It’s hard to say much without spoiling the series, but I really liked it! It ends well and I think the overall story is incredibly enjoyable and well worth reading. They’re quick, show more easy-to-read books that pack some serious action and thriller elements.
Also posted on Purple People Readers. show less
I especially love how Cabot is able to write books with female characters who are complex and love makeup and fashion while also being super smart and resourceful. She turns the “ditzy, pretty girl” stereotype on its head, and I am so here for that. It’s hard to say much without spoiling the series, but I really liked it! It ends well and I think the overall story is incredibly enjoyable and well worth reading. They’re quick, show more easy-to-read books that pack some serious action and thriller elements.
Also posted on Purple People Readers. show less
I was really hoping for the series to redeem itself in this book, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. There was a lot of potential in this series, which got promptly wasted.
The big problem I keep coming back to is the characterization. It's definitely the weakest part in the series, and it shows. Em doesn't grow at all in three books; by the end, she's still dismissive of pretty famous people. Also, for someone who stresses about her intelligence and goes on about how smart she is, Em's kind of dumb. Everything important about Stark or the operation, someone has to spell it out for Em before she realizes the truth. I think the only thing she figures out on her own is the spyware on her computer in the first book. For example, when show more she and Christopher discover Project Phoenix, they both can't figure out what the name means. I can understand being confused with the city, but then they have to look up alternate meanings of phoenix, and they still can't figure it out. It's not until Em goes to the shareholders' auction that she finally figures out “phoenix = rebirth.” (And even then, she doesn’t make the symbolic connection.) Not to mention, I cried bullshit when Em said she didn't really know what a phoenix is. She plays a fantasy MMO, how the hell has she never heard of a phoenix. (Again, if you're going to call someone a geek, make them a geek! /tangent) She doesn't even realize Brandon's motives for keeping her and Nikki under lock and key; Em even buys into Brandon's excuse of "Oh, sure, we'll get you a surgeon to switch brains back." It would have been more believable if Em was book smart but really horrible with people, but this is never a part of her character.
There's no foreshadowing to any of the revelations. We find out why Em's mom was so against superficiality and a straw feminist- it's because her mother stopped telling her that she was pretty! Aside from being a bullshit Freudian excuse, there's no lead-up to it. Em's parents only show up once a book, and after their appearance in the first book, they only exist to harp on her for neglecting her schoolwork. Our villain, Robert Stark, isn't menacing or even feels like a threat- he shows up once a book and leaves. The reveal about Project Phoenix auctioning off college students to do brain implants doesn't feel as earth-shattering or has any impact on the plot. Nikki could have had a great character arc about getting over her vanity and accepting her new body, but apparently, all Lulu has to do is make Nikki over into a Goth and suddenly everyone thinks she's hot again. *headdesk*
And the plotting is just bad. The worst part is when Em sneaks into the Project Phoenix auction and secretly films it on her phone. Stark catches her and smashes it. While it's not a great plot twist, it still would have put an element of mystery to the plot- how they going to prove what's going? Can they still bring down Stark? But instead, Em goes to Lulu, calls Christopher, and reveals...that Stark broke her iPhone, but she filmed the meeting on her Stark phone. BAD WRITING 101. SHOW DON'T TELL. It doesn't help that ten pages later, Em repeats this information to Stark. There's a decent plot gun here that doesn't get used, and the whole conversation with Christopher should have honestly been cut in the editing stages.
For a series about superficiality and accepting who you are, none of the characters ever seem to get this point. Everyone (except for the bad guys, of course) ends up happy, paired off and pretty. Em's still a model, but now she can tell people who she really is and is justified being a bitchy to the popular girls. Which...really? This is the happy ending? It's almost like an aborted prequel to the Uglies series, where everyone in the country is obsessed with looking pretty, but have to be reminded that "People shouldn't be judged by their looks!" But they still want to be pretty instead of just normal. It's even the bad guys' motivation- well, Stark's is just money, but all of the shareholders are willing to kill off attractive coeds just to look pretty and young again. I feel like there's supposed to be a commentary on how we as a culture view attractiveness, but it fails so hard by making all of the main characters superficially attractive and keeping them that way at end. (I know I keep harping on about this series, but seriously- Uglies. Read it.)
