The Anti-Prom

February 14, 2011
In McDonald's (Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots) third novel for teens, three dissimilar upperclassgirls—popular Bliss, bad girl Jolene, and shy romantic Meg—find that they have something in common on prom night: they have each been wronged. Bliss catches her best friend making out with her boyfriend, and both Jolene and Meg get stood up. Bliss wonders if all her social climbing has been worth it ("I worked so hard to get everything perfect, the way high school is supposed to be. And now I'm left with this ache in my chest, knowing that it was all a lie"); Jolene resents her father's desertion of the family; and Meg is sick of being invisible. Their quest for revenge takes them everywhere, from Dairy Queen to the local college and Jolene's father's office. Alternating between the three girls' perspectives, the novel is lightly wicked fun in formal wear, filled with bickering, breaking and entering, and quick getaways. The girls basically play to type, but grow enough to make their journey an amusing diversion. Ages 14–up.

June 1, 2011

Gr 8-11-Bliss, Jolene, and Meg all have high expectations for prom night. They have been planning all year, and Bliss knows that it will be as perfect as her boyfriend, Cameron, until she finds him making out with her best friend in the back of the limo. Jolene, "the baddest girl in school," made a deal with her ex-best friend, Dante, to show up at prom as a joke. Only Dante doesn't show, and Jolene is feeling stupid in the frilly pink dress. Meg's mom made some phone calls and got her daughter a date with the son of a friend. He just called and said he couldn't make it. Now Meg is trying to pluck up the courage to walk through the doors alone. These three very different girls who barely know one another are about to cross paths at just the right moment. Two want revenge. One just wants to belong. But all are going to get far more than they expect. This high school drama offers a different spin on that special night in a teen's life. The plot moves along quickly, told in alternating chapters by each of the protagonists. Bliss, Jolene, and Meg are well developed and their actions are believable. And, most importantly, there's a happy ending. Expect this book to fly off your shelves.-Heather Miller Cover, Homewood Public Library, AL

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2011
Bliss, Jolene and Meg are each, for their own reasons, having an awful time at the prom. When boredom, shame and a thirst for revenge throw them into each other's paths, they take off together on an all-night odyssey to change their lives. The characters lack chemistry, relying on the tired trope of three mismatched high-school archetypes--the shallow popular girl who lacks compassion, the rebel outcast who needs to relax and trust people and the nerd who needs to loosen up and have fun--drawn together by circumstance so they can learn valuable lessons from each others' wisecracking wisdom. Jolene has the most intriguing potential, but the rotating first-person narrative doles out the details slowly and prevents her story from being fully realized. The obstacles they encounter (hostile coeds, suspicious parents, high-tech security systems) are handily overcome, giving the whole affair a superficial sheen. Readers who found Sophomore Switch (2009) both fun and substantive will be disappointed with this effort, the literary equivalent of cotton candy: sweet and easy, but dissolves on contact. (Fiction. 14 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 1, 2011
Grades 8-11 Stories that take place in one crazy night are practically their own genre. Thankfully, McDonalds entry makes that night feel like a rush, not a slog. Three girlsBliss (the snobby one), Jolene (the bad one), and Meg (the shy one)are each having nightmarish proms when their lots are thrown together by chance. Before the nights over, the girls will each come through for each other in different wayswhen theyre not bickering. As in the excellent Sophomore Switch (2009), McDonald instills more intelligence than youd expect from such a plot while not skimping on the simple pleasures, either. Makeover scene? Check.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2011
Bliss discovers her boyfriend and best friend hooking up in the limo. Rebel Jolene actually shows up to prom--in "freaking ruffles"--but her date doesn't. Sheeplike Meg is stood up, too, then recruited by the others for a night of hijinks and revenge. McDonald relies on stereotypes in molding the three characters, whose light, entertaining voices take turns narrating this wish-fulfillment adventure.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)