There's some good points to the series, and the plot could have been decent. But Cabot drops the ball on the interesting plot threads, and the conflict never feels as big or as important as the characters make it out to be. (Not that I'm condoning the murder of attractive coeds, but you get my point.) It also feels like the books were set up to be a trilogy just for the sake of being a trilogy, and would have really worked better as just one volume. And I think I've gone on enough about how bad the characterization is.
I've mentioned in another review that I know that Meg Cabot can write good, well-plotted books, but sometimes it feels like she just writes something for the sake of publishing it and as whole, this is what the Airhead series feels like to me. There's just too much wasted potential here, and it really disappointed me. show less
The big problem I keep coming back to is the characterization. It's definitely the weakest part in the series, and it shows. Em doesn't grow at all in three books; by the end, she's still dismissive of pretty famous people. Also, for someone who stresses about her intelligence and goes on about how smart she is, Em's kind of dumb. Everything important about Stark or the operation, someone has to spell it out for Em before she realizes the truth. I think the only thing she figures out on her own is the spyware on her computer in the first book. For example, when show more she and Christopher discover Project Phoenix, they both can't figure out what the name means. I can understand being confused with the city, but then they have to look up alternate meanings of phoenix, and they still can't figure it out. It's not until Em goes to the shareholders' auction that she finally figures out “phoenix = rebirth.” (And even then, she doesn’t make the symbolic connection.) Not to mention, I cried bullshit when Em said she didn't really know what a phoenix is. She plays a fantasy MMO, how the hell has she never heard of a phoenix. (Again, if you're going to call someone a geek, make them a geek! /tangent) She doesn't even realize Brandon's motives for keeping her and Nikki under lock and key; Em even buys into Brandon's excuse of "Oh, sure, we'll get you a surgeon to switch brains back." It would have been more believable if Em was book smart but really horrible with people, but this is never a part of her character.
There's no foreshadowing to any of the revelations. We find out why Em's mom was so against superficiality and a straw feminist- it's because her mother stopped telling her that she was pretty! Aside from being a bullshit Freudian excuse, there's no lead-up to it. Em's parents only show up once a book, and after their appearance in the first book, they only exist to harp on her for neglecting her schoolwork. Our villain, Robert Stark, isn't menacing or even feels like a threat- he shows up once a book and leaves. The reveal about Project Phoenix auctioning off college students to do brain implants doesn't feel as earth-shattering or has any impact on the plot. Nikki could have had a great character arc about getting over her vanity and accepting her new body, but apparently, all Lulu has to do is make Nikki over into a Goth and suddenly everyone thinks she's hot again. *headdesk*
And the plotting is just bad. The worst part is when Em sneaks into the Project Phoenix auction and secretly films it on her phone. Stark catches her and smashes it. While it's not a great plot twist, it still would have put an element of mystery to the plot- how they going to prove what's going? Can they still bring down Stark? But instead, Em goes to Lulu, calls Christopher, and reveals...that Stark broke her iPhone, but she filmed the meeting on her Stark phone. BAD WRITING 101. SHOW DON'T TELL. It doesn't help that ten pages later, Em repeats this information to Stark. There's a decent plot gun here that doesn't get used, and the whole conversation with Christopher should have honestly been cut in the editing stages.
For a series about superficiality and accepting who you are, none of the characters ever seem to get this point. Everyone (except for the bad guys, of course) ends up happy, paired off and pretty. Em's still a model, but now she can tell people who she really is and is justified being a bitchy to the popular girls. Which...really? This is the happy ending? It's almost like an aborted prequel to the Uglies series, where everyone in the country is obsessed with looking pretty, but have to be reminded that "People shouldn't be judged by their looks!" But they still want to be pretty instead of just normal. It's even the bad guys' motivation- well, Stark's is just money, but all of the shareholders are willing to kill off attractive coeds just to look pretty and young again. I feel like there's supposed to be a commentary on how we as a culture view attractiveness, but it fails so hard by making all of the main characters superficially attractive and keeping them that way at end. (I know I keep harping on about this series, but seriously- Uglies. Read it.)
There's some good points to the series, and the plot could have been decent. But Cabot drops the ball on the interesting plot threads, and the conflict never feels as big or as important as the characters make it out to be. (Not that I'm condoning the murder of attractive coeds, but you get my point.) It also feels like the books were set up to be a trilogy just for the sake of being a trilogy, and would have really worked better as just one volume. And I think I've gone on enough about how bad the characterization is.
I've mentioned in another review that I know that Meg Cabot can write good, well-plotted books, but sometimes it feels like she just writes something for the sake of publishing it and as whole, this is what the Airhead series feels like to me. There's just too much wasted potential here, and it really disappointed me. show less
I would have liked this better if Em had stopped being Too Stupid To Live before the last twenty pages of the book.
The ending was a cop-out. While Em did help finally bring down Stark, it was almost by accident. Em is supposed to be a smart girl; I didn't see much evidence of that in this story. While she was the narrator, she played more the role of plot point than protagonist.
The ending was a cop-out. While Em did help finally bring down Stark, it was almost by accident. Em is supposed to be a smart girl; I didn't see much evidence of that in this story. While she was the narrator, she played more the role of plot point than protagonist.
This review assumes you have read the first two books in the series, as a result may contain information that could be viewed as spoilers.
Cabot ends her Airhead series on a strong note with Runaway. Having followed Em Watts through the catastrophic accident that turned her into Nikki Howard and then the subsequent changes made not only to Nikki’s life but the lives of those around her we get to the most action packed portion of the series. Filled with corporate espionage and a great big helping of sleuthing Em and her closest friends fight Stark Industries to take back control of their lives.
Runaway has me continuing to enjoy the characters Cabot created in this series. The addition of Nikki’s family (and Nikki herself) in book two show more enhanced the experience further as the gang delved into how to resolve their Stark Industries generated problems. Specifically, throughout her plight to find balance between her real family and the new family she’s acquired Em is further split in two by her feelings for Christopher. I liked the push and pull of their tentative movements between friendship and romance. More than that, I thought Cabot wrote it in a way that wasn’t childish or overbearing. It was a question of need as compared to want.
Interestingly, through the entire series these children (and at times the reader can lose that aspect) are portrayed as better adults than their elders. There has been great debate lately (well always really) about the role parents play in YA literature and I have to say in the case of this series I found it refreshing that the parents were there but played a backseat to the situation. They were bound by circumstances beyond their control and struggled to deal with it with just as much difficulty as their children wer. Kudos to Cabot for writing in just the perfect mix of parental involvement.
While the ultimate resolution to Em’s Stark Industries problem wasn’t particularly different than other books of this kind I will say that it was quite satisfying. In the end, this satisfaction came more from the journey we took with Em than the actual resolution itself. Though the way it ended wasn’t half bad either!
Once again, for those interested in a fun and light read with a little intrigue, some pop culture celebutant action and good relationship drama then the Airhead series is definitely one you should consider picking up. In fact, get all three at once, it’s so good you’ll want to read it straight through. I did! show less
Cabot ends her Airhead series on a strong note with Runaway. Having followed Em Watts through the catastrophic accident that turned her into Nikki Howard and then the subsequent changes made not only to Nikki’s life but the lives of those around her we get to the most action packed portion of the series. Filled with corporate espionage and a great big helping of sleuthing Em and her closest friends fight Stark Industries to take back control of their lives.
Runaway has me continuing to enjoy the characters Cabot created in this series. The addition of Nikki’s family (and Nikki herself) in book two show more enhanced the experience further as the gang delved into how to resolve their Stark Industries generated problems. Specifically, throughout her plight to find balance between her real family and the new family she’s acquired Em is further split in two by her feelings for Christopher. I liked the push and pull of their tentative movements between friendship and romance. More than that, I thought Cabot wrote it in a way that wasn’t childish or overbearing. It was a question of need as compared to want.
Interestingly, through the entire series these children (and at times the reader can lose that aspect) are portrayed as better adults than their elders. There has been great debate lately (well always really) about the role parents play in YA literature and I have to say in the case of this series I found it refreshing that the parents were there but played a backseat to the situation. They were bound by circumstances beyond their control and struggled to deal with it with just as much difficulty as their children wer. Kudos to Cabot for writing in just the perfect mix of parental involvement.
While the ultimate resolution to Em’s Stark Industries problem wasn’t particularly different than other books of this kind I will say that it was quite satisfying. In the end, this satisfaction came more from the journey we took with Em than the actual resolution itself. Though the way it ended wasn’t half bad either!
Once again, for those interested in a fun and light read with a little intrigue, some pop culture celebutant action and good relationship drama then the Airhead series is definitely one you should consider picking up. In fact, get all three at once, it’s so good you’ll want to read it straight through. I did! show less
Good conclusion! I liked this much better than book 2. This is like the Original Get Out haha. Em, Lulu, Nikki, and Frida were total badasses and I loved it! Meg Cabot is so great about writing strong female characters who can save the day, it makes me so happy. This book was a quick read; the plot moved quickly and there was a lot going on to keep my interest. I'm glad everyone paired up and got their happy ending. The concept is pretty cool and I wonder how long until scientists and doctors can do an actual brain transplant? Maybe they already can... dun dun dun!
Reviewed by Ashley B for TeensReadToo.com
Emerson Watts is on the run.
Everyone she loves is mad at her because of something she can't explain, and doesn't totally understand herself. All she has to look forward to is the Stark Angel fashion show on New Year's Eve.
Christopher has discovered something bad. Project Phoenix. And even though he isn't positive on what it is about, he has a feeling it has everything to do with Em.
I have enjoyed the AIRHEAD series so very much. I'm sad to see it come to an end, but this ending was great. This book was the kind that you hate to put down because you want so badly to know what is going to happen. The chemistry between Em and Christopher is fabulous. All of the characters have been interesting in show more their own special way, and you can see the changes in Em and especially the changes in Nikki.
The only problem I had with the book is the ending. It all happened so fast; almost too fast! But, overall, RUNAWAY was a wonderful ending to the AIRHEAD series, and if you haven't read both AIRHEAD and BEING NIKKI, you definitely should check them out! show less
Emerson Watts is on the run.
Everyone she loves is mad at her because of something she can't explain, and doesn't totally understand herself. All she has to look forward to is the Stark Angel fashion show on New Year's Eve.
Christopher has discovered something bad. Project Phoenix. And even though he isn't positive on what it is about, he has a feeling it has everything to do with Em.
I have enjoyed the AIRHEAD series so very much. I'm sad to see it come to an end, but this ending was great. This book was the kind that you hate to put down because you want so badly to know what is going to happen. The chemistry between Em and Christopher is fabulous. All of the characters have been interesting in show more their own special way, and you can see the changes in Em and especially the changes in Nikki.
The only problem I had with the book is the ending. It all happened so fast; almost too fast! But, overall, RUNAWAY was a wonderful ending to the AIRHEAD series, and if you haven't read both AIRHEAD and BEING NIKKI, you definitely should check them out! show less
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Meg Cabot was born in Bloomington, Indiana on February 1, 1967. She recieved a fine arts degree from Indiana University, Meg moved to New York City, intent upon pursuing a career in freelance illustration. Illustrating, however, soon got in the way of Meg's true love, writing, and so she abandoned it and got a job as the assistant manager of an show more undergraduate dormitory at New York University, and writing on the weekends. Meg wrote both The Princess Diaries and The Mediator: Shadowland (under the name Jenny Carroll), the first books in two series for young adults which happen to be about, among other things, teenage girls dealing with unsettling family issues. Her latest book is entitled, Insatiable. Meg now writes full time, and lives in Key West, Florida with her husband. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Runaway
- Original title
- Runaway
- Original publication date
- 2010-05-01
- People/Characters
- Nikki Howard; Emerson Watts; Steven Howard; Lulu Collins; Robert Stark; Brandon Stark (show all 10); Christopher; Felix; Frida Watts; Gabriel Luna
- Important places
- New York, USA; New York, New York, USA
- Dedication
- Extra special thanks to Jennifer Brown. Thanks also to Beth Ader, Michele Jaffe, Laura Langlie, Abby McAden, and Benjamin Egnatz.
- First words
- So according to the tabloids, I’m on a secret love getaway (not so secret anymore now, though, is it? Thank you, Us Weekly) with Brandon Stark, the only son and sole heir of billionaire Robert Stark, currently the fourth-ri... (show all)chest person in the world, after Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Ingvar Kamprad (who founded IKEA, in case you didn’t know).
- Quotations
- Where can you hide
When everyone knows your name? - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"As if I ever could," I said, my voice clogged with emotion, "with you around to remind me."
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- (3.61)
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- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
